from Suicidal Males in Greek and Roman Mythology: A Catalogue

Codrus:
Testimonia

Collected by Todd M. Compton as background for Victim of the Muses: Poet as Scapegoat, Warrior, and Hero in Greco-Roman and Indo-European Myth And History (Washington DC: Center for Hellenic Studies 2006).

1. Pherecydes, FGH 3 F 154 = Pollux X 128

καὶ θρῖναξ δὲ καὶ δρέπανον καὶ δρεπάνη καί, ὡς Φερεκύδης ὠνόμασε, κρώπιον. περὶ γὰρ τοῦ Κόδρου λέγων ὅτι ὡς ἐπὶ φρυγανισμὸν ἐξῆλθεν ἐν ἀγροίκου τῆι σκευῆι βουλόμενος λαθεῖν, φησὶν ὅτι τῶι κρωπίωι τινὰ παίσας ἀπέκτεινεν.

And thrinax and drepanon and drepanê and, as Pherekydes named it, the scythe [krōpion]. For speaking about Codrus, he said that as he went out in the clothes of a field worker as if to gather wood [epi phruganismon] he wished to deceive; and he said that after joking around, he killed someone with a scythe.

[My trans. According to Frazer, Pherecydes of Athens was an “early mythologist and antiquarian . . . [He] was a contemporary of Herodotus and Hellanicus, and wrote in the first half of the fifth century B.C. Apollodorus often refers to him, and appears to have made much use of his writings.” Frazer at Apollodorus 1.4.1.n7, LCL.]

[LSJ: κρώπιον, τό: scythe, bill-hook. American Heritage Dictionary, bill-hook: An implement with a curved blade attached to a handle, used especially for clearing brush and for rough pruning. Also call “bill.” LSJ: phruganismos: “a gathering of firewood.”]

2. Panyassis Ionica = Suda s.v. Panyassis

Πανύασις, Πολυάρχου, Ἁλικαρνασσεύς, τερατοσκόπος καὶ ποιητὴς ἐπῶν: ὃς σβεσθεῖσαν τὴν ποιητικὴν ἐπανήγαγε. Δοῦρις δὲ Διοκλέους τε παῖδα ἀνέγραψε καὶ Σάμιον, ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ Ἡρόδοτος Θούριον. ἱστόρηται δὲ Πανύασις Ἡροδότου τοῦ ἱστορικοῦ ἐξάδελφος: γέγονε γὰρ Πανύασις Πολυάρχου, ὁ δὲ Ἡρόδοτος Λύξου τοῦ Πολυάρχου ἀδελφοῦ. τινὲς δὲ οὐ Λύξην, ἀλλὰ Ῥοιὼ τὴν μητέρα Ἡροδότου, Πανυάσιδος ἀδελφήν, ἱστόρησαν. ὁ δὲ Πανύασις γέγονε κατὰ τὴν οη# ὀλυμπιάδα, κατὰ δέ τινας πολλῷ πρεσβύτερος: καὶ γὰρ ἦν ἐπὶ τῶν Περσικῶν. ἀνῃρέθη δὲ ὑπὸ Λυγδάμιδος τοῦ τρίτου τυραννήσαντος Ἁλικαρνασσοῦ. ἐν δὲ ποιηταῖς τάττεται μεθ' Ὅμηρον, κατὰ δέ τινας καὶ μετὰ Ἡσίοδον καὶ Ἀντίμαχον. ἔγραψε δὲ καὶ Ἡρακλειάδα ἐν βιβλίοις ιδ#, εἰς ἔπη #22θ#, Ἰωνικὰ ἐν πενταμέτρῳ, ἔστι δὲ τὰ περὶ Κόδρον καὶ Νηλέα καὶ τὰς Ἰωνικὰς ἀποικίας, εἰς ἔπη #22ζ#.

Son of Polyarchus; of Halicarnassus, a soothsayer and epic poet; [it was he] who gave new life to epic poetry, which had dried up. Duris wrote that he was the son of Diocles and from Samos, but [became] a Thurian in the same way as Herodotus.

It is recorded that Panyasis was a cousin of Herodotus the historian; for Panyasis was the son of Polyarchus, while Herodotus was the son of Lyxes, Polyarchus' brother. But some have recorded that it was not Lyxes [sc. who connects the two of them], but that [it was] Rhoea, the mother of Herodotus, a sister of Panyasis. Panyasis was alive in the 78th Olympiad, but according to some [he was] much older; for he was alive at the time of the Persian Wars. He was killed by Lygdamis, third tyrant of Halicarnassus. Among poets he is ranked behind Homer, and according to some, also behind Hesiod and Antimachus. He wrote a Heracleias in 14 books, consisting of 9,000 verses, and an Ionica in pentameter, which is about Codrus and Neleus and the Ionian colonies, and consists of 7,000 verses.

[Trans. by Phiroze Vasunia and David Whitehead from Suda Online, http://www.stoa.org/sol/ . Panyassis lived c. first half of the 5th century BC.]

3. Statue, after Marathon = Pausanias 10.10.1

X. τῷ βάθρῳ δὲ τῷ ὑπὸ τὸν ἵππον τὸν δούρειον [δὴ] ἐπίγραμμα μέν ἐστιν ἀπὸ δεκάτης τοῦ Μαραθωνίου ἔργου τεθῆναι τὰς εἰκόνας: εἰσὶ δὲ Ἀθηνᾶ τε καὶ Ἀπόλλων καὶ ἀνὴρ τῶν στρατηγησάντων Μιλτιάδης: ἐκ δὲ τῶν ἡρώων καλουμένων Ἐρεχθεύς τε καὶ Κέκροψ καὶ Πανδίων, [οὗτοι μὲν δὴ] καὶ Λεώς τε καὶ Ἀντίοχος ὁ ἐκ Μήδας Ἡρακλεῖ γενόμενος τῆς Φύλαντος, ἔτι δὲ Αἰγεύς τε καὶ παίδων τῶν Θησέως Ἀκάμας, οὗτοι μὲν καὶ φυλαῖς Ἀθήνῃσιν ὀνόματα κατὰ μάντευμα ἔδοσαν τὸ ἐκ Δελφῶν: ὁ δὲ Μελάνθου Κόδρος καὶ Θησεὺς καὶ Νηλεύς [ἐστιν], οὗτοι δὲ οὐκέτι τῶν ἐπωνύμων εἰσί.

On the base below the wooden horse is an inscription which says that the statues were dedicated form a tithe of the spoils taken in the engagement at Marathon. They represent Athena, Apollo, and Miltiades, one of the generals. Of those called heroes there are Erechtheus, Cecrops, Pandion, Leon, Antiochus, son of Heracles by Meda, daughter of Phylas, as well as Aegeus and Acamas, one of the sons of Theseus. These heroes gave names, in obedience to a Delphic oracle, to tribes at Athens. Codrus, however, the son of Melanthus, Theseus and Neleus, these are not givers of names to tribes. The statues enumerated were made by Pheidias, and really are a tithe of the spoils of the battle.

[Trans. W. H. S. Jones, LCL. Date of sculpture: ca. 450 BC. See also U. Kron, Die zehn attischen Phylenheroen. Geschichte, Mythos, Kult und Darstellungen (Berlin 1976), 215ff.]

4. Herodotus Histories 5.65

LXV. καὶ οὐδέν τι πάντως ἂν ἐξεῖλον Πεισιστρατίδας οἱ Λακεδαιμόνιοι: οὔτε γὰρ ἐπέδρην ἐπενόεον ποιήσασθαι, οἵ τε Πεισιστρατίδαι σίτοισι καὶ ποτοῖσι εὖ παρεσκευάδατο, πολιορκήσαντές τε ἂν ἡμέρας ὀλίγας ἀπαλλάσσοντο ἐς τὴν Σπάρτην. νῦν δὲ συντυχίη τοῖσι μὲν κακὴ ἐπεγένετο, τοῖσι δὲ ἡ αὐτὴ αὕτη σύμμαχος: ὑπεκτιθέμενοι γὰρ ἔξω τῆς χώρης οἱ παῖδες τῶν Πεισιστρατιδέων ἥλωσαν. [2] τοῦτο δὲ ὡς ἐγένετο, πάντα αὐτῶν τὰ πρήγματα συνετετάρακτο, παρέστησαν δὲ ἐπὶ μισθῷ+ τοῖσι τέκνοισι, ἐπ' οἷσι ἐβούλοντο οἱ Ἀθηναῖοι, ὥστε ἐν πέντε ἡμέρῃσι ἐκχωρῆσαι ἐκ τῆς Ἀττικῆς. [3] μετὰ δὲ ἐξεχώρησαν ἐς Σίγειον τὸ ἐπὶ τῷ Σκαμάνδρῳ, ἄρξαντες μὲν Ἀθηναίων ἐπ' ἔτεα ἕξ τε καὶ τριήκοντα, ἐόντες δὲ καὶ οὗτοι ἀνέκαθεν Πύλιοί τε καὶ Νηλεῖδαι, ἐκ τῶν αὐτῶν γεγονότες καὶ οἱ ἀμφὶ Κόδρον τε καὶ Μέλανθον, οἳ πρότερον ἐπήλυδες ἐόντες ἐγένοντο Ἀθηναίων βασιλέες. [4] ἐπὶ τούτου δὲ καὶ τὠυτὸ οὔνομα ἀπεμνημόνευσε Ἱπποκράτης τῷ παιδὶ θέσθαι τὸν Πεισίστρατον, ἐπὶ τοῦ Νέστορος Πεισιστράτου ποιεύμενος τὴν ἐπωνυμίην.

[5] οὕτω μὲν Ἀθηναῖοι τυράννων ἀπαλλάχθησαν: ὅσα δὲ ἐλευθερωθέντες ἔρξαν ἢ ἔπαθον ἀξιόχρεα ἀπηγήσιος, πρὶν ἢ Ἰωνίην τε ἀποστῆναι ἀπὸ Δαρείου καὶ Ἀρισταγόρεα τὸν Μιλήσιον ἀπικόμενον ἐς Ἀθήνας χρηίσαι σφέων βοηθέειν, ταῦτα πρῶτα φράσω.

LXV. The Lacedaemonians would never have taken the Pisistratid stronghold. First of all they had no intention to blockade it, and secondly the Pisistratidae were well furnished with food and drink. The Lacedaemonians would only have besieged the place for a few days and then returned to Sparta. As it was, however, there was a turn of fortune which harmed the one party and helped the other, for the sons of the Pisistratid family were taken as they were being secretly carried out of the country. [2] When this happened, all their plans were confounded, and they agreed to depart from Attica within five days on the terms prescribed to them by the Athenians in return for the recovery of their children. [3] Afterwards they departed to Sigeum on the Scamander. They had ruled the Athenians for thirty-six years and were in lineage of the house of Pylos and Neleus, born of the same ancestors as the families of Codrus and Melanthus, who had formerly come from foreign parts to be kings of Athens. [4] It was for this reason that Hippocrates gave his son the name Pisistratus as a remembrance, calling him after Pisistratus the son of Nestor. [5] This is the way, then, that the Athenians got rid of their tyrants. As regards all the noteworthy things which they did or endured after they were freed and before Ionia revolted from Darius and Aristagoras of Miletus came to Athens to ask help of its people, of these I will first give an account.

[Trans. A. D. Godley. Text and translation from Perseus. Herodotus lived c. 484-425 BC.]

5. Herodotus Histories 5.76

LXXVI. τέταρτον δὴ τοῦτο ἐπὶ τὴν Ἀττικὴν ἀπικόμενοι Δωριέες, δίς τε ἐπὶ πολέμῳ ἐσβαλόντες καὶ δὶς ἐπ' ἀγαθῷ τοῦ πλήθεος τοῦ Ἀθηναίων, πρῶτον μὲν ὅτε καὶ Μέγαρα κατοίκισαν: οὗτος ὁ στόλος ἐπὶ Κόδρου βασιλεύοντος Ἀθηναίων ὀρθῶς ἂν καλέοιτο: δεύτερον δὲ καὶ τρίτον ὅτε ἐπὶ Πεισιστρατιδέων ἐξέλασιν ὁρμηθέντες ἐκ Σπάρτης ἀπίκοντο, τέταρτον δὲ τότε ὅτε ἐς Ἐλευσῖνα Κλεομένης ἄγων Πελοποννησίους ἐσέβαλε. οὕτω τέταρτον τότε Δωριέες ἐσέβαλον ἐς Ἀθήνας.

LXXVI. This was the fourth time that Dorians had come into Attica. They had come twice as invaders in war and twice as helpers of the Athenian people. The first time was when they planted a settlement at Megara (this expedition may rightly be said to have been in the reign of Codrus), the second and third when they set out from Sparta to drive out the sons of Pisistratus, and the fourth was now, when Cleomenes broke in as far as Eleusis with his following of Peloponnesians. This was accordingly the fourth Dorian invasion of Athens.

[Trans. A. D. Godley. Text and translation from Perseus.]

6. Hellenicus, FGH 323a F 23 = Schol. Plato Symposium 208d

(1) Κόδρος ἦν ἀπὸ Δευκαλίωνος, ὥς φησιν Ἑλλάνικος. . . . (3) Μελάνθου δὲ Κόδρος γενόμενος ἐκδέχεται τὴν βασιλείαν, ὃς καὶ ὑπὲρ τῆς πατρίδος ἀπέθανε τρόπωι τοιῶιδε. πολέμου τοῖς Δωριεῦσιν ὄντος πρὸς Ἀθηναίους, ἔχρησεν ὁ θεὸς τοῖς Δωριεῦσιν αἱρήσειν τὰς Ἀθήνας, εἰ Κόδρον τὸν βασιλέα μὴ φονεύσωσιν. γνοὺς δὲ τοῦτο ὁ Κόδρος, στείλας ἑαυτὸν εὐτελεῖ σκεύῆι ὡς ξυλιστὴν καὶ δρέπανον λαβών, ἐπὶ τὸν χάρακα τῶν πολεμίων προήiει. δύο δὲ αὐτῶi ἀπαντησάντων πολεμίων τὸν μὲν ἕνα πατάξας κατέβαλεν, ὑπὸ δὲ τοῦ ἑτέρου ἀγνοηθεὶς ὅστις ἦν, πληγεὶς ἀπέθανε. . . .

(1) Codrus was a descendant of Deucalion, as Hellanicus says . . . (3) And Codrus the son of Melanthus received the kingship, he who died for his country in following manner. When the Athenians were at war with the Dorians, the god gave an oracle to the Dorians that they would conquer Athens provided they did not kill king Codrus. Having learned this, Codrus clothed himself in the simple garb of a woodsman, took a scythe, and went forth to the camp of his enemies. When two of these enemies met him, he struck and felled one, and, since the other did not recognize who he was, he smote Codrus, who died, leaving the rule of Athens to Medon, the older of his sons.

[My trans. Text from FGH. Hellanicus of Mitylene was born c. 490 BC and continued writing past 406 BC.]

7. Vase. Codrus as Warrior, Bologna PU 273

This is the name vase of the Codrus Painter. Sourvinou-Inwood writes, “On the tondo of our cup is shown Kodros, dressed as a fully armed hoplite, with a spear and a shield. His name is inscribed. On his left stands, facing him, a bearded man in himation, one hand on his hip, the other on his staff. His name is also inscribed: he is AINETOS. The two men are looking at each other. This iconographical schema . . . resembles closely . . . the ‘departure to war’ schema, which was very common in Attic ceramic iconography at this time.”

[LIMC #3 (Erika Simon, “Kodros,” in Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae, 8 vols. (Zurich: Artemis Verlag, 1981-1999), 5.1, 86-88, #3). See also, Christiane Sourvinou-Inwood, “The Cup Bologna PU 273: A Reading,” Metis 5 (1990): 137-53. The vase is dated to c. 435/430 BC.]

8. Shrine of Codrus, Neleus and Basile, IG³ I 84

Carol L. Lawton, in Attic Document Reliefs: Art and Politics in Ancient Athens, included in Perseus, writes:

The decree, passed in the ninth prytany of the archonship of Antiphon (lines 2-3), concerns provisions for enclosing and leasing various parts of the sanctuary of Kodros, Neleus, and Basile in Athens. The stele was to have been set up at public expense in the Neleion, by the ikria (lines 27-28). (For other probable references to this shrine, see Pl. Charmides 1 53a and Agora I 4138: B.D. Meritt, Hesperia 7 (1938) 123-26 no. 25.) .”

. . . It has sometimes been assumed that the sanctuary was chiefly associated with Neleus because the inscription refers variously to the ‘the Neleion’ (lines 27-28), ‘payments to Neleus’ (lines 21-22), and the ‘temenos of Neleus and Basile’ (lines 12, 29, 32), but it is clear from the text as a whole that these are references only to various parts of the sanctuary and the provisions for them; Kodros is always mentioned first in references to the sanctuary as a whole (lines 4, 14, 30-31).

Neleus is a shadowy figure and difficult to characterize. Most representations of him come from Italy, where he often appears with his mother Tyro and his twin Pelias in the recognition scene from Sophokles’ Tyro . . . It is unclear whether in Athens he was equated with the Pylian Neleus, father of Nestor and ancestor of Kodros, or with the Neleus who was a son of Kodros and founder of Ionian cities (Hdt. 10.97). . . . Basile, sometimes confused with Basileia, is also obscure . . .

Kodros, in contrast, seems to have been a more popular figure in fifth-century Athens. He appears with the Eponymous and Marathonian heroes in Phidias’ Marathon monument at Delphi, probably dating from the 450s (Paus. 10.10.1; Kron, Phylenheroen, 215-17; E. B. Harrison, ‘Eponymous Heroes’, 81-83), and as a fully armed warrior on the name vase of the Codrus Painter of ca. 430 (Bologna, Mus. Civ. PU 273: ARV2 1268.1; Kron, Phylenheroen, pls. 15.1, 16.1 and 2). In the late fifth century it is possible that the importance of Kodros, the Athenian king who sacrificed himself to the Peloponnesians in order to save Athens (Lykourg. Leokr. 84- 87), had eclipsed that of Basile and Neleus. . . as the most politically significant of the three cult personages . . .

G. T. W. Hooker, in “The Topography of the Frogs,” JHS 80 (1960): 112-117, 115, summarizes this inscription thus: “an inscription of 418-417 B.C., recording a decree laying down the terms on which the Archon Basileus was to let out the temenos of Neleus and Basile. This provided that the lessee was to enclose the sanctuary of Kodros, Neleus, and Basile and plant in it a minimum of two hundred olive trees, and to control ‘the ditch and all the rainwater that flows between the Dionysion and the gates where the mystai drive out to the sea, and all that flows between the public house and the gates that lead to the baths of Isthmonikos.’”

9. Lycurgus Against Leocrates 84-87

[84] 1 ἐπὶ2 Κόδρου γὰρ βασιλεύοντος Πελοποννησίοις γενομένης ἀφορίας κατὰ τὴν χώραν αὐτῶν3 ἔδοξε στρατεύειν ἐπὶ τὴν πόλιν ἡμῶν, καὶ ἡμῶν τοὺς προγόνους ἐξαναστήσαντας κατανείμασθαι τὴν χώραν. καὶ πρῶτον μὲν εἰς Δελφοὺς ἀποστείλαντες τὸν θεὸν ἐπηρώτων εἰ λήψονται4 τὰς Ἀθήνας: ἀνελόντος δὲ τοῦ θεοῦ αὐτοῖς ὅτι τὴν πόλιν αἱρήσουσιν ἂν μὴ τὸν βασιλέα τὸν Ἀθηναίων Κόδρον ἀποκτείνωσιν, ἐστράτευον ἐπὶ τὰς Ἀθήνας.

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1 συιδας ̔ς.f. Εὐγενέστεροσ̓ multa ex hac narratione citat.

2 ἐπὶ om. Suidas.

3 αὐτῶν] πᾶσαν Suidas.

4 λήψονται Suidas: ἐπιλήψονται codd.

[85] Κλεόμαντις δὲ τῶν Δελφῶν τις πυθόμενος τὸ χρηστήριον δι’ ἀπορρήτων ἐξήγγειλε1 τοῖς Ἀθηναίοις: οὕτως οἱ πρόγονοι ἡμῶν, ὡς ἔοικε, καὶ τοὺς ἔξωθεν ἀνθρώπους εὔνους ἔχοντες διετέλουν. ἐμβαλόντων δὲ τῶν Πελοποννησίων εἰς τὴν Ἀττικήν, τί ποιοῦσιν οἱ πρόγονοι ἡμῶν,2 ὦ ἄνδρες δικασταί; οὐ καταλιπόντες τὴν χώραν ὥσπερ Δεωκράτης ᾤχοντο οὐδ’ ἔκδοτον τὴν θρεψαμένην καὶ τὰ ἱερὰ τοῖς πολεμίοις παρέδοσαν, ἀλλ’ ὀλίγοι ὄντες κατακλῃσθέντες3 ἐπολιορκοῦντο καὶ διεκαρτέρουν εἰς τὴν πατρίδα.

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1 ἐξήγγειλε Bekker: ἐξήγγελλε Α.

2 ἡμῶν Bekker: ὑμῶν codd.

3 κατακλῃσθέντες Es: κατακλεισθέντες codd.

[86] καὶ οὕτως ἦσαν, ὦ ἄνδρες, γενναῖοι οἱ τότε βασιλεύοντες ὥστε προῃροῦντο ἀποθνῄσκειν ὑπὲρ τῆς τῶν ἀρχομένων σωτηρίας μᾶλλον ἢ ζῶντες ἑτέραν μεταλλάξαι1 χώραν. φασὶ γοῦν τὸν Κόδρον παραγγείλαντα τοῖς Ἀθηναίοις προσέχειν ὅταν τελευτήσῃ τὸν βίον, λαβόντα πτωχικὴν στολὴν ὅπως ἂν ἀπατήσῃ τοὺς πολεμίους, κατὰ τὰς πύλας ὑποδύντα φρύγανα συλλέγειν πρὸ τῆς πόλεως, προσελθόντων δ’ αὐτῷ δυοῖν ἀνδρῶν ἐκ τοῦ στρατοπέδου καὶ τὰ κατὰ τὴν πόλιν πυνθανομένων, τὸν ἕτερον αὐτῶν ἀποκτεῖναι τῷ δρεπάνω παίσαντα2 τὸν δὲ περιλελειμμένον,

[87] παροξυνθέντα τῷ Κόδρῳ καὶ νομίσαντα πτωχὸν εἶναι, σπασάμενον τὸ ξίφος ἀποκτεῖναι τὸν Κόδρον. τούτων δὲ γενομένων οἱ μὲν Ἀθηναῖοι κήρυκα πέμψαντες ἠξίουν δοῦναι τὸν βασιλέα θάψαι, λέγοντες αὐτοῖς ἅπασαν τὴν ἀλήθειαν: οἱ δὲ Πελοποννήσιοι τοῦτον μὲν ἀπέδοσαν, γνόντες δ’ ὡς οὐκέτι δυνατὸν αὐτοῖς τὴν χώραν κατασχεῖν ἀπεχώρησαν. τῷ δὲ Κλεομάντει τῷ Δελφῷ ἡ πόλις αὐτῷ τε καὶ ἐκγόνοις ἐν πρυτανείῳ ἀίδιον σίτησιν ἔδοσαν.

[83] Consider, gentlemen: you are the only Greeks for whom it is impossible to ignore any of these crimes. Let me remind you of a few past episodes; and if you take them as examples you will reach a better verdict in the present case and in others also. The greatest virtue of your city is that she has set the Greeks an example of noble conduct. In age1 she surpasses every city, and in valor too our ancestors have no less surpassed their fellows.

[84] Remember the reign of Codrus. The Peloponnesians, whose crops had failed at home, decided to march against our city and, expelling our ancestors, to divide the land amongst themselves. They sent first to Delphi and asked the god if they were going to capture Athens, and when he replied that they would take the city so long as they did not kill Codrus, the king of the Athenians, they marched out against Athens.

[85] But a Delphian Cleomantis, learning of the oracle, secretly told the Athenians. Such, it seems, was the goodwill which our ancestors always inspired even among aliens. And when the Pelopannesians invaded Attica, what did our ancestors do, gentlemen of the jury? They did not desert their country and retire as Leocrates did, nor surrender to the enemy the land that reared them and its temples. No. Though they were few in number, shut inside the walls, they endured the hardships of a siege to preserve their country.

[86] And such was the nobility, gentlemen, of those kings of old that they preferred to die for the safety of their subjects rather than to purchase life by the adoption of another country. That at least is true of Codrus, who, they say, told the Athenians to note the time of his death and, taking a beggar’s clothes to deceive the enemy, slipped out by the gates and began to collect firewood in front of the town. When two men from the camp approached him and inquired about conditions in the city he killed one of them with a blow of his sickle.

87] The survivor, it is said, enraged with Codrus and thinking him a beggar drew his sword and killed him. Then the Athenians sent a herald and asked to have their king given over for burial, telling the enemy the whole truth and the Peloponnesians restored the body but retreated, aware that it was no longer open to them to secure the country. To Cleomantis of Delphi the city made a grant of maintenance in the Prytaneum for himself and his descendants for ever.

[88] Is there any resemblance between Leocrates’ love for his country and the love of those ancient kings who preferred to die for her and outwit the foe, giving their own life in exchange for the people’s safety? It is for this reason that they and only they have given the land their name and received honors like the gods, as is their due. For they were entitled, even after death, to a share in the country which they so zealously preserved.

[Trans. J. O. Burtt. Text and translation from Perseus. Lycurgus lived ca. Demosthenes, but was older than Demosthenes. He was born before 404 BC and died ca. 323 BC. Against Leocrates is his only extant oration.]

10. Plato Symposium 208d

[208b] θεῖον, ἀλλὰ τῷ τὸ ἀπιὸν καὶ παλαιούμενον ἕτερον νέον ἐγκαταλείπειν οἷον αὐτὸ ἦν. ταύτῃ τῇ μηχανῇ, ὦ Σώκρατες, ἔφη, θνητὸν ἀθανασίας μετέχει, καὶ σῶμα καὶ τἆλλα πάντα: ἀθάνατον δὲ ἄλλῃ. μὴ οὖν θαύμαζε εἰ τὸ αὑτοῦ ἀποβλάστημα φύσει πᾶν τιμᾷ: ἀθανασίας γὰρ χάριν παντὶ αὕτη ἡ σπουδὴ καὶ ὁ ἔρως ἕπεται.

καὶ ἐγὼ ἀκούσας τὸν λόγον ἐθαύμασά τε καὶ εἶπον εἶεν, ἦν δ’ ἐγώ, ὦ σοφωτάτη Διοτίμα, ταῦτα ὡς ἀληθῶς οὕτως ἔχει;

[208c] καὶ ἥ, ὥσπερ οἱ τέλεοι σοφισταί, εὖ ἴσθι, ἔφη, ὦ Σώκρατες: ἐπεί γε καὶ τῶν ἀνθρώπων εἰ ἐθέλεις εἰς τὴν φιλοτιμίαν βλέψαι, θαυμάζοις ἂν τῆς ἀλογίας περὶ ἃ ἐγὼ εἴρηκα εἰ μὴ ἐννοεῖς, ἐνθυμηθεὶς ὡς δεινῶς διάκεινται ἔρωτι τοῦ ὀνομαστοὶ γενέσθαι καὶ κλέος ἐς τὸν ἀεὶ χρόνον ἀθάνατον καταθέσθαι, καὶ ὑπὲρ τούτου κινδύνους τε κινδυνεύειν ἕτοιμοί εἰσι πάντας ἔτι μᾶλλον ἢ ὑπὲρ τῶν [208d] παίδων, καὶ χρήματα ἀναλίσκειν καὶ πόνους πονεῖν οὑστινασοῦν καὶ ὑπεραποθνῄσκειν. ἐπεὶ οἴει σύ, ἔφη, Ἄλκηστιν ὑπὲρ Ἀδμήτου ἀποθανεῖν ἄν, ἢ Ἀχιλλέα Πατρόκλῳ ἐπαποθανεῖν, ἢ προαποθανεῖν τὸν ὑμέτερον Κόδρον ὑπὲρ τῆς βασιλείας τῶν παίδων, μὴ οἰομένους ἀθάνατον μνήμην ἀρετῆς πέρι ἑαυτῶν ἔσεσθαι, ἣν νῦν ἡμεῖς ἔχομεν; πολλοῦ γε δεῖ, ἔφη, ἀλλ’ οἶμαι ὑπὲρ ἀρετῆς ἀθανάτου καὶ τοιαύτης δόξης εὐκλεοῦς πάντες πάντα ποιοῦσιν, ὅσῳ ἂν ἀμείνους [208e] ὦσι, τοσούτῳ μᾶλλον: τοῦ γὰρ ἀθανάτου ἐρῶσιν. οἱ μὲν οὖν ἐγκύμονες, ἔφη, κατὰ τὰ σώματα ὄντες πρὸς τὰς γυναῖκας μᾶλλον τρέπονται καὶ ταύτῃ ἐρωτικοί εἰσιν, διὰ παιδογονίας ἀθανασίαν καὶ μνήμην καὶ εὐδαιμονίαν, ὡς οἴονται, αὑτοῖς εἰς τὸν ἔπειτα χρόνον πάντα ποριζόμενοι: οἱ δὲ κατὰ τὴν

[209a] ψυχήν--εἰσὶ γὰρ οὖν, ἔφη, οἳ ἐν ταῖς ψυχαῖς κυοῦσιν ἔτι μᾶλλον ἢ ἐν τοῖς σώμασιν, ἃ ψυχῇ προσήκει καὶ κυῆσαι καὶ τεκεῖν: τί οὖν προσήκει; φρόνησίν τε καὶ τὴν ἄλλην ἀρετήν--ὧν δή εἰσι καὶ οἱ ποιηταὶ πάντες γεννήτορες καὶ τῶν δημιουργῶν ὅσοι λέγονται εὑρετικοὶ εἶναι: πολὺ δὲ μεγίστη, ἔφη, καὶ καλλίστη τῆς φρονήσεως ἡ περὶ τὰ τῶν πόλεών τε καὶ οἰκήσεων διακόσμησις, ᾗ δὴ ὄνομά ἐστι σωφροσύνη τε καὶ δικαιοσύνη--τούτων δ’ αὖ ὅταν τις ἐκ

[208c] ‘Really, can this in truth be so, most wise Diotima?’ “Whereat she, like the professors in their glory: ‘Be certain of it, Socrates; only glance at the ambition of the men around you, and you will have to wonder at the unreasonableness of what I have told you, unless you are careful to consider how singularly they are affected with the love of winning a name, “and laying up fame immortal for all time to come.”1 For this, even more than for their children, they are ready to run all risks, to expend money, [208d] perform any kind of task, and sacrifice their lives. Do you suppose,’ she asked, ‘that Alcestis would have died for Admetus, or Achilles have sought death on the corpse of Patroclus, or your own Codrus have welcomed it to save the children of his queen, if they had not expected to win “a deathless memory for valor,” which now we keep? Of course not. I hold it is for immortal distinction and [208e] for such illustrious renown as this that they all do all they can, and so much the more in proportion to their excellence. They are in love with what is immortal. Now those who are teeming in body betake them rather to women, and are amorous on this wise: by getting children they acquire an immortality, a memorial, and a state of bliss, which in their imagining they “for all succeeding time procure.”

[Trans. Harold N. Fowler. Text and translation from Perseus. Plato lived c. 429-347 BC.]

11. Demon FGH 327 F 22 = Photius Lexicon s.v. eugenesteros Kodrou

εὐγενέστερος Κόδρου· τοῦ υἱοῦ Μελάνθου τοῦ Μεσσηνίου, πατρὸς δὲ Μέδοντος καὶ Νείλεω. οὗτος ὁ Κόδρος Δωριέων ἐπιστρατευσάντων Ἀθηναίοις, ἐπεὶ τοὺς ἐκ Πελοποννήσου φυγάδας ἐδέξα<ν>το, ἐν οἷς καὶ Μέλανθον, χρησμοῦ δ’ αὐτοῖς δοθέντος αἱήσειν τὴν πόλιν, ἐὰν ἀπόσχωνται τοῦ τῶν πολεμίων βασιλέως, νοήσας τὸν χρησμόν, ἀναλαβὼν ὑλοτόμου εσθῆτα καὶ εντυχὼν τοῖς φύλαξι τῶν Δωριέων, ἕνα ἐξ αὐτῶν ανεῖλε· διοργισθέντες δὲ οἱ λοιποὶ συλλαβόντες αὐτὸν ανεῖλον, ὡς Δήμων.

More noble than Codrus. The son of Melanthus of Messene, father of Medon and Neleus. This Codrus -- when the Dorians were making war against the Athenians (after they received the exiles from the Peloponnese, among whom was Melanthus) and when an oracle was given to the Dorians that they would sack the city, if they would not harm the king of their enemies – when he had learned of the oracle, he put on the clothes of a woodsman and chancing upon some guards of the Dorians, he killed one of them; and the rest of the guards, capturing him, killed him in a rage, as Demon writes.

[My trans. Text from FGH. Demon, author of an Atthis, fl. c. 300 BC.]

12. Cicero Tusculan Disputations 1.48

XLVIII. adfertur etiam de Sileno fabella quaedam: qui cum a Mida captus esset, hoc ei muneris pro sua missione dedisse scribitur: docuisse regem non nasci homini longe optimum esse, proximum autem quam primum mori.

115 qua est sententia in Cresphonte usus Euripedes: 'Nam nos decebat coetus celebrantis domum Lugere, ubi esset aliquis in lucem editus, Humanae vitae varia reputantis mala; At, qui labores morte finisset gravis, Hunc omni amicos laude et laetitia exsequi.' simile quiddam est in Consolatione Crantoris: ait enim Terinaeum quendam Elysium, cum graviter filii mortem maereret, venisse in psychomantium quaerentem, quae fuisset tantae calamitatis causa; huic in tabellis tris huius modi versiculos datos: 'Igraris homines in vita mentibus errant: Euthynous potitur fatorum numine leto. Sic fuit utilius finiri ipsique tibique.'

116 his et talibus auctoribus usi confirmant causam rebus a diis inmortalibus iudicatam. Alcidamas quidem, rhetor antiquus in primis nobilis, acripsit etima laudationem mortis, quae constat ex enumeratione humanorum malorum; cui rationes eae quae exquisitius a philosophis colliguntur defuerunt, ubertas orationis non defuit. Clarae vero mortes pro patria oppetitae non solum gloriosae rhetoribus, sed etiam beatae videri solent. repetunt ab Erechtheo, cuius etiam filiae cupide mortem expetiverunt pro vita civium; <commemorant> Codrum, qui se in medios inmisit hostis veste famulari, ne posset adgnosci, si esset ornatu regio, quod oraculum erat datum, si rex interfectus esset, victrices Athenas fore; Menoeceus non praetermittitur, qui item oraculo edito largitus est patriae suum sanguinem; <nam> Iphigenia Aulide duci se immolandam iubet, ut hostium elicatur suo. veniunt inde ad propiora: XLIX. Harmodius in ore est et Aristogiton; Lacedaemonius Leonidas, Thebanus Epaminondas viget. nostros non norunt, quos enumerare magnum est: ita sunt multi, quibus videmus optabilis mortes fuisse cum gloria.

XLVIII. There is also a story told of Silenus, who, when taken prisoner by Midas, is said to have made him this present for his ransom--namely, that he informed him[25] that never to have been born was by far the greatest blessing that could happen to man; and that the next best thing was to die very soon; which very opinion Euripides makes use of in his Cresphontes, saying,

When man is born, 'tis fit, with solemn show,

We speak our sense of his approaching woe;

With other gestures and a different eye,

Proclaim our pleasure when he's bid to die.[26]

There is something like this in Crantor's Consolation; for he says that Terinaesus of Elysia, when he was bitterly lamenting the loss of his son, came to a place of divination to be informed why he was visited with so great affliction, and received in his tablet these three verses:

Thou fool, to murmur at Euthynous' death!

The blooming youth to fate resigns his breath:

The fate, whereon your happiness depends,

At once the parent and the son befriends.[27]

On these and similar authorities they affirm that the question has been determined by the Gods. Nay, more; Alcidamas, an ancient rhetorician of the very highest reputation, wrote even in praise of death, which he endeavored to establish by an enumeration of the evils of life; and his Dissertation has a great deal of eloquence in it; but he was unacquainted with the more refined arguments of the philosophers. By the orators, indeed, to die for our country is always considered not only as glorious, but even as happy: they go back as far as Erechtheus,[28] whose very daughters underwent death, for the safety of their fellow-citizens: they instance Codrus, who threw himself into the midst of his enemies, dressed like a common man, that his royal robes might not betray him, because the oracle had declared the Athenians conquerors, if their king was slain. Menoeceus[29] is not overlooked by them, who, in compliance with the injunctions of an oracle, freely shed his blood for his country. Iphigenia ordered herself to be conveyed to Aulis, to be sacrificed, that her blood might be the cause of spilling that of her enemies.

[Trans. C. D. Yonge, from Project Gutenberg. Text from http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/cicero/tusc.shtml. Cicero lived 106-43 BC.

13. Oval Glass Medallion, Heidelberg, Univ. Antikenmuseum 61/7.

KWDROS BASILEUS

Codrus King.

A bearded head; the inscription is on a band around the head.

[LIMC #2. Dated c. 50 BC.]

14. Strabo Geography 7.7.1

VII. τὰ μὲν οὖν ἀφοριζόμενα ἔθνη τῷ τε Ἴστρῳ καὶ τοῖς Ἰλλυρικοῖς ὄρεσι καὶ Θρᾳκίοις ταῦτ’ ἔστιν ὧν ἄξιον μνησθῆναι, κατέχοντα τὴν Ἀδριατικὴν παραλίαν πᾶσαν ἀπὸ τοῦ μυχοῦ ἀρξάμενα, καὶ τὴν τὰ ἀριστερὰ τοῦ Πόντου λεγομένην ἀπὸ Ἴστρου ποταμοῦ μέχρι Βυζαντίου. λοιπὰ δέ ἐστι τὰ νότια μέρη τῆς λεχθείσης ὀρεινῆς καὶ ἑξῆς τὰ ὑποπίπτοντα χωρία, ἐν οἷς ἐστιν ἥ τε Ἑλλὰς καὶ ἡ προσεχὴς βάρβαρος μέχρι τῶν ὀρῶν. Ἑκαταῖος μὲν οὖν ὁ Μιλήσιος περὶ τῆς Πελοποννήσου φησὶν διότι πρὸ τῶν Ἑλλήνων ᾤκησαν αὐτὴν βάρβαροι. σχεδὸν δέ τι καὶ ἡ σύμπασα Ἑλλὰς κατοικία βαρβάρων ὑπῆρξε τὸ παλαιόν, ἀπ’ αὐτῶν λογιζομένοις τῶν μνημονευομένων, Πέλοπος μὲν ἐκ τῆς Φρυγίας ἐπαγαγομένου λαοὺς εἰς τὴν ἀπ’ αὐτοῦ κληθεῖσαν Πελοπόννησον, Δαναοῦ δὲ ἐξ Αἰγύπτου, Δρυόπων τε καὶ Καυκώνων καὶ Πελασγῶν καὶ Λελέγων καὶ ἄλλων τοιούτων κατανειμαμένων τὰ ἐντὸς Ἰσθμοῦ καὶ τὰ ἐκτὸς δέ: τὴν μὲν γὰρ Ἀττικὴν οἱ μετὰ Εὐμόλπου Θρᾷκες ἔσχον, τῆς δὲ Φωκίδος τὴν Δαυλίδα Τηρεύς, τὴν δὲ Καδμείαν οἱ μετὰ Κάδμου Φοίνικες, αὐτὴν δὲ τὴν Βοιωτίαν Ἄονες καὶ Τέμμικες καὶ Ὕαντες: ὡς δὲ Πίνδαρός φησιν,

ἦν ὅτε σύας Βοιώτιον ἔθνος ἔνεπον.

1 καὶ ἀπὸ τῶν ὀνομάτων δὲ ἐνίων τὸ βάρβαρον ἐμφαίνεται, Κέκροψ καὶ Κόδρος καὶ Ἄικλος καὶ Κόθος καὶ Δρύμας καὶ Κρίνακος. οἱ δὲ Θρᾷκες καὶ Ἰλλυριοὶ καὶ Ἠπειρῶται καὶ μέχρι νῦν ἐν πλευραῖς εἰσιν: ἔτι μέντοι μᾶλλον πρότερον ἢ νῦν, ὅπου γε καὶ τῆς ἐν τῷ παρόντι Ἑλλάδος ἀναντιλέκτως οὔσης τὴν πολλὴν οἱ βάρβαροι ἔχουσι, Μακεδονίαν μὲν Θρᾷκες καί τινα μέρη τῆς Θετταλίας, Ἀκαρνανίας δὲ καὶ Αἰτωλίας [τὰ] ἄνω Θεσπρωτοὶ καὶ Κασσωπαῖοι καὶ Ἀμφίλοχοι καὶ Μολοττοὶ καὶ Ἀθαμᾶνες, Ἠπειρωτικὰ ἔθνη.

THESE are the nations, bounded by the Danube and by the Illyrian and Thracian mountains, which are worthy of record. They occupy the whole coast of the Adriatic Sea, beginning from the recess of the gulf, and the left side, as it is called, of the Euxine Sea, from the river Danube to Byzantium.

The southern parts of the above-mentioned mountainous tract, and the countries which follow, lying below it, remain to be described. Among these are Greece, and the contiguous barbarous country extending to the mountains.

Hecatæus of Miletus says of the Peloponnesus, that, before the time of the Greeks, it was inhabited by barbarians. Perhaps even the whole of Greece was, anciently, a settlement of barbarians, if we judge from former accounts. For Pelops brought colonists from Phrygia into the Peloponnesus, which [p. 493] took his name; Danaus brought colonists from Egypt; Dry- opes, Caucones, Pelasgi, Leleges, and other barbarous nations, partitioned among themselves the country on this side of the isthmus. The case was the same on the other side of the isthmus; for Thracians, under their leader Eumolpus, took possession of Attica; Tereus of Daulis in Phocæa; the Phœnicians, with their leader Cadmus, occupied the Cadmeian district; Aones, and Temmices, and Hyantes, Bœotia. Pindar says,

‘there was a time when the Bœotian people were called Syes.’

Some names show their barbarous origin, as Cecrops, Codrus, Œclus, Cothus, Drymas, and Crinacus. Thracians, Illyrians, and Epirotæ are settled even at present on the sides of Greece. Formerly the territory they possessed was more extensive, although even now the barbarians possess a large part of the country, which, without dispute, is Greece. Macedonia is occupied by Thracians, as well as some parts of Thessaly; the country above Acarnania and Ætolia, by Thesproti, Cassopæi, Amphilochi, Molotti, and Athamanes, Epirotic tribes.

[Trans. H. L. Jones. Text and translation from Perseus. Strabo lived from 64/63 BC to AD 21 at least, per the OCD.]

15. Strabo Geography 9.1.7

[7] μετὰ δὲ τὴν τῶν Ἡρακλειδῶν κάθοδον καὶ τὸν τῆς χώρας μερισμὸν ὑπ’ αὐτῶν καὶ τῶν συγκατελθόντων αὐτοῖς Δωριέων ἐκπεσεῖν τῆς οἰκείας συνέβη πολλοὺς εἰς τὴν Ἀττικήν, ὧν ἦν καὶ ὁ τῆς Μεσσήνης βασιλεὺς Μέλανθος: οὗτος δὲ καὶ τῶν Ἀθηναίων ἐβασίλευσεν ἑκόντων, νικήσας ἐκ μονομαχίας τὸν τῶν Βοιωτῶν βασιλέα Ξάνθον. εὐανδρούσης δὲ τῆς Ἀττικῆς διὰ τοὺς φυγάδας φοβηθέντες οἱ Ἡρακλεῖδαι, παροξυνόντων αὐτοὺς μάλιστα τῶν ἐν Κορίνθῳ καὶ τῶν ἐν Μεσσήνῃ, τῶν μὲν διὰ τὴν γειτνίασιν, τῶν δὲ ὅτι Κόδρος τῆς Ἀττικῆς ἐβασίλευε τότε ὁ τοῦ Μελάνθου παῖς, ἐστράτευσαν ἐπὶ τὴν Ἀττικήν: ἡττηθέντες δὲ μάχῃ τῆς μὲν ἄλλης ἐξέστησαν γῆς, τὴν Μεγαρικὴν δὲ κατέσχον καὶ τήν τε πόλιν ἔκτισαν τὰ Μέγαρα καὶ τοὺς ἀνθρώπους Δωριέας ἀντὶ Ἰώνων ἐποίησαν: ἠφάνισαν δὲ καὶ τὴν στήλην τὴν ὁρίζουσαν τούς τε Ἴωνας καὶ τοὺς Πελοποννησίους. [8] πολλαῖς δὲ κέχρηται μεταβολαῖς ἡ τῶν Μεγαρέων πόλις, συμμένει δ’ ὅμως μέχρι νῦν. ἔσχε δέ ποτε καὶ φιλοσόφων διατριβὰς τῶν προσαγορευθέντων Μεγαρικῶν, Εὐκλείδην διαδεξαμένων ἄνδρα Σωκρατικόν, Μεγαρέα τὸ γένος: καθάπερ καὶ Φαίδωνα μὲν τὸν Ἠλεῖον οἱ Ἠλειακοὶ διεδέξαντο, καὶ τοῦτον Σωκρατικόν, ὧν ἦν καὶ Πύρρων, Μενέδημον δὲ τὸν Ἐρετριέα οἱ Ἐρετρικοί. ἔστι δ’ ἡ χώρα τῶν Μεγαρέων παράλυπρος καθάπερ καὶ ἡ Ἀττική, καὶ τὸ πλέον αὐτῆς ἐπέχει τὰ καλούμενα Ὄνεια ὄρη, ῥάχις τις μηκυνομένη μὲν ἀπὸ τῶν Σκιρωνίδων πετρῶν ἐπὶ τὴν Βοιωτίαν καὶ τὸν Κιθαιρῶνα, διείργουσα δὲ τὴν κατὰ Νίσαιαν θάλατταν ἀπὸ τῆς κατ[ὰ τὰς Παγὰς] Ἀλκυονίδος προσαγορευομένης.

(6) Besides, the Peloponnesians and Ionians having had frequent disputes respecting their boundaries, on which Crommyonia also was situated, assembled and agreed upon a spot of the Isthmus itself, on which they erected a pillar having an inscription on the part towards Peloponnesus,

THIS IS PELOPONNESUS, NOT IONIA;

and on the side towards Megara,

THIS IS NOT PELOPONNESUS, BUT IONIA.

Although those, who wrote on the history of Attica10 differ in many respects, yet those of any note agree in this, that when there were four Pandionidæ, Ægeus, Lycus, Pallas, and Nisus; and when Attica was divided into four portions, Nisus obtained, by lot, Megaris, and founded Nisæa. Philochorus says, that his government extended from the Isthmus to Pythium,11 but according to Andron, as far as Eleusis and the Thriasian plain.

Since, then, different writers give different accounts of the division of the country into four parts, it is enough to adduce these lines from Sophocles where Ægeus says, `My father determined that I should go away to Acte, having assigned to me, as the elder, the best part of the land; to Lycus, the opposite garden of Eubœa; for Nisus he selects the irregular tract of the shore of Sciron; and the rugged Pallas, breeder of giants, obtained by lot the part to the south.’12 Such are the proofs which are adduced to show that Megaris was a part of Attica.

(7) After the return of the Heraclidæ, and the partition of the country, many of the former possessors were banished from their own land by the Heraclidæ, and by the Dorians, who came with them, and migrated to Attica. Among these was Melanthus, the king of Messene. He was voluntarily ap- [p. 82] pointed king of the Athenians, after having overcome in single combat, Xanthus, the king of the Bœotians. When Attica became populous by the accession of fugitives, the Heraclidæ were alarmed, and invaded Attica, chiefly at the instigation of the Corinthians and Messenians; the former of whom were influenced by proximity of situation, the latter by the circumstance that Codrus, the son of Melanthus, was at that time king of Attica. They were, however, defeated in battle and relinquished the whole of the country, except the territory of Megara, of which they kept possession, and founded the city Megara, where they introduced as inhabitants Dorians in place of Ionians. They destroyed the pillar also which was the boundary of the country of the Ionians and the Peloponnesians.

[Trans. H. L. Jones. Text and translation from Perseus. Strabo lived from 64/63 BC to AD 21 at least, per the OCD.]

16. Strabo Geography 14.1.3

[3] ταύτης δέ φησι Φερεκύδης Μίλητον μὲν καὶ Μυοῦντα καὶ τὰ περὶ Μυκάλην καὶ Ἔφεσον Κᾶρας ἔχειν πρότερον, τὴν δ' ἑξῆς παραλίαν μέχρι Φωκαίας καὶ Χίον καὶ Σάμον, ἧς Ἀγκαῖος ἦρχε, Λέλεγας: ἐκβληθῆναι δ' ἀμφοτέρους ὑπὸ τῶν Ἰώνων καὶ εἰς τὰ λοιπὰ μέρη τῆς Καρίας ἐκπεσεῖν. ἄρξαι δέ φησιν Ἄνδροκλον τῆς τῶν Ἰώνων ἀποικίας, ὕστερον τῆς Αἰολικῆς, υἱὸν γνήσιον Κόδρου τοῦ Ἀθηνῶν βασιλέως, γενέσθαι δὲ τοῦτον Ἐφέσου κτίστην. διόπερ τὸ βασίλειον τῶν Ἰώνων ἐκεῖ συστῆναί φασι, καὶ ἔτι νῦν οἱ ἐκ τοῦ γένους ὀνομάζονται βασιλεῖς ἔχοντές τινας τιμάς, προεδρίαν τε ἐν ἀγῶσι καὶ πορφύραν ἐπίσημον τοῦ βασιλικοῦ γένους, σκίπωνα ἀντὶ σκήπτρου, καὶ τὰ ἱερὰ τῆς Ἐλευσινίας Δήμητρος. καὶ Μίλητον δ' ἔκτισεν Νηλεὺς ἐκ Πύλου τὸ γένος ὤν: οἵ τε Μεσσήνιοι καὶ οἱ Πύλιοι συγγένειάν τινα προσποιοῦνται, καθ' ἣν καὶ Μεσσήνιον τὸν Νέστορα οἱ νεώτεροί φασι ποιηταί, καὶ τοῖς περὶ Μέλανθον τὸν Κόδρου πατέρα πολλοὺς καὶ τῶν Πυλίων συνεξᾶραί φασιν εἰς τὰς Ἀθήνας: τοῦτον δὴ πάντα τὸν λαὸν μετὰ τῶν Ἰώνων κοινῇ στεῖλαι τὴν ἀποικίαν: τοῦ δὲ Νηλέως ἐπὶ τῷ Ποσειδίῳ βωμὸς ἵδρυμα δείκνυται. Κυδρῆλος δὲ νόθος υἱὸς Κόδρου Μυοῦντα κτίζει: Ἀνδρόπομπος δὲ Λέβεδον καταλαβόμενος τόπον τινὰ Ἄρτιν: Κολοφῶνα δ' Ἀνδραίμων Πύλιος, ὥς φησι καὶ Μίμνερμος ἐν Ναννοῖ: Πριήνην δ' Αἴπυτος ὁ Νηλέως, εἶθ' ὕστερον Φιλωτᾶς ἐκ Θηβῶν λαὸν ἀγαγών: Τέω δὲ Ἀθάμας μὲν πρότερον, διόπερ Ἀθαμαντίδα καλεῖ αὐτὴν Ἀνακρέων, κατὰ δὲ τὴν Ἰωνικὴν ἀποικίαν Ναῦκλος υἱὸς Κόδρου νόθος, καὶ μετὰ τοῦτον Ἄποικος καὶ Δάμασος Ἀθηναῖοι καὶ Γέρης ἐκ Βοιωτῶν: Ἐρυθρὰς δὲ Κνῶπος, καὶ οὗτος υἱὸς Κόδρου νόθος: Φώκαιαν δ' οἱ μετὰ Φιλογένους Ἀθηναῖοι: Κλαζομενὰς δὲ Πάραλος: Χίον δὲ Ἐγέρτιος, σύμμικτον ἐπαγαγόμενος πλῆθος: Σάμον δὲ Τεμβρίων, εἶθ' ὕστερον Προκλῆς.

[3] Pherecydes says concerning this seaboard that Miletus and Myus and the parts round Mycale and Ephesus were in earlier times occupied by Carians, and that the coast next thereafter, as far as Phocaea and Chios and Samos, which were ruled by Ancaeus, was occupied by Leleges, but that both were driven out by the Ionians and took refuge in the remaining parts of Caria. He says that Androclus, legitimate son of Codrus the king of Athens, was the leader of the Ionian colonization, which was later than the Aeolian, and that he became the founder of Ephesus; and for this reason, it is said, the royal seat of the Ionians was established there. And still now the descendants of his family are called kings; and they have certain honors, I mean the privilege of front seats at the games and of wearing purple robes as insignia of royal descent, and staff instead of sceptre, and of the superintendence of the sacrifices in honor of the Eleusinian Demeter. Miletus was founded by Neleus, a Pylian by birth. The Messenians and the Pylians pretend a kind of kinship with one another, according to which the more recent poets call Nestor a Messenian; and they say that many of the Pylians accompanied Melanthus, father of Codrus, and his followers to Athens, and that, accordingly, all this people sent forth the colonizing expedition in common with the Ionians. There is an altar, erected by Neleus, to be seen on the Poseidium. Myus was founded by Cydrelus, bastard son of Codrus; Lebedus by Andropompus, who seized a place called Artis; Colophon by Andraemon a Pylian, according to Mimnermus in his Nanno;3 Priene by Aepytus the son of Neleus, and then later by Philotas, who brought a colony from Thebes; Teos, at first by Athamas, for which reason it is by Anacreon called Athamantis, and at the time of the Ionian colonization by Nauclus, bastard son of Codrus, and after him by Apoecus and Damasus, who were Athenians, and Geres, a Boeotian; Erythrae by Cnopus, he too a bastard son of Codrus; Phocaea by the Athenians under Philogenes; Clazomenae by Paralus; Chios by Egertius, who brought with him a mixed crowd; Samos by Tembrion, and then later by Procles.

[Trans. H. L. Jones. Text and translation from Perseus. Strabo lived from 64/63 BC to AD 21 at least, per the OCD.]

17. Grave Monument at Kerameikos - IG² II 4258, IG¹ III 943.

ΚΟΔΡΟΥΤΟΥΤΟΠΕΣΗΜΑΜΕΛΑΝΘΕΙΔΑΟ[ΑΝΑΚΤΟΣ

ΞΕΙΝΕΤΟΚΑΙΜΕΓΑΛΗΝΑΣΙΔΑΤΕΙΧΙΣΑΤ[Ο

ΣΩΜΑΔΥΠΑΚΡΟΠΟΛΗΙΦΕΡΩΝΤΑΡΧΥΣΕΝ[ΑΘΗΝΣ or ΑΘΗΝΕΩΝ

ΛΑΟΣΕΣΑΘΑΝΑΤΟΥΣΔΟΖ[Ξ]ΑΝΑΕΙΡΑΜΕ[ΝΟΣ]

Κόδρου τοῦτο πέσημα Μελανθείδαο [ἄνακτος,

ξεῖνε, τὸ καὶ μεγάλην Ἀσίδα τειχίσατ[ο.

σῶμα δ’ ὑπ’ ἀκροπολῆι φέρων τάρχυσεν [Ἀθήνης or Ἀθηνέων

λαός ἐς ἀθανάτους δόξαν ἀειράμε[νος]. [in Toepffer 233: ἀειραμέ[νου.]

Here is where king Codrus son of Melanthus fell,

stranger, a death which also fortified great Asia.

And the people of Athens carried his body and buried it beneath the Acropolis,

raising his glory to the immortals.

[My trans. See Pausanias Description of Greece 1.19.5 below. The stele is dated to the Age of Augustus, 63 BC - 14 AD.]

18. Pompeius Trogus = Justin Epitome ii. 6

6,1 Nunc quoniam ad bella Atheniensium uentum est, quae non modo ultra spem gerendi, uerum etiam ultra gesti fidem peracta sunt, operaque Atheniensium effectu maiora quam uoto fuere. paucis urbis origo repetenda est, 2 et quia non, ut ceterae gentes, a sordidis initiis ad summa creuere. 3 Soli enim, praeterquam incremento, etiam origine gloriantur ; 4 quippe non aduenae neque passim collecta populi conluuies originem urbi dedit, sed eodem innati solo, quod incolunt, et quae illis sedes, eadem origo est. 5 Primi lanificii et olei et uini usum docuere. Arare quoque ac serere frumenta glande uescentibus monstrarunt. 6 Litterae certe ac facundia et hic ciuilis disciplinae ordo ueluti templum Athenas habent. 7 Ante Deucalionis tempora regem habuere Cecropem, quem, ut omnis antiquitas fabulosa est, biformem tradidere, quia primus marem feminae matrimonio iunxit. 8 Huic successit Cranaus, cuius filia Atthis nomen regioni dedit. 9 Post hunc Amphictyonides regnauit, qui primus Mineruae urbem sacrauit et nomen ciuitati Athenas dedit. 10 Huius temporibus aquarum inluuies maiorem partem populorum Graeciae absumpsit. 11 Superfuerunt, quos refugia montium receperunt, aut ad regem Thessaliae Deucalionem ratibus euecti sunt, a quo propterea genus hominum conditum dicitur. 12 Per ordinem deinde successionis regnum ad Erechtheum descendit, sub quo frumenti satio est Eleusini a Triptolemo reperta, 13 in cuius muneris honorem noctes initiorum sacratae. 14 Tenuit et Aegeus, Thesei pater, Athenis regnum, a quo per diuortium discedens Medea propter adultam priuigni aetatem Colchos cum Medo filio ex Aegeo suscepto concessit. 15 Post Aegeum Theseus ac deinceps Thesei filius Demophoon, qui auxilium Graecis aduersus Troianos tulit, regnum possedit. 16 Erant inter Athenienses et Dorienses simultatium ueteres offensae quas uindicaturi bello Dorienses de euentu proelii oracula consuluerunt. 17 Responsum superiores fore, ni regem Atheniensium occidissent. 18 Cum uentum esset in bellum, militibus ante omnia custodia regis praecipitur. 19 Atheniensibus eo tempore rex Codrus erat, qui, et responso dei et praeceptis hostium cognitis, permutato regis habitu pannosus, sarmenta collo gerens, castra hostium ingreditur. 20 Ibi in turba obsistentium a milite, quem falce astu conuulnerauerat, interficitur. Cognito regis corpore, Dorienses sine proelio discedunt. 21 Atque ita Athenienses uirtute ducis pro salute patriae morti se offerentis bello liberantur.

7,1 Post Codrum nemo Athenis regnauit, quod memoriae nominis eius tributum est. 2 Administratio rei publicae annuis magistratibus permissa. 3 Sed ciuitati nullae tunc leges erant, quia libido regum pro legibus habebatur. 4 Legitur itaque Solon, uir iustitiae insignis, qui uelut nouam ciuitatem legibus conderet. 5 Qui tanto temperamento inter plebem senatumque egit - cum, si quid pro altero ordine tulisset, alteri displiciturum uideretur -, ut ab utrisque parem gratiam traheret. 6 Huius uiri inter multa egregia et illud memorabile fuit : 7 inter Athenienses et Megarenses de proprietate Salaminae insulae prope usque interitum armis dimicatum fuerat. 8 Post multas clades capital esse apud Athenienses coepit, si quis legem de uindicanda insula tulisset. 9 Sollicitus igitur Solon, ne aut tacendo parum rei publicae consuleret aut censendo sibi, subitam dementiam simulat, 10 cuius uenia non dicturus modo prohibita, sed et facturus erat. 11 Deformis habitu, more uaecordium in publicum euolat factoque concursu hominum, quo magis consilium dissimulet insolitis sibi uersibus suadere populo coepit quod uetabatur, 12 omniumque animos ita cepit, ut extemplo bellum aduersus Megarenses decerneretur insulaque, deuictis hostibus, Atheniensium fieret.

VI. Since we have now come to the wars of the Athenians, which were carried on, not only beyond expectation as to what could be done, but even beyond belief as to what was done, the efforts of that people having been successful beyond their hopes, the origin of their city must be briefly set forth; for they did not, like other nations, rise to eminence from a mean commencement, but are the only people that can boast, not only of their rise, but also of their birth. It was not a concourse of foreigners, or a rabble of people collected from different parts, that raised their city, but men who were born on the same ground which they inhabit; and the country which is their place of abode, was also their birthplace. It was they who first taught 39 the art of working iri wool, and the use of oil and wine. They also showed men, who had previously fed on acorns, how to plough and sow. Literature and eloquence, it is certain, and the state of civil discipline which we enjoy, had Athens as their temple. Before Deucalion’s time, they had a king named Cecrops, whom, as all antiquity is full of fables, they represented tc have been of both sexes, because he was the first to join male and female in marriage. To him succeeded Cranaus, whose daughter Atthis gave name to the country. After him reigned Amphictyon, who first consecrated the city to Minerva, and gave it the name of Athens. In his days, a deluge swept away the greater part of the inhabitants of Greece. Those only escaped, whom a refuge on the mountains protected, or who went off in ships to Deucalion, king of Thessaly, by whom, from this circumstance, the human race is said to have been restored. The crown then descended, in the course of succession, to Erectheus, in whose reign the sowing of corn was commenced by Triptolemus at Eleusis; in commemoration of which benefit the nights sacred to the mysteries of Ceres were appointed. Aegeus also, the father of Theseus, was king of Athens, from whom Medea divorcing herself, on account of the adult age of her step-son, returned to Colchis with her son Medus, whom she had had by Aegeus. After Aegeus reigned Theseus, and after Theseus his son Demophoon, who afforded aid to the Greeks against the Trojans. Between the Athenians and Dorians there had been animosities of long standing, which the Dorians, intending to revenge in war, consulted the oracle about the event of the contest. The answer was, that the “Dorians would have the advantage, if they did not kill the king of the Athenians.” When they came into the field, the Doric soldiers were charged above all things to take care not to attack the king. At that time the king of the Athenians was Codrus, who, learning the answer of the god and the directions of the enemy, laid aside his royal dress, and entered the camp of the enemy in rags, with a bundle of sticks on his back. Here, among a crowd of people that stood in his way, he was killed by a soldier whom he had purposely wounded with a pruning knife. His body being recognized as that of the king, the Dorians went off without coming to battle; and thus the Athenians, through the bravery of a prince who submitted to death for the safety of his country, were relieved from war.

VII. After Codrus there was no king at Athens; a circumstance which is attributed to the respect paid to his memory. The government of the state was placed in the hands of magistrates elected annually. At this period the people had no laws, for the wills of their princes had always been received instead of laws. Solon, a man of eminent integrity, was in consequence chosen to found the state, as it were afresh, by the establishment of laws. This man acted with such judicious moderation between the commons and the senate (though whatever he proposed in favour of one class, seemed likely to displease the other), that he received equal thanks from both parties. Among many illustrious acts of Solon, the following is eminently worthy of record. A war had been carried on between the Athenians and Megarians, concerning their respective claims to the island of Salamis, almost to the utter destruction of both. After many defeats, it was made a capital offence at Athens to propose a law for the recovery of the island. Solon, anxious lest he should injure his country by keeping silence, or himself by expressing his opinion, pretended to be suddenly seized with madness, under cover of which he might not only say, but do, what was prohibited. In a strange garb, like an insane person, he rushed forth into the public streets, where, having collected a crowd about him, he began, that he might the better conceal his design, to urge the people in verse (which he was unaccustomed to make), to do what was forbidden, and produced such an effect on the minds of all, that war was instantly decreed against the Megarians; and the enemy being defeated, the island became subject to the Athenians.

[Translation by John Selby Watson at http://www.vitaphone.org/history/justin.html. Text from Marcus Junianus Justinus, Abrégé des Histoires Philippiques de Trogue Pompée. texte établi et traduit par Marie-Pierre Arnaud-Lindet, at http://www.forumromanum.org/literature/justin/.]

[Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898), at Perseus, writes that “Justin (Junianus Justinus), Roman historian, probably lived during the age of the Antonines. Of his personal history nothing is known. He is the author of Historiarum Philippicarum libri XLIV., a work described by himself in his preface as a collection of the most important and interesting passages from the voluminous Historiae philippicae et tolius mundi origines et terrac situs, written in the time of Augustus by Pompeius Trogus.”]

19. Horace Carmina III. 19. 2.

Quantum distet ab Inacho

Codrus pro patria non timidus mori

narras et genus Aeaci

et pugnata sacro bella sub Ilio:

What the time from Inachus

To Codrus, who in patriot battle fell,

Who were sprung from Aeacus,

And how men fought at Ilion,--this you tell.

[Trans. John Conington. Translation and text from Perseus. Literally, “To Codrus, who was not afraid to die for his country.” Horace lived 65-8 BC.]

20. Velleius Paterculus History of Rome I.2

1] [Epeus] tempestate distractus a duce suo Nestore Metapontum condidit. Teucer, non receptus a patre Telamone ob segnitiam non vindicatae fratris iniuriae, Cyprum adpulsus cognominem patriae suae Salamina constituit: Pyrrhus, Achillis filius, Epirum occupavit, Phidippus Ephyram in Thesprotia. 2 At rex regum Agamemnon, tempestate in Cretam insulam reiectus, tres ibi urbes statuit, duas a patriae nomine, unam a victoriae memoria, Mycenas, Tegeam, Pergamum. Idem mox scelere patruelis fratris Aegisthi, hereditarium exercentis in eum odium, et facinore uxoris oppressus occiditur. 3 Regni potitur Aegisthus per annos septem. Hunc Orestes matremque, socia consiliorum omnium sorore Electra, virilis animi femina, obtruncat. Factum eius a diis comprobatum spatio vitae et felicitate imperii apparuit; quippe vixit annis nonaginta, regnavit septuaginta. Quin se etiam a Pyrrho Achillis filio virtute vindicavit; nam quod pactae eius Menelai atque Helenae filiae Hermiones nuptias occupaverat, Delphis eum interfecit. 4 Per haec tempora Lydus et Tyrrhenus fratres cum regnarent in Lydia, sterilitate frugum compulsi sortiti sunt, uter cum parte multitudinis patria decederet. Sors Tyrrhenum contigit. Pervectus in Italiam et loco et incolis et mari nobile ac perpetuum a se nomen dedit. Post Orestis interitum filii eius Penthilus et Tisamenus regnavere triennio.

[2] Tum fere anno octogesimo post Troiam captam, centesimo et vicesimo quam Hercules ad deos excesserat, Pelopis progenies, quae omni hoc tempore pulsis Heraclidis Peloponnesi imperium obtinuerat, ab Herculis progenie expellitur. Duces recuperandi impeii fuere Temenus, Cresphontes, Aristodemus, quorum abavus fuerat. Eodem fere tempore Athenae sub regibus esse desierunt, quarum ultimus rex fuit Codrus, Melanthi filius, vir non praetereundus. Quippe cum Lacedaemonii gravi bello Atticos premerent respondissetque Pythius, quorum dux ab hoste esset occisus, eos futuros superiores, deposita veste regia pastoralem cultum induit, immixtusque castris hostium, de industria rixam ciens, imprudenter interemptus est. 2 Codrum cum morte aeterna gloria, Atheniensis secuta victoria est. Quis eum non miretur, qui iis artibus mortem quaesierit, quibus ab ignavis vita quaeri solet? Huius filius Medon primus archon Athenis fuit. Ab hoc posten apud Atticos dicti Medontidae, sed hic insequentesque archontes usque ad Charopem, dum viverent, eum honorem usurpabant, Peloponnesii digredientes finibus Atticis Megara, mediam Corintho Athenisque urbem, condidere. 3 Ea tempestate et Tyria classis, plurimum pollens mari, in ultimo Hispaniae tractu, in extremo nostri orbis termino, in insula circumfusa Oceano, perexiguo a continenti divisa freto, Gadis condidit. Ab iisdem post paucos annos in Africa Utica condita est. Exclusi ab Heraclidis Orestis liberi iactatique cum variis casibus tum saevitia maris quinto decimo anno sedem cepere circa Lesbum insulam.

Book I

1 Epeus, separated by a storm from Nestor, his chief, founded Metapontum. Teucer, disowned by his father Telamon because of his laxity in not avenging the wrong done to his brother, was driven to Cyprus and founded Salamis, named after the place of his birth. Pyrrhus, the son of Achilles, established himself in Epirus; Phidippus in Ephyra in Thesprotia. Agamemnon, king of kings, cast by a tempest upon the island of Crete, founded there three cities, two of which, Mycenae and Tegea, were named after towns in his own country, and the other was called Pergamum in commemoration of his victory.

Agamemnon was soon afterwards struck down and slain by the infamous crime of Aegisthus, his cousin, who still kept up against him the feud of his house, and by the wicked act of his wife. Aegisthus maintained possession of the kingdom for seven years. Orestes slew Aegisthus and his own mother, seconded in all his plans by his sister Electra, a woman with the courage of a man. That his deed had the approval of the gods was made clear by the length of his life and the felicity of his reign, since he lived ninety years and reigned seventy. Furthermore, he also took revenge upon Pyrrhus the son of Achilles in fair fight, for he slew him at Delphi because he had forestalled him in marrying Hermione, the daughter of Menelaus and Helen who had been pledged to himself.

About this time two brothers, Lydus and Tyrrhenus, were joint kings in Lydia. Hard pressed by the unproductiveness of their crops, they drew lots to see which should leave his country with part of the population. The lot fell upon Tyrrhenus. He sailed to Italy, and from him the place wherein he settled, its inhabitants, and the sea received their famous and their lasting names.

After the death of Orestes his sons Penthilus and Tisamenus reigned for three years.

2 About eighty years after the capture of Troy, and a hundred and twenty after Hercules had departed to the gods, the descendans of Pelops, who, during all this time had sway in the Peloponnesus after they had driven out the descendants of Hercules, were again in turn driven out by them. The leaders in the recovery of the sovereignty were Temenus, Cresphontes, and Aristodemus, the great-great-grandsons of Hercules.

It was about this time that Athens ceased to be governed by kings. The last king of Athens was Codrus the son of Melanthus, a man whose story cannot be passed over. Athens was hard pressed in war by the Lacedaemonians, and the Pythian oracle had given the response that the side whose general should be killed by the enemy would be victorious. Codrus, therefore, laying aside his kingly robes and donning the garb of a shepherd, made his way into the camp of the enemy, deliberately provoked a quarrel, and was slain without being recognized. By his death Codrus gained immortal fame, and the Athenians the victory. Who could withhold admiration from the man who sought death by the selfsame artifice by which cowards seek life? His son Medon was the first archon at Athens. It was after him that the archons who followed him were called Medontidae among the people of Attica. Medon and all the succeeding archons until Charops continued to hold that office for life. The Peloponnesians, when they withdrew from Attic territory, founded Megara, a city midway between Corinth and Athens.

About this time, also, the fleet of Tyre, which controlled the sea, founded in the farthest district of Spain, on the remotest confines of our world, the city of Cadiz, on an island in the ocean separated from the mainland by a very narrow strait. The Tyrians a few years later also founded Utica in Africa.

The sons of Orestes, expelled by the Heraclidae, were driven about by many vicissitudes and by raging storms at sea, and, in the fifteenth year, finally settled on and about the island of Lesbos.

[Trans. by Frederick W. Shipley. Text from http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/vell.html.. Velleius Paterculus was born ca. 19 BC and died ca. 31 AD.]

21. Plutarch On Exile 607B

Κόδρος δὲ τίνος ὢν ἐβασίλευσεν; οὐ Μελάνθου, φυγάδος ἐκ Μεσσήνης;

Whose son was Codrus, who became king? Was it not of Melanthus, an exile from Messenê?

[Text and trans. from Philip H. de Lacy and Benedict Einarson, LCL, vol. VII of Plutarch’s Moralia. Plutarch lived c. 46-127 AD.]

22. Pausanias Description of Greece 1.19.5

[5] ταῦτα μὲν οὕτω γενέσθαι λέγουσι: ποταμοὶ δὲ Ἀθηναίοις ῥέουσιν Ἰλισός τε καὶ Ἠριδανῷ τῷ Κελτικῷ κατὰ τὰ αὐτὰ ὄνομα ἔχων, ἐκδιδοὺς ἐς τὸν Ἰλισόν. ὁ δὲ Ἰλισός ἐστιν οὗτος, ἔνθα παίζουσαν Ὠρείθυιαν ὑπὸ ἀνέμου Βορέου φασὶν ἁρπασθῆναι: καὶ συνοικεῖν Ὠρειθυίᾳ Βορέαν καί σφισι διὰ τὸ κῆδος ἀμύναντα τῶν τριήρων τῶν βαρβαρικῶν ἀπολέσαι τὰς πολλάς. ἐθέλουσι δὲ Ἀθηναῖοι καὶ ἄλλων θεῶν ἱερὸν εἶναι τὸν Ἰλισόν, καὶ Μουσῶν βωμὸς ἐπ’ αὐτῷ ἐστιν Ἰλισιάδων: δείκνυται δὲ καὶ ἔνθα Πελοποννήσιοι Κόδρον τὸν Μελάνθου βασιλεύοντα Ἀθηναίων κτείνουσι. [6] διαβᾶσι δὲ τὸν Ἰλισὸν χωρίον Ἄγραι καλούμενον καὶ ναὸς Ἀγροτέρας ἐστὶν Ἀρτέμιδος: ἐνταῦθα Ἄρτεμιν πρῶτον θηρεῦσαι λέγουσιν ἐλθοῦσαν ἐκ Δήλου, καὶ τὸ ἄγαλμα διὰ τοῦτο ἔχει τόξον. τὸ δὲ ἀκούσασι μὲν οὐχ ὁμοίως ἐπαγωγόν, θαῦμα δ’ ἰδοῦσι, στάδιόν ἐστι λευκοῦ λίθου. μέγεθος δὲ αὐτοῦ τῇδε ἄν τις μάλιστα τεκμαίροιτο: ἄνωθεν ὄρος ὑπὲρ τὸν Ἰλισὸν ἀρχόμενον ἐκ μηνοειδοῦς καθήκει τοῦ ποταμοῦ πρὸς τὴν ὄχθην εὐθύ τε καὶ διπλοῦν. τοῦτο ἀνὴρ Ἀθηναῖος Ἡρώδης ᾠκοδόμησε, καί οἱ τὸ πολὺ τῆς λιθοτομίας τῆς Πεντελῆσιν ἐς τὴν οἰκοδομὴν ἀνηλώθη.

XIX. Close to the temple of Olympian Zeus is a statue of the Pythian Apollo. There is further a sanctuary of Apollo surnamed Delphinius. The story has it that when the temple was finished with the exception of the roof Theseus arrived in the city, a stranger as yet to everybody. When he came to the temple of the Delphinian, wearing a tunic that reached to his feet and with his hair neatly plaited, those who were building the roof mockingly inquired what a marriageable virgin was doing wandering about by herself. The only answer that Theseus made was to loose, it is said, the oxen from the cart hard by, and to throw them higher than the roof of the temple they were building.

[2] Concerning the district called The Gardens, and the temple of Aphrodite, there is no story that is told by them, nor yet about the Aphrodite which stands near the temple. Now the shape of it is square, like that of the Hermae, and the inscription declares that the Heavenly Aphrodite is the oldest of those called Fates. But the statue of Aphrodite in the Gardens is the work of Alcamenes, and one of the most note worthy things in Athens.

[3] There is also the place called Cynosarges, sacred to Heracles; the story of the white dog1 may be known by reading the oracle. There are altars of Heracles and Hebe, who they think is the daughter of Zeus and wife to Heracles. An altar has been built to Alcmena and to Iolaus, who shared with Heracles most of his labours. The Lyceum has its name from Lycus, the son of Pandion, but it was considered sacred to Apollo from the be ginning down to my time, and here was the god first named Lyceus. There is a legend that the Termilae also, to whom Lycus came when he fled from Aegeus, were called Lycii after him.

[4] Behind the Lyceum is a monument of Nisus, who was killed while king of Megara by Minos, and the Athenians carried him here and buried him. About this Nisus there is a legend. His hair, they say, was red, and it was fated that he should die on its being cut off. When the Cretans attacked the country, they captured the other cities of the Megarid by assault, but Nisaea, in which Nisus had taken refuge, they beleaguered. The story says how the daughter of Nisus, falling in love here with Minos, cut off her father’s hair.

[5] Such is the legend. The rivers that flow through Athenian territory are the Ilisus and its tributary the Eridanus, whose name is the same as that of the Celtic river. This Ilisus is the river by which Oreithyia was playing when, according to the story, she was carried off by the North Wind. With Oreithyia he lived in wedlock, and be cause of the tie between him and the Athenians he helped them by destroying most of the foreigners’ warships. The Athenians hold that the Ilisus is sacred to other deities as well, and on its bank is an altar of the Ilisian Muses. The place too is pointed out where the Peloponnesians killed Codrus, son of Melanthus and king of Athens.

[6] Across the Ilisus is a district called Agrae and a temple of Artemis Agrotera (the Huntress). They say that Artemis first hunted here when she came from Delos, and for this reason the statue carries a bow. A marvel to the eyes, though not so impressive to hear of, is a race-course of white marble, the size of which can best be estimated from the fact that beginning in a crescent on the heights above the Ilisus it descends in two straight lines to the river bank. This was built by Herodes, an Athenian, and the greater part of the Pentelic quarry was exhausted in its construction.

[Trans. W. H. S. Jones and H. A. Ormerod. Text and translation from Perseus. See Grave Monument at Kerameikos, above. Pausanias fl. c. 150 AD.]

23. Pausanias Description of Greece 7.25.2

2] ταῦτα Ἕλλησιν ἦλθεν ἐς μνήμην, ὅτε ἀφίκοντο ἐπὶ Ἀθήνας Πελοποννήσιοι, τότε Κόδρου τοῖς Ἀθηναίοις τοῦ Μελάνθου βασιλεύοντος. ὁ μὲν δὴ ἄλλος στρατὸς τῶν Πελοποννησίων ἀπεχώρησεν ἐκ τῆς Ἀττικῆς, ἐπειδὴ ἐπύθοντο τοῦ Κόδρου τὴν τελευτὴν καὶ ὅντινα ἐγένετο αὐτῷ τρόπον: οὐ γὰρ εἶναι νίκην ἔτι σφίσι κατὰ τὸ ἐκ Δελφῶν μάντευμα ἤλπιζον: Λακεδαιμονίων δὲ ἄνδρες γενόμενοι μὲν ἐντὸς τείχους λανθάνουσιν ἐν τῇ νυκτί, ἅμα δὲ ἡμέρᾳ τούς τε ἑαυτῶν ἀπεληλυθότας αἰσθάνονται καὶ ἀθροιζομένων ἐπ’ αὐτοὺς τῶν Ἀθηναίων καταφεύγουσιν ἐς τὸν Ἄρειον πάγον καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν θεῶν αἳ Σεμναὶ καλοῦνται τοὺς βωμούς.

[3] Ἀθηναῖοι δὲ τότε μὲν διδόασι τοῖς ἱκέταις ἀπελθεῖν ἀζημίοις, χρόνῳ δὲ ὕστερον αὐτοὶ οἱ ἔχοντες τὰς ἀρχὰς διέφθειραν τῆς Ἀθηνᾶς ἱκέτας τῶν Κύλωνι ὁμοῦ τὴν ἀκρόπολιν κατειληφότων: καὶ αὐτοί τε <οἱ> ἀποκτείναντες ἐνομίσθησαν καὶ οἱ ἐξ ἐκείνων ἐναγεῖς τῆς θεοῦ. Λακεδαιμονίοις δέ, ἀποκτείνασι καὶ τούτοις ἄνδρας ἐς τὸ ἱερὸν καταπεφευγότας τὸ ἐπὶ Ταινάρῳ τοῦ Ποσειδῶνος, οὐ μετὰ πολὺ ἐσείσθη σφίσιν ἡ πόλις συνεχεῖ τε ὁμοῦ καὶ ἰσχυρῷ τῷ σεισμῷ, ὥστε οἰκίαν μηδεμίαν τῶν ἐν Λακεδαίμονι ἀντισχεῖν.

XXV. The disaster that befell Helice is but one of the many proofs that the wrath of the God of Suppliants is inexorable. The god at Dodona too manifestly advises us to respect suppliants. For about the time of Apheidas the Athenians received from Zeus of Dodona the following verses:--

Consider the Areopagus, and the smoking altars

Of the Eumenides, where the Lacedaemonians are to be thy suppliants,

When hard-pressed in war. Kill them not with the sword,

And wrong not suppliants. For suppliants are sacred and holy.

[2] The Greeks were reminded of these words when Peloponnesians arrived at Athens at the time when the Athenian king was Codrus, the son of Melanthus. Now the rest of the Peloponnesian army, on learning of the death of Codrus and of the manner of it, departed from Attica, the oracle from Delphi making them despair of success in the future; but certain Lacedaemonians, who got unnoticed within the walls in the night, perceived at daybreak that their friends had gone, and when the Athenians gathered against them, they took refuge in the Areopagus at the altars of the goddesses called August.

[3] On this occasion the Athenians allowed the suppliants to go away unharmed, but subsequently the magistrates themselves put to death the suppliants of Athena, when Cylon and his supporters had seized the Acropolis. So the slayers themselves and also their descendants were regarded as accursed to the goddess. The Lacedaemonians too put to death men who had taken refuge in the sanctuary of Poseidon at Taenarum. Presently their city was shaken by an earthquake so continuous and violent that no house in Lacedaemon could resist it.

[4] The destruction of Helice occurred while Asteius was still archon at Athens, in the fourth year of the hundred and first Olympiad1 , whereat Damon of Thurii was victorious for the first time. As none of the people of Helice were left alive, the land is occupied by the people of Aegium.

[Trans. W. H. S. Jones and H. A. Ormerod. Text and translation from Perseus.]

24. Pausanias Description of Greece 8.52.1

καὶ ἤδη τὸ μετὰ τοῦτο ἐς ἀνδρῶν ἀγαθῶν φορὰν ἔληξεν ἡ Ἑλλάς. Μιλτιάδης μὲν γὰρ ὁ Κίμωνος τούς τε ἐς Μαραθῶνα ἀποβάντας τῶν βαρβάρων κρατήσας μάχῃ καὶ τοῦ πρόσω τὸν Μήδων ἐπισχὼν στόλον ἐγένετο εὐεργέτης πρῶτος κοινῇ τῆς Ἑλλάδος, Φιλοποίμην δὲ ὁ Κραύγιδος ἔσχατος: οἱ δὲ πρότερον Μιλτιάδου λαμπρὰ ἔργα ἀποδειξάμενοι, Κόδρος τε ὁ Μελάνθου καὶ ὁ Σπαρτιάτης Πολύδωρος καὶ Ἀριστομένης ὁ Μεσσήνιος καὶ εἰ δή τις ἄλλος, πατρίδας ἕκαστοι τὰς αὑτῶν καὶ οὐκ ἀθρόαν φανοῦνται τὴν Ἑλλάδα ὠφελήσαντες.

After this Greece ceased to bear good men. For Miltiades, the son of Cimon, overcame in battle the foreign invaders who had landed at Marathon, stayed the advance of the Persian army, and so became the first benefactor of all Greece, just as Philopoemen, the son of Craugis, was the last. Those who before Miltiades accomplished brilliant deeds, Codrus, the son of Melanthus, Polydorus the Spartan, Aristomenes the Messenian, and all the rest, will be seen to have helped each his own country and not Greece as a whole.

[Trans. W. H. S. Jones and H. A. Ormerod. Text and translation from Perseus.]

25. Aristides The Panathenaic Oration 87

Κόδρος δὲ ἐν τῷ πρὸς Δωριέας πολέμῳ καὶ Πελοποννησίους αυτὸς ἐθελοντὴς ὑπὲρ τῆς χώρας ἀποθανεῖν. . . . Κόδρῳ μὲν δοῦσα τὴν ἀρχὴν εἰς τοὺς παῖδας καὶ κοσμήσασα καὶ παρ’ αὐτῇ κἀν τῇ ὑπερορίᾳ τὸ γένος . . .

Erechtheus is said in this war against Eumolpus to have given his daughter on behalf of the city because of the god’s oracle; and her mother is said to have led her forth after adorning her as if for a festival. And Leos is said to have reached the same resolve, in a time of plague: to abandon his daughters. And Codrus is said in the war against the Dorians and Peloponnesians voluntarily to have died on behalf of his land. Therefore even those people who can tell of such acts of their fellow citizens can say nothing more than what you have done, but the city initiated such acts through its great and still more numerous examples, and no more could be done either publicly or privately.

(88) Then it has befallen to the city not to be inferiour to other peoples even in a single respect, nor when it defeated all the enemies whom I named, to have been deficient in gratitude to those who on its side made these resolves on its behalf. But it will also clearly have surpassed these in its benefits: in respect to Codrus by having given office to his sons and by having honored his race at home and abroad; and for the maidens by having established a temple for them and in honoring them by having thought them worthy of a divine instead of a mortal portion; and by having given Erechtheus a share in the ceremonies of the gods on the Acropolis.

[Trans. from Charles A. Behr, tr., P. Aelius Artistides The Complete Works, Vol. 1. Orations I-XVI (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1986), 22. Text from F. Lenz and C. Behr, eds., P. Aelii Artistidis Opera Quae Exstant Omnia, Volumen Primum (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1976). Artistides Aelius lived c. 117-181 AD.]

26. Diogenes Laertius Plato 1.

φασὶ δὲ καὶ τὸν πατέρα αὐτοῦ ἀνάγειν εἰς Κόδρον τὸν Μελάνθου, οἵτινες ἀπὸ Ποσειδῶνος ἱστοροῦνται κατὰ Θρασύλον.

His [Plato’s] father too is said to be in the direct line from Codrus, the son of Melanthus, and, according to Thrasylus, Codrus and Melanthus also trace their descent from Poseidon.

[Trans. and text from R. D. Hicks, LCL. Diogenes Laertius has been dated to the 3rd century AD.]

27. Anecdota Graeca (Bekker 1 192)

Περὶ Κόδρου: οἱ Πελοποννήσιοι, πολεμοῦντες Ἀθηναίοις, ἔλαβον χρησμὸν μὴ ἀποκτεῖναι Κόδρον τὸν βασιλέα. [?] οἱ δὲ πρὸ τοῦ τείχους φρυγανιζόμενον ἀπέκτειναν, καὶ ἀπέτυχον τῆς [?] νίκης.

On Codrus: The Peloponnesians, making war against the Athenians, received an oracle stating that they should not kill Codrus the king. But they killed him before the wall as he was gathering sticks, and so they lost their chance for victory.

[My trans. Text from Bekker.]

28. Zenobius Centuria IV, s.v. Eugenesteros Kodrou

Εὐγενέστερος Κόδρου: ὁ Κόδρος Μελάνθου υἱὸς ἦν· Μέλανθος δὲ ἕκτος ἀπὸ Νηλέως, οὗ καὶ Νέστωρ. Οὗτος ἐκπεσὼν τῆς Μεσσήνης ἦλθεν εἰς τὰς Ἀθήνας, καὶ μονομαχήσας πρὸς Ξάνθον τὸν Βοιωτὸν, βασιλεύοντα τῶν Ἀθηναίων, νικήσας ἐβασίλευσε τῶν Ἀθηναίων, καὶ Κόδρῳ τῷ υἱῷ τελευτήσας τὴν βασιλείαν κατέλιπεν. Ὁ δὲ Κόδρος οὗτος ἐν τῷ πρὸς Δωριέας πολέμῳ ἑκὼν ὑπὲρ τῆς χώρας ἀποθνήσκει. Προείρητο γὰρ ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ τοῖς Ἀθηναίοις νικήσειν, εἴ γε τελευτήσειεν ὑπὸ τῶν Δωριέων ὁ βασιλεὺς αὐτῶν. Ἀποθανὼν δὲ ἐγκατέλιπε παῖδας δύο, Μέντορα καὶ Νηλέα. Ὁ μὲν οὖν Μέντωρ ἀντ’ αὐτοῦ ἐβασίλευσεν· ὁ δὲ Νηλεὺς ἡγεμὼν τῆς εἰς τὴν Ἀσίαν ἀποικίας ἐγένετο.

More noble than Codrus: Codrus was the son of Melanthus. And Melanthus was sixth from Neleus, from whom Nestor also descended. Melanthus, having been banished from Messene, came to Athens, and having fought in single combat with Xanthus the Boiotian, who was ruling the Athenians, he conquered him and took up the Athenian kingship. And when he died he left the kingship to Codrus his son. And this Codrus, in the war against the Dorians, died willingly on behalf of his country. For it had been prophesied by the god that the Athenians would win, if their king would be killed by the Dorians. And when he died he left two sons, Mentor and Neleus. Mentor ruled Athens in his place; but Neleus became leader of the colonization in Asia.

[My trans. Text from E. L. Leutsch and F. G. Schneidewin, Paroemiographi Graeci, 2 vols. and supplementary volume (Göttingen 1887), 1.84.

29. Eusebius of Caesarea Chronikon , translated, with additions, by St. Jerome

1253/50 Minos mare obtinuit et Cretensibus leges dedit, ut paradius memorat, quod Plato falsum esse convincit.

1236 Accession of King Priam in succession to Laomedon.

1234 Accession of Theseus at Athens, the tenth king.

1232 The Minotaur story (derived from Philochoros, Atthis II.)

1222 Theseus Helenam rapuit, quam rursus fratres receperunt capta matre Thesei, eo peregre profecto.

1220/19 Theseus cum Athenienses prius per regionem dispersos in unam civitatem congregasset, ignominiose eiectus est per signa testarum, eandem legem primus ipse constituens.

1216/15 Minos leges ac iura constituit

1212 Hercules agonem Olympiacum constituit, a quo usque ad primam Olympiadem supputantur anni CCCCXXX.

1211, or

1207 Theseus Athenas profugus derelinquit.

1182 Troia capta. [18th year of Agamemnon at Mycenae, 20th year of Menelaus at Sparta, 23rd year of Menestheus at Athens]

Menestheus moritur in Melo, regrediens a Troia.

Post quem Athenis regnavit Demophon. A primo anno Cecropis, qui primus aput Atticam regnavit, usque ad captivitatem Troiae et usque ad XXIII annum Menesthei, cuius Homerus meminit conputantur anni CCCLXXV.

1149 Secundum quosdam Heraclidarum descensus.

1148 Accession of Oxyntes at Athens, the 13th king, who ruled for 12 years.

1136 Second and last year of Aphidas, the fourteenth king of Athens; his successor was Thymoetes, who ruled for eight years.

[1136 -] Castoris de regno Athenensium: exponemus autem et Atheniensium reges cognomento Erechthidas a Cecrope Diphye usque ad Thymoeten, quorum omne tempus invenitur ann. CCCCXXVIIII. Post quos suscepit regnum Melanthus Pyliensis, Andropompi filius, et huius filius Codrus, qui imperarunt simul ann. LVIII.

1128 Erechthidarum imperio destructo Atticorum principum regnum ad aliud genus translatum est, cum Thymoetes provocasset Xanthus Boeotius et Thymoete recusante Melanthius Pyliensis Andropompi filius suscepisset singulare certamen ac deinde regnasset, hinc et Apatourion, id est fallaciarum sollemnitas celebratur quia victoria fraude processerit.

1101 in Lacedaemone regnavit primus Eurystheus ann XLII. Corinthi regnavit primus Aletes ann. XXXV.

[1101] Heraclidarum descensus in Peloponnesum.

1090/85 Iones profugi Athenas se contulerunt.

1086/80 Peloponnenses contra Athenas dimicant.

1069 Post quem principes quos mors finiebat, quorum primus Medon, Codri filius ann. XX

[1069 ] Peloponnenses contra Athenas dimicant. Codrus iuxta responsum se ipsum morti tradens interimitur bello Peloponnensiaco. In quo Erechthidarum regnum destructum est, quod CCCCLXXXVII ann. perseveraverat.

1053 Magnesia in Asia condita.

1045 Ephesus condita ab Andronico

1036 Ionica emigratio, in qua quidam Homerum fuisse scribunt.

986 Samos condita et Zmyrna in urbis modum ampliata.

957 Corinthorum V Bacchis ann XXXV a quo Bacchidae reges cognominati

883 Lycurgus insignis habetur.

820 Thespieo Arifronis filio Athenis regnante. Assyriorum imperium deletum est.

798 Pheidon Argivus mensuras et pondera primus invenit.

797/794 Lycurgi leges in Lacedaemone iuxta sententiam Apollodori hac aetate susceptae.

1069 The Peloponnesians make war with Athens. Codrus, in response to an oracle, dies in the Peloponnesian war after delivering himself up to death.

[My trans. Text from Rudolf Helm (ed.), Eusebius Werke, VII: Die Chronik des Hieronymus (Berlin 1956), at http://www.csun.edu/~hcfll004/chronicon.html.] [Eusebius lived c. 260-340 AD.]

30. Isidore Of Seville, An Abbreviated History Of The World Or The World Chronicle

THE FOURTH AGE OF THE WORLD

29. David ruled for forty years. Codrus, king of the Athenians, was killed as he voluntarily offered himself to the enemy for the well-being of the country. And Carthage was built by Dido, with Gath, Nathan, and Asapaht prophesying in Judea.

30. Solomon ruled for forty years. He (began) building the Temple of Jerusalem in the fourth year of his reign and finished it in the eigth year.

31. Rehoboam ruled for seventeen years. The kingdom of Israel was separated from Judah, the ten tribes being separated from the two, and they began to have kings in Samaria. In this age, Samos was founded and the sibyl Erythraea was regarded as illustrious.

[Trans. Kenneth B. Wolf at http://www.history.pomona.edu/kbw/h100y/chronicon.htm, from Patrologia Latina 83:1017-1058. St. Isidore of Seville (Isidorus Hispalensis, born ca. 560, d. 636 AD), was the Archbishop of Seville in 600-601.]

31. Tzetzes Chiliades Hist. 4-5, 170-199

Οὗτος ὁ Κόδρος εὐγενὴς οὐκ ἦν τῷ γένει μόνον,

ἀλλὰ πανευγενέστατος καὶ τὴν ψυχὴν ὑπῆρχε.

Λακώνων Ἀθηναίων τε ποτέ γὰρ πολεμοῦντων,

χρησμὸς ἐδόθη Λάκωσι μεγάλως ἡττηθῆναι,

ἄν τις ἐκ τούτων στρατηγὸν τῶν Ἀθηναίων κτείνῃ.

Ὃ γνοὺς ὁ Κόδρος καὶ στολὴν ἁψάμενος δρυτόμου,

πελέκει Λάκωνα τινὰ κτείνας ἀνταναιρεῖται.

Ὅπερ καὶ γνόντες φεύγουσιν οἱ Λάκωνες εὐθέως.

192 This Codrus was noble not in family alone,

but was entirely noble, in a spiritual sense.

For once when the Laconians and Athenians were fighting,

an oracle was given to the Laconians that they would be entirely defeated

if one of them were to kill the leader of the Athenians.

Learning which, Codrus, putting on the outfit of a woodsman,

killed a certain Laconian with an axe, then was killed in return.

And when they understood what they had done, the Laconians fled immediately.

[My trans. Text from Petrus Aloisius M. Leone, ed., Ioannis Tzetzae Historiae (Naples, Libreria Scientifica Editrice, 1968). Tzetzes lived in the 12th century AD.]

Selected Secondary Sources

Kron, U. Die zehn attischen Phylenheroen. Geschichte, Mythos, Kult und Darstellungen (Berlin 1976), 138, 195-196, 215, 221-227, 246.

Robertson, Noel. “Melanthus, Codrus, Neleus, Cacon: Ritual Myth as Athenian History.” GRBS 29 (1988): 201-261, 225-226.

Kearns, Emily. The Heroes of Attica (BICS Suppl. 57) (London 1989), 56-57.

Sourvinou-Inwood, Christiane. “The Cup Bologna PU 273: A Reading.” Metis 5 (1990): 137-53.

Simon, Erika. “Kodros.” In Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae, 8 vols. (Zurich: Artemis Verlag, 1981-1999), V.1, 86-88.

Garrison, Elise P. “Suicidal Males in Greek and Roman Mythology: A Catalogue.” http://www.stoa.org/diotima/essays/garrison_catalogue2.shtml.