Kinyras: The Divine Lyre

  Franklin, John Curtis. 2016. Kinyras: The Divine Lyre. Hellenic Studies Series 70. Washington, DC: Center for Hellenic Studies. http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul.ebook:CHS_FranklinJ.Kinyras.2016.


13. The Talents of Kinyras

Our analysis of Cypriot iconography and the prehistory of kinýra (and associated music) is compatible with the idea that Kinyras could go back to the pre-Greek island in some form. And after all, our best evidence for divinized instruments is of BA date, from Kinnaru of Ugarit on back to third-millennium Mesopotamia. And, as it happens, while the fifth-century Pindar is our earliest literary source for a musical Kinyras, the bulk of Greco-Roman notices, from Homer onwards, do connect him with the pre-Greek LBA, which was evidently remembered as a kind of Golden Age. [1] The material may be divided into two parts. The first, to be collected and contextualized in the present chapter, links Kinyras to Cypriot industries, which, though pursued throughout the IA, greatly flourished in the LBA, the age of Alashiya. The second group (Chapter 14) confirms and extends this view by connecting Kinyras to the island’s pre-Greek population(s), whence he is variously encountered in Aegean migration legends.

Great Kingship

It should be signaled here that Kinyras’ nonmusical powers are one sign that he underwent early syncretism with Kothar, the Syro-Levantine craftsman god. I shall treat this complex problem, with collateral phenomena from the mainland and Mycenaean Pylos, in Chapters 17, 18, and 19.

Metallurge and Potter

Kinyras the Mariner

In any case, it is clear from the Amarna letters and Ugaritian texts that shipbuilding, shipping, and timber were major Alashiyan industries. [34] This was intimately related to the metals trade, since wood was needed for smelting and the ships that carried oxhide ingots. The extent and depth of these activities is vividly suggested by Eratosthenes, as paraphrased in Strabo’s description of Cyprus:


Eratosthenes seems to allude to a Cypriot popular memory of a time when the island’s ships ‘commanded’ the seas. Similarly, Cyprus appears in the ancient thalassocracy-lists, immediately before Phoenicia and Egypt. [
36] There have been various attempts to match this list’s sea-powers with historical epochs; that of Cyprus is often placed in the ninth or eighth centuries. [37] Such analyses are inevitably undermined by the list’s obvious artificiality, especially for the alleged sea-powers of earlier times. For the LBA, in particular, the thalassocratic model has been well challenged; still, it is certain that Cyprus played a key role in LBA trade between the Aegean, the Levant, and Egypt. [38] If the Cypriot ‘thalassocracy’ rests on any genuine tradition, the ‘historical precedence’ of Cyprus over Phoenicia makes it quite possible that this reflects some popular memory of Alashiyan maritime activity. Eratosthenes certainly envisioned a very early horizon for “the sea being sailed in force.”

Oilman and Parfumeur

Cypriot scents continued strong into the IA. Besides Alkman, Greek epic regularly has Aphrodite slathered in perfumed oils by her graceful handmaidens at Paphos. [69] Furthermore, as we saw, Kinyras is persistently linked to aromatics by his daughter Myrrha, the personification of myrrh (Chapter 12). We may also deal here with the perfumer Amaracus (to give the Latin form we find), metamorphosed into marjoram (Gk. amárakos). Our oldest source for the tale is Servius:


The verse of the Aeneid to which this notice was attached relates to Venus’ abduction of Ascanius, whom she hides “in the high groves / of Idalion, where soft amaracus exhaling / with flowers and sweet shade embraces him.” [
72] Servius and other commentators often attached gratuitous aetiologies where not really justified by the original text. Here, however, Vergil’s intentionally ambiguous syntax and diction, which permit both concrete and personified readings (note especially adspirans complectitur), strongly suggest that he is indeed alluding to the Amaracus tale. If so, it would readily imply, given the setting of Idalion, that Amaracus himself was a Cypriot prince. It then becomes quite possible that he was the son of Kinyras himself.

Unfortunately, this idea is not confirmed by any extant ancient source; the few other notices are clearly dependent upon Servius. [73] Nevertheless, Amaracus as the son of Kinyras achieved some currency after it was presented matter-of-factly by the Italian humanist Julius Pomponius Laetus (‘Sabinus’) in his commentary on Vergil (1487–1490). [74] That it was his own deduction, and not drawn from some lost work, is indicated by his reference to Pliny, who states that “the best and most fragrant sampsuchum or amaracum is in Cyprus.” [75] It was certainly an inspired guess, and may even be right. [76] Pomponius was presumably the source for Étienne de Lusignan, whose version may nevertheless be given as being our most expansive version of the tale, with details otherwise unparalleled. Here ‘Amaraco’, who “gave himself to making ointments,” is called a son of “the god Cinaras” and a “Chirurgien”; he too, we are told, came to be numbered among the gods. Having perfected a recipe, he was bringing it to his father “in an alabaster vessel” (probably Lusignan’s own elaboration of Pliny [77] ) when he dropped the batch:

The Virtuous Monarch

Conclusion

Kinyras is consistently associated in Greco-Roman sources with industries typical of Alashiya/LBA Cyprus. While these same activities continued into the IA, this was a period of political fragmentation, hence smaller-scale operations. A fortiori the Kinyras traditions, which present him as the fountainhead of these activities, should relate first to the Golden Age of Cypriot popular memory.

Footnotes

[ back ] 1. This was recognized by Gjerstad 1944; Gjerstad 1948:429–430; Dussaud 1950; Kapera 1971:132; Baurain 1980b:291–301, 303n134; Baurain 1981a:24n4; Loucas-Durie 1989.

[ back ] 2. Island-wide kingship is the most natural reading of Homer Iliad 11.20 (with Σ and Eustathios; cf. Baurain 1975–1976:535; but contra Lorimer 1950:31n5), where Cyprus is mentioned, not Paphos; so too Pindar Pythian 2.13–20 with Σ; cf. Plato Comicus fr. 3 PCG (βασιλεῦ Κυπρίων); Σ Lykophron Alexandra 831; Σ Dionysios the Periegete 509 (FGH 758 F 3a); Clement of Alexandria Exhortation 2.13.4 with Σ (but Exhortation 3.45.4 connects Kinyras with Paphos), Miscellanies 1.21.132; Servius Auctus on Vergil Eclogues 10.18; Suda s.v. καταγηρᾶσαι; Hesykhios s.v. Kινύρας.

[ back ] 3. But note that Alashiya did not necessarily control the whole island: see p11.

[ back ] 4. See further p351–359.

[ back ] 5. Homer Iliad 11.19–23. See p1.

[ back ] 6. Eustathios on Homer Iliad 11.20–23 (cf. Σ): ὁ Κινύρης θώρακα ἔδωκε … «χαριζόμενος βασιλῆϊ», καὶ δώροις οὕτως οἰκειούμενος τὴν Ἑλληνικὴν φιλίαν καὶ οὐ δήπου διδοὺς εἰς ποινὴν ἀστρατείας, ὡς ὁ τῷ Ἀγαμέμνονι ὑποτελῶν Σικυώνιος Ἐχέπωλος (= Iliad 23.296–297) τὴν ὑμνουμένην Αἴθην τὴν τοῦ Ἀγαμέμνονος ἵππον ἐξ ἀνάγκης αὐτῷ ὡς οἰκείῳ βασιλεῖ δέδωκεν, ἵνα μὴ στρατεύσηται; for the point, Wagner 1891:182.

[ back ] 7. For Agamemnon’s status, see especially Homer Iliad 12.100–108 (quotation 108), which prepares the Catalogue of Ships; cf. 3.187. For LBA gift-exchange as relevant to the Kinyras episode, Dussaud 1950:58; Baurain 1980b:291–301; Morris 1992:6–8, 104; Morris 1997:610.

[ back ] 8. Homer Iliad 11.24–28, with H. Catling in Buchholz and Wiesner 1977:78–79.

[ back ] 9. PY Sh 736 (to-ra-ke, θώρακες) = DMG no. 296 (general discussion, 375–381). For Kinyras’ corselet as reflecting LBA Cypriot and/or Canaanite industry: Webster 1964:102–103; Brown 1965:204; Kapera 1972:192; H. Catling in Buchholz and Wiesner 1977:78–79; Baurain 1980b:295–298; Loucas-Durie 1989:119; Morris 1992:8–9; Morris 1997:610. Baurain 1975–1976:535 would even connect its decorations with snake symbolism of second-millennium Cyprus. D’Acunto 2009:157–158, on the other hand, explains the ecphrasis in terms of eighth- and seventh-century Cypro-Phoenician workmanship. Homer was of course familiar with contemporary Phoenician metalwork (Iliad 23.740–750, Odyssey 4.615–619 = 15.115–119, cf. 15.425).

[ back ] 10. Proverbial wealth: Tyrtaios 12.6 IEG; Pindar Nemean 8.17–18, cf. Σ Pindar Pythian 2.27 (Abel 1891), εὐδαιμονέστατον; Plato Laws 660e; Pap.Oxy. 1795.32 (Lyrica Adespota 37 CA): ὄλβιος ἦν ὁ Μίδας, τρὶς δ’ ὄλβιος ἦν ὁ Κινύρας; Diogenianos 8.53 (1.316 Leutsch/Schneidewin); Dio Khrysostomos 8.28; Lucian Professor of Public Speaking 11.9; Julian Epistles 82; Libanios Epistles 503.3, 515.4, 571.2, 1197.5, 1221.5, 1400.3, Orations 1.273, 25.23, 55.21, 63.6, cf. 47.31; Suda s.v. καταγηρᾶσαι, Σαρδανάπαλος; Eustathios and Σ Homer Iliad 11.20 (ζάπλουτος); Thomas Magister Anecdota Graeca, Boissonade 1829–1833 2:212. Note also Ovid Metamorphoses 10.299 (inter felices Cinyras) and 400 (fortuna). Cf. Kapera 1972:192; Baurain 1980b:301–303.

[ back ] 11. EA 33–40 passim (quotation 35.43, trans. Moran).

[ back ] 12. Homer Odyssey 4.81–89.

[ back ] 13. Eustathios on Homer Iliad 11.21: οἵα δὲ ἡ Κύπρος εἰς πλοῦτον καὶ λοιπὴν εὐδαιμονίαν, αἱ ἱστορίαι δηλοῦσιν; cf. Eustathios on Dionysios the Periegete 508–509; Vergil Aeneid 1.621–622: opimam /
… Cyprum.

[ back ] 14. Cf. Kapera 1972:193–194; Baurain 1981a; Loucas-Durie 1989.

[ back ] 15. That is not to say that the LBA Cypriot versions of these industries were not distinctive: For Alashiyan ivory-work (EA 40.7–8, 13–14), with an ‘international style’ combining Aegean, Levantine, and Egyptian elements, see PPC:268–272. Fine cloth (EA 31, 34; Hittite texts: SHC 2 no. 39–40; Ezekiel 27:7) was produced by most or all LBA palaces; but note the lovely clothes with which the Graces regularly dress Aphrodite at Paphos in Greek epic (though the motif per se probably derives from traditions about Astarte/Inanna: Richardson 1991).

[ back ] 16. Cypriot copper industry: Catling 1963; Muhly 1986; Knapp 1986; Knapp 1988; Muhly 1989; Keswani 1993; Muhly 1996; Knapp 1997; Steel 2004:166–168.

[ back ] 17. For text, translation, and previous literature, Alster and Oshima 2007; also Foster 2005:74. For the historical circumstances that produced such a work, Westenholz 2007; Westenholz 2011; Bachvarova forthcoming; more generally Michalowski 1993:89–90.

[ back ] 18. SHC 2 no. 2–9 (Mari), 10–13 (Alalakh), 32 (Babylon). There is also a possibly relevant Ebla text (no. 1).

[ back ] 19. SHC 2:5; Knapp 2006; Knapp 2011:252.

[ back ] 20. Alashiyan copper: EA 33.16–18, 34.18, 35.10, 36.5–7, 12–14, 37.9, 40.7–8, 13–14; bronze workers: 35.14–15, 35.37.

[ back ] 21. Baurain 1980b:303n134; cf. Baurain 1981a:24n4. For the Kinyradai, see Chapter 16.

[ back ] 22. Cf. Karageorghis in Karageorghis and Masson 1988:36.

[ back ] 23. Pliny Natural History 34.2.2: in Cypro, ubi prima aeris inventio (connected with the Kinyras passage by Heubner 1963–1982 2:35). Pliny often discusses Cypriot copper and related processes elsewhere: see SHC 1:140–155 passim.

[ back ] 24. Agriopa is otherwise unknown in connection with Kinyras (Étienne de Lusignan has ‘Agrippa’ [!], perhaps a typographical error: Chorograffia p13a [§28]). While Agriopa would seem to stand in the place of a father, Heyne 1803:324–325 considered this Kinyras’ mother, and it is noteworthy that an Agriope/Argiope is several times elsewhere connected with mythical lyre-heroes—appropriately if the name means ‘clear-voiced’ (cf. Καλλιόπη)—either as the wife of Orpheus (Hermesianax 7.2 CA) or the nymph-mother of Thamyris via Philammon of Delphi (Pausanias 4.33.3; [Apollodoros] Library 1.3.3). See already Engel 1841 2:124; Movers 1841–1856 2:275 and n50a. Alternatively, one might think of the Argiope who was known to Pherekydes as the daughter of the Nile, married by the Phoenician king Agenor: Σ Apollonios of Rhodes 3.1186 (= Pherekydes FGH 3 F 21); cf. Roscher Lex. s.v. no. 3.

[ back ] 25. Tegulae can refer to both roof and wall tiles (OLD s.v.). Baurain 1980a:9 wished to interpret tegulae as formae, i.e. molds for molten bronze (“au risque de donner un sens nouveau à ce mot”), thereby discrediting the parallel drawn by Brown 1965:203 with the anonymous brother of Khousor in Philo of Byblos, who invents bricks (πλίνθοι); yet these are credited to Kinyras himself by Étienne de Lusignan (see below and further p452–453). But note that Gk. πλίνθος can also refer to metal ingots (LSJ s.v. II.2).

[ back ] 27. Chorograffia p. 2 (§1). Lusignan’s debt to Pliny is also clear from his making this (younger) ‘Cinaras’ the son of ‘Agrippa’.

[ back ] 28. Chorograffia p. 13a (§28), of ‘Lapithus’: “In questa fù primamente ritrovata l’arte di far li vasi di terra, & li coppi, & anchora dura, ritrovata da Cinara, figliuolo di Agrippa”; p. 14a (§37), of ‘Tamasse’: “il rame [sc. fù primamente ritrovato] da Cinara figliuolo di Agrippa”; p. 20 (§72): “Cinara dunque fù il primo inventore in Cipro del rame & dell’oro; & primo inventore di far li coppi, & altri vasi fittili nella città di Lapitò; nella quale anchora persevera quell’arte”; p. 87 (§590): “Cinaria [sic] figliouolo di Agrippa fù il primo, che ritrovò l’oro & il rame in Cipro” (here iron is attributed to “Damneo & Selmente di generatione hebrei”). From the Description, p. 28, of Lapethos: “Cinare fils d’Agrippe y trouva premierement l’invention de faire la brique”; p. 80, of Tamassos: “Cinare fils d’Agrippe fut le premier inventeur en cette ville de la mine d’or, comme il avoit esté en Lapithe inventeur de la confection de la bricque”; p. 468: “[sc. Cinara] trova en Cypre un mine d’or & d’airain.”

[ back ] 29. Makarios 7.100 (CPG 2:214–15, cf. 653): Τὰ Κινύρου τάλαντα· ἐπὶ τῶν τὸ ἴσον καὶ τὸ δίκαιον φυλαττόντων; cf. Blinkenberg 1924:32. For the equation of ingot and talent, see Muhly 1979:95; Knapp 2011:250, noting however that the actual weight of oxhide ingots excavated in the eastern Mediterranean “varies considerably, from 21–39 kg.”

[ back ] 30. Bass 1986; Pulak 1998; Karageorghis 2002b:30–34.

[ back ] 31. See p248.

[ back ] 32. Muhly et al. 1980.

[ back ] 33. Karageorghis 2002b:33 (“a royal trade mission on behalf of the king of Alashiya”); cf. Pulak 1998:220.

[ back ] 34. Shipping interests and agents are implicit in all Alashiyan commercial transactions (royal and otherwise) with the mainland (see e.g. EA 39.10–20, RS 18.113A, 18.119). But export of shipbuilding timbers is also specified: EA 35.27–29, 40.7–8, 16–20.

[ back ] 35. Strabo 14.6.5 (Eratosthenes fr. III B 91 Berger, 130 Roller): φησὶ δ’ Ἐρατοσθένης τὸ παλαιὸν ὑλομανούντων τῶν πεδίων ὥστε κατέχεσθαι δρυμοῖς καὶ μὴ γεωργεῖσθαι, μικρὰ μὲν ἐπωφελεῖν πρὸς τοῦτο τὰ μέταλλα δενδροτομούντων πρὸς τὴν καῦσιν τοῦ χαλκοῦ καὶ τοῦ ἀργύρου, προσγενέσθαι δὲ καὶ τὴν ναυπηγίαν τῶν στόλων ἤδη πλεομένης ἀδεῶς τῆς θαλάττης καὶ μετὰ δυνάμεων κτλ (the passage goes on to describe a custom of granting land to any who would clear it). See also Diodoros Siculus 2.16.6; contrast Theophrastos History of Plants 5.8.1, who states that the Cypriot kings tended the forests and allowed the trees to grow to great heights.

[ back ] 36. Eusebios Chronicle 1:225 Schoene = Diodoros Siculus 7, fr. 11; for other authorities and analysis, Miller 1971. Note also Eustathios on Dionysios the Periegete 508–509, where the island’s wealth is connected with its sea-power: “The Cypriots are the most blessed/richest of islanders; and they too are said to have ruled the seas one fair time” (ὀλβιώτατοι δὲ νησιωτῶν οἱ Κύπριοι· λέγονται δέ ποτε θαλαττοκρατῆσαι καιρόν τινα καὶ αὐτοί).

[ back ] 37. Myres 1906:120–122 thought of the period before Sargon claimed control of the island, i.e. 742–709; cf. CAH2 III.1:532; HC:103–104, with further references in n4; for Miller 1971:112–113, 128-129, 170–171 the position of Cyprus was keyed to that of Phoenicia, as being the logical antecedent to the island’s ‘conquest’ by Pygmalion, which she ties to the ‘Tyrian annals’ (see p407n45) and the Phoenician colony period.

[ back ] 38. Knapp 1993; Iacovou 2006b:33 (Cypro-Minoan signs on Mycenaean pottery suggest Cypriot involvement in the shipping of Mycenaean wares).

[ back ] 39. Strabo 14.6.5; Pliny Natural History 7.56.209.

[ back ] 40. Ktesias FGH 688 F 1b = Diodoros Siculus 2.16.6.

[ back ] 41. ARAB 2:145 §319.

[ back ] 42. HC:119–122, et passim.

[ back ] 43. CAAC I:IV[WHP.IV]21–22; Aspects:49–50 (no. 30).

[ back ] 44. Terracotta ships from Amathous: Murray et al. 1900:112–114, fig. 164 no. 10, 12, 16–20, 22, 24 and fig. 165 no. 6; CAAC IV:II[vi]1–11; Aspects:185–189 no. 176–181.

[ back ] 45. See CAAC I.189, canvassing with further references the different interpretations, and rejecting the symbolic afterlife voyage (again Aspects:49). For possible Egyptian influence, see also Kapera 1970:50–51. Mesopotamia: Strauss 2006:204 and n66.

[ back ] 46. For the episode itself, see p1n2 and p343–346. Cesnola 1877:4–5; Ohnefalsch-Richter 1893 1:217; Kapera 1966; Kapera 1969; Kapera 1970; Kapera 1971:132; Kapera 1972:194.

[ back ] 47. Theopompos FGH 115 F 103. See further p346–348.

[ back ] 48. Aspects:185.

[ back ] 49. Compare Odysseus’ voyage to the underworld in Odyssey 11. For the idea in ancient and modern Greek folk-tradition, see Alexiou 2002:190–193; more impressionistically, Vermeule 1979:179–209.

[ back ] 50. See Strauss 2006:201–204.

[ back ] 51. See p100–102.

[ back ] 52. See p116. The babilili-Ritual (CTH 718): Beckman 2002a; Strauss 2006:189–215 (201–204, model-boat [KUB 39.71++ rev. iv.9–21]; 192, music [KUB 39.71++ obv. ii.18–30, cf. HKm:167–168]); Beckman 2010, especially 110; Beckman 2014.

[ back ] 53. Pindar Nemean 8.17–18. For this passage, see above, p223–224.

[ back ] 54. I shall discuss this episode in Franklin forthcoming.

[ back ] 55. Greek Anthology 6.25, 26 (Julian of Egypt). Cf. Brown 1965:206.

[ back ] 56. For Anakreon, see Pliny Natural History 7.48.154 (cf. notes to Anakreon 361 PMG).

[ back ] 57. Note also Kinyras’ role as the father of the Laodike married to Elatos son of Arkas—five mythological generations before Agapenor led the Arcadians to Cyprus: see p365–366. Baurain 1975–1976:540n1 attractively connected Kinyras’ reported old age with his BA antiquity (cf. Ribichini 1982:496). Later he saw it as a contamination with Tithonos and/or Arganthonios due to his parallel appearance with them in proverbs (Baurain 1980b:308n153). These views are not necessarily incompatible. Ribichini 1982:497–498n71 would connect Kinyras’ longevity with the traditions of his mantic powers, citing Nestor, Teiresias, and Glaukos as parallels.

[ back ] 58. See p187–191.

[ back ] 59. Aphrodite’s connection with the sea, and Cyprus, is fundamental in Hesiod Theogony 188–200; she is invoked as Κύπρις for a safe voyage in Sappho 5.18 (but the old supplement in line 1 is now known to be incorrect). Aphrodite Eúploia is attested on a coin from Knidos already in the seventh century: Head et al. 1911:615–616. Further evidence for Aphrodite Eúploia, Einalía, Pontía in Farnell 1896–1909 2:687–691; Pirenne-Delforge 1994:433–437; Budin 2003:21–23; Kypris:223–224; cf. GR:153.

[ back ] 60. No. 113quater in Buchner and Boardman 1966. For the general relevance of these seals, see p517–527. But note the use of fish in purification rites like the babilili-Ritual (CTH 718): Beckman 2002a:39; Strauss 2006:199–201. For this text, see further p329.

[ back ] 61. Alkman 3.71 PMGF: νοτία Κινύρα χ[άρ]ις (cf. Gallavotti 1976:56n9); Pliny Natural History 13.2.4–18 passim.

[ back ] 62. Collected in SHC 2. Ugaritian and Egyptian sources: Helck 1971:415–416, 421; Muhly 1972; AP:41–42, 53; Baurain 1980b:303n135; Knapp 1991:37–40; SHC 2 no. 86–87; HUS:677 (Singer).

[ back ] 63. EA 34.24, 50–51, 35.25.

[ back ] 64. RS 18.42 = KTU/CAT 4.352 (SHC 2 no. 53); Roaf 1990:147.

[ back ] 65. South 1984:15–16, dating the site to LC IIC (ca. 1325–1225); Todd and South 1992:195; Hadjisavvas 1992:235; Hadjisavvas 1993; Keswani 1993:76–77; Muhly 1996:45; Knapp 1997:66–67.

[ back ] 66. See Hadjisavvas 1992.

[ back ] 67. The text is PY Un 249. But note that this worker is somewhat anomalous in that he (apparently) worked at the palace, not one of the regional sanctuaries or shrines that were engaged with industrial work: see Lupack 2007:56; Lupack 2008b:119; Nakassis 2013:342.

[ back ] 68. The relevant texts (KN Fh 347, 361, 371, 372) relate to the ethnics ku-pi-ri-jo (Kýprios) and a-ra-si-jo (Alásios). See the convenient resume in Gallavotti 1976:55–56 (comparing Kinyras); Shelmerdine 1985:49, 137–138. For the dual ethnics, see further below, p435–436.

[ back ] 69. Homer Odyssey 8.360–366 (cf. Iliad 14.172–174, of Hera in an Aphrodisiac context, with Janko’s note ad loc., citing a Pylian tablet [Fr 1225] which records an allotment of oil for Potnia); Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite 59–62; Kypria fr. 4.1–6 EGF/PEG; Nonnos Dionysiaka 33.4–8.

[ back ] 70. Servius’ regius puer echoes the description of Ascanius himself at Aeneid 1.677–678.

[ back ] 71. Servius Auctus on Vergil Aeneid 1.693: Amaracus: hic puer regius unguentarius fuit, qui casu lapsus dum ferret unguenta, maiorem ex [unguentorum] confusione odorem creavit: unde optima unguenta amaracina dicuntur. hic postea in herbam sampsucum versus est, quam nunc etiam amaracum dicunt.

[ back ] 72. Vergil Aeneid 1.692–694: dea tollit in altos 
/ Idaliae lucos, ubi mollis amaracus illum 
/ floribus et dulci adspirans complectitur umbra.

[ back ] 73. Mythographi Vaticani 1.34, 2.182; Isidore Origines 4.12.8, 17.9.14.

[ back ] 74. The earliest edition I have been able to consult is Pomponius Laetus 1544:286.

[ back ] 75. Pliny Natural History 21.93.163: sampsuchum sive amaracum in Cypro laudatissimum et odoratissimum; cf. Dioskourides On Medical Material 3.39.1 σάμψουχον· κράτιστον τὸ Κυζικηνὸν καὶ Κύπριον; etc. For the varieties that grow on Cyprus, see Hadjikyriakou 2007. Ancient references to such perfume: LSJ s.v. ἀμάρακον, ἀμαράκινος; OLD s.v. amaracus.

[ back ] 76. Van Meurs 1675 2:107–108 approved it with some reserve, noting that he could find no ancient authority. Engel 1841 2:125–126 treated is as established.

[ back ] 77. Cf. Pliny Natural History 13.19 (unguenta optime servantur in alabastris), and 36.60.

[ back ] 78. Lusignan has reinterpreted sampsucum as sambucum (the closest variant in Thilo’s ap. crit. is samsucum [BH]).

[ back ] 79. Chorograffia p. 21 (§76), cf. 19a (§66). The name is given here as ‘Amaruco’, ‘Amarucq’ in the parallel passage of Description (p. 38a), where he is also “Chirurgien.” For the form ‘Cinaras,’ see further p3n10, 199, 554–555, 560.

[ back ] 80. See p1n2, 343–346.

[ back ] 81. According to Homer Odyssey 19.407–409, Odysseus’ maternal grandfather, “having been angry with many people (πολλοῖσιν … ὀδυσσάμενος), chose his name accordingly. Telemakhos, the ‘far-fighting’, reflects Odysseus’ prowess with the bow, and/or his reluctant departure for Troy immediately after his son’s birth. Similarly Neoptolemos was so called because his father Achilles was still ‘young’ when he went to ‘war’ (Pausanias 10.26.4). Megapenthes, son of Menelaos by a slave woman, refers to his father’s ‘great suffering’: Homer Odyssey 4.10–12, 15.103; [Apollodoros] Library 3.11.1.

[ back ] 82. Herodotos 4.154.1–155.1. Following the analysis of Chaniotis 2013, Battos was the son of the virtuous Phronime (‘Prudence’), whose wicked stepmother induced the girl’s father—Eteoarkhos, the ‘True King’ of Oaxos (on Crete)—to do away with his daughter. A ‘righteous’ Theran merchant, Themison, was commissioned to do the deed, but he outwitted his oath and delivered her to the ‘renowned’ Theran notable, Polymnestos, by whom Phronime bore Battos, the ‘stammerer’.

[ back ] 83. Nagy 1979:102–115.

[ back ] 84. Oxyporos: [Apollodoros] Library 3.14.3; Σ Dionysios the Periegete 509. For this figure, see further p497–498, 504, 512–513, 515 .

[ back ] 85. Father Eurymedon: Σ Pindar Pythian 2.28. The name is born by many disparate figures of Greek mythology. But note the two Homeric charioteers (Iliad 4.228, 8.114, 11.620; cf. Hainsworth ad loc.), recalling the common royal pose as chariot-lord in the LBA. Poseidon is also said to be ‘wide-ruling’—an equally appropriate association for Kinyras the mariner (Pindar Olympian 8.31). But the name may rather indicate connections with southern Anatolia: see p489.

[ back ] 86. Orsedike and Laogore: [Apollodoros] Library 3.14.3. Laodike: see p359–368.

[ back ] 87. Pindar Pythian 2.14–17 with Σ; cf. Woodbury 1978:286. See above, p221.

[ back ] 88. Pindar Nemean 8.17: σὺν θεῷ γάρ τοι φυτευθεὶς ὄλβος ἀνθρώποισι παρμονώτερος.

[ back ] 89. For sources, see p284n35.

[ back ] 90. Ovid Metamorphoses 10.354–355: pius ille memorque est
 / moris.

[ back ] 91. This may be deduced from the pseudo-Vergilian Ciris, where one finds a more extensive portrait of a good king, loved by the gods for his plentiful sacrifices and adornment of temples ([Vergil] Ciris 524–526). See Lyne 1978:39–45 for this poet’s debt to the Zmyrna, and the principle that themes shared by the Ciris and Ovid’s account of Myrrha will go back to Cinna; see also p286n42.

[ back ] 92. See p497 and Chapter 20.

[ back ] 93. Diktys of Crete Journal of the Trojan War 6.8: servus quidam Cinyras nomine perquam fidus (127.4–5 Eisenhut). The text is corrupt—the MSS and Σ offer Cymirias, Tymiras, and Cyranas (see Eisenhut’s apparatus)—but the reading Cinyras does seem most plausible.

[ back ] 94. Suda s.v. Κινύρας· ὄνομα κύριον. This probably explains Etymologicum Gudianum s.v. κινύρα· κιθάρα … καὶ κύριον ὄνομα, although one should the maenad KΙΝΥΡΑ who appears on an Attic red-figure vase amidst typically adorned pairs of dancing maenads and silens; her partner is ΚΙΣΣΟΣ (Warsaw Nat. Mus. 142458, ca. 440). There seems no particular reason to interpret her name as the instrument (Κινύρα); hence Beazley read Κινυρά, although the context suggests not ‘mournful’ but ‘crooning’ (Beazley 1928:61–64, on the names and vase generally; pl. 29.2 and 30 for vase; LIMC s.v. Kinyra).

[ back ] 95. The name is found in a commemorative inscription in a cave on Acrocorinth (IG IV 382: ἐμνήσ|θη Κινύρας | τῆς θρεψά[σης] | Ἐπιφανείας, undated); indirectly as a patronymic adjective (Κινυραίου, genitive) in a list of names in a proxeny decree from Thessaly (Kierion), dated ca. 187–168 (I.Thess.I no. 15, line 5); and of a Roman freedman working as a public scribe (CIL 6 1826, no date). See also below p537n2.

[ back ] 96. Herzog 1899 no. 133, 2–3: Ζεύξει | τῷ καὶ Κινύρᾳ.

[ back ] 97. See generally Robert 1940:297–307; Cameron 2004:230–231.

[ back ] 98. Cf. Robert 1940:44, 191, 299.

[ back ] 99. For the beauty of Kinyras, Greek Anthology 16.49 (Apollonides)?; Lucian Professor of Public Speaking 11.9; Hyginus Fabulae 270; cf. Lucian A True Story 2.25 (μέγας ὢν καὶ καλός), where this underworld Kinyras, by abducting Helen, clearly draws on his epic counterpart. Kinyras’ beauty is shared with his son Adonis: Heubner 1963–1982 2:35. The superhuman beauty of Theias, Kinyras’ doublet beginning with Panyassis (see p466–468), was mentioned by Kleitarkhos FGH 137 F 9 (Stobaios Anthology 40.20.73); Σ John Tzetzes Exegesis of Homer’s Iliad 435.5–15 Papathomopoulos. The beauty of Cyprus’s ancient ‘god-men’, including ‘Cinaras’, is stressed by Étienne de Lusignan: Chorograffia p. 28a (§157).

[ back ] 100. Compare the epitaph-song erected by an ‘Odysseus’ for his gladiator friend, whose beauty he compares to Hyakinthos or “Kinyras’ beautiful son Adonis” (Κινύρου καλὸ[ν] | υἱὸν Ἄδωνιν): SEG 17:599 = Peek 1955:1 no. 815, 4–5; Antalya, Pamphylia, second-third century CE.

[ back ] 101. As does Baurain 1980a:9–10.