A Poem of the Ainianes Huxley, George Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies; Summer 1967; 8, 2; ProQuest pg. 88

A Poem of the Ainianes 
George Huxley 

THE ARISTOTELIAN WORK On Marvellous Things Heard relates 
that an ancient pillar, found near Hypate in Ainis, was 
inscribed with early letters, which the Ainianes could not 

read. l So they sent a deputation with it to Athens. On the way the 
messengers were escorted into the Ismenion in Thebes, because they 
had been told that the text was most likely to be read there, as certain 
offerings with similar ancient letters were preserved in that place.2 

Consequently the following verses were transcribed (I give the text 
according to Bekker and note variants): 

'HpaKAl-YJS T€JLlvwa€ Kv8-1jpq. (/}€pa€1>aaaar/. 
1'"' " ',\ '\ I ''''' 'E '8 " .L T}pvov€tas ay€ as €I\awv T}O pv €LaV aywv. 

\ "" '''' I '8 n A.. I 8 I Tas 0 €oaJLaaa€ 7T0 CfJ aaL'I'a€aaa €a. 
~'" '" I I ~ "" 'E IQ '" I ryO€ O€ JLOL T€KVCfJ TCfJ 0 PVUOV T€ oaJLap 

S A.. \ 'E IQ "" ''''' "'" I", VVJL'I'0Y€VT}S pVUT}· OT} TOO €OWKa 7T€OOV 
JLvaJLoaVVOv 1>£,\{as. 1>T}YCjJ V7TO aKL€pij,. 

1. ~paKMovs Ba (Palatinus Vatieanus 162), Ra (Vatieanus 1302), 
et re. Sa (Laurentianus 60 19): pro enim ~paKMos. T€JL€V£S T€ vel 
T€JLlVLaT€ Ba, Ra, et pro Sa, T€JLlv€£ T€ re. Sa. 1>€pa€1>aaa7J Ba, Na 
(Marcianus 215), Ra. 2. YTJpv8v€tas Na, TT}oopvovfjas Ba, Ra. 
aylAav Ra, aylAwv Ba. Epv80v Sa. 3. Tas 8aJLaaa€ Sa, an forte 
Tas E 8aJLaaa€? 7TaaaL1>a€aaa Ba, Ra. 4. Epv80VTL Ba, Na, Ra. 
8aJLap vVJL1>T}Y€~S Sa, SaJLapTL VVJL1>0Y€vrys N a, SaJLapvvTLJL1>0Y€~S 
Ta (Laurentianus 86 3). 5. Epv8£8~ TOO' Na. 6. 1>LAO'Tas Ba, Na, 
Ra, Sa. 1>v'Ta Ba, Na, Sa,1>T}Ta Ra. aKL€pa. Sa. 
The following variants in the printed Loeb text are note­
worthy: 2. r",pv6v€ws. 3.0',1-", Loeb. 

The scheme of the poem was two hexameters followed by four 
pentameters. Of the corruptions those in the second line are deepest, 

1 Arist. n€p1 8avp.aalwv &.Kovap.&:rwv ch. 133, 843bI5-844a5 (ed. Bekker, VI [Oxford 1837] 
p.135). Aristotle, Minor Works ed. W. S. Hett (LCL, London/Cambridge [Mass.] 1936) 
pp.304-307. 

2 See Hdt. 5.59-61.1. 

88 



GEORGE HUXLEY 89 

but even here the sickness is not incurable: there are too many words 
for a pentameter, but a hexameter is simply obtained by reading 

Tl' "", ' '1:"" 'E '() .L 'YJPVOV€w~ ay€l\av El\aWV LO aywv pv Etav. 

The alternation of 'Epv{}1j (v.5) with • EpV{}€LUV is quite acceptable: com­
pare Penelope with Penelopeia. Joined to the epithet Kve~pq" qJ€pa€rpaaO"[} 

can have nothing to do with Persephone. As in v.3, we must read 
llaatrpaEaaq, at the end of v.l; the divinity meant is Aphrodite­
Pasiphaessa,3 Aphrodite in the guise ofPasiphae, whom some thought 
to be a daughter of Helios.4 In vA the name of the child of Herakles 
and Erythe is needed and the correction to 'Epv(}ovTa gives good sense, 
though a hero of this name is, so far as I know, otherwise unknown. 
TEKV<t> Tep D' is opaque; read perhaps here TEKVOV DWK'. In view of the 
pm in vA we should read fL' for D' in v.3, and hence a first person 
singular in v.l gives even SenSe-TEf-LEVWaa. 

Thus corrected, the poem may be set out and translated: 

'HpaKM'YJ~ TEfLEVtaaa Kvf)~pq, llaatrpaEaaq, 
Tl' "", , ,<;:'" 'E '() .L 'YJPVOVEW~ ayEl\av El\aWV LO aywv pv Etav. 

Ta~ fLE ocfp.aaaE 7T()(}<t> llaatcPaeaaa (}Ea. 
-I:' <;:, , <;: - "E 'f) '" ' T1]OE OE fLot TEKVOV OWK pv OVTa oafLap 

,/.. \ 'E '() <;: \ ,<;:, ,,<;: ,<;: 
VVfL'f'oyEVTJ~ pv 1]' 01] TOO EOWKa 7TEOOV 

fLvafLoavvov cPt'\{a~, cP1]y(jJ U7TO aKtEpfj,. 

"I, Herakles, dedicated a precinct to K ytheran Pasiphaessa when I was 
driving the cattle of Geryon and bringing Erytheia with me. The 
goddess Pasiphaessa subdued me with a yearning for her. Here did 
my newly wed spouse Erythe give to me a child Erython; then I gave 
this plain as a memorial to our love under a shady oak tree." 

The TEfLEVO~ in the plain is dedicated to Pasiphaessa, but Erythe, not 
she, is perhaps the recipient of the gift in the last sentence; this would 
be certain if we were to read TfjOE ol8wKa 7Tl8ov in v.5. If however the 
precinct is to be supposed to include the whole plain, cPt'\{a may mean 
'Pasiphae's affection for me'. There is no sign that the Ainianes are the 
intended recipients. The plain was the birthplace of the son ofHerakles 
and Erythe, but we are not told that it was also where their nuptials 

3 For this joint divinity see Jo.Lyd. De Mens. 4 p.89, quoted by L. R. Farnell, The Cults of 
the Greek States II (Oxford 1896) 748; U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Der Glaube der 
Hellenen3 I (Basel 1959) 113 ; H. K. Usener, Gotternamen (Bonn 1896) 58. 

, For the kinship: [Apollod.] Bibl. 3.1.2. 



90 A POEM OF THE AINIANES 

were consummated. The mention of the shady oak points to Dodona,5 
which, we infer, Herakles visited during his journey to fetch the cattle 
of Geryon to Mycenae. 

It is fitting that Aphrodite-Pasiphaessa blessed the love of Herakles 

at Dodona, because Aphrodite was the daughter of Dione,6 who was 
the special consort of Zeus at Dodona.7 Dione's kinship with Aphrodite 
is recalled by Theokritos (15.106) in the Adoniazousai by the invocation 
KV7Tpt Lhwvala or Lltavala.8 

Pasiphae or Pasiphaessa, who in her mortal guise was a wife of 
Minos,9 may well be a Greek memory of a Minoan goddess. Her 
appearance at Dodona is remarkable because of the important role of 
doves in the foundation legend of the Epirote sanctuary.l0 We may 
well have in this Ainianian poem an allusion to the Minoan dove 
goddess who in historical times was manifest as Aphrodite. 

The epithet <K ytheran' is not less interesting than the link between 
Aphrodite and Pasiphae. The formKv(}~pl:f is rare, the regular Homeric 
epithet being Kv(}EpEta. It has been doubted that KvENpEta is to be 
connected with Aphrodite's island of Kythera,u but Kv(}~pl:f is surely 
a variant of KV(}EpELa, and the two epithets can reasonably be associated 
with the name of the island, where, moreover, there was a Minoan 
colony. The variation between long and short e may have been due as 
much to the peculiarities of the non-Greek language to which the 
name 'Kythera' belonged as to metrical adaption by epic poets. 

When Herakles stopped in Ainis with Erythe and the cattle of Geryon, 
he was not, to be sure, on the way back from the region of Tartessos 
and the island in the far western Ocean, of which Stesichoros sang.12 

Ainis lies beside the Spercheios river, not far from Mount Oeta whence 
Herakles ascended to the immortals from his pyre; the territory is 
approached from the west by way of the upper Spercheios (through 

5 This was pointed out by N. G. L. Hammond, "Prehistoric Epirus and the Dorian 
Invasion," ABSA 32 (1931/32) 158. 

B Iliad 5.370. 
7 Strabo 7.7.12, C 329. 
8 H. L. Ahrens, "Ueber den Namen des Poseidon," Philologus 23 (1866) 208-209. See also 

A. B. Cook, Zeus II (Cambridge 1925) 350 and n.6. Cf Servo Aen. 3.446: (Dodona) ubi Iovi et 
Veneri templum a veteribus fuerat consecratum. 

9 [Apollod.] Bibl. 3.1.2. 
10 Hdt. 2.55. 
11 D. L. Page, Sappho and Alcaeus (Oxford 1955) 127 n.1. Cf West, Hesiod, Theogony 

(Oxford, 1966) on v.198. 
12 Stes. fr.184 Page. 



GEORGE HUXLEY 91 

the modern Karpenisi), the starting point of this ancient west-to-east 
route being Amphilochian Argos.13 It cannot be a coincidence that 
Hekataios supposed Herakles to have driven the cattle of Geryon, not 
from the land of the Iberians and the island of Erytheia, but from the 
mainland of Ambrakia and Amphilochia; here, the historian claimed, 
Geryon had been king.14 Hekataios' statement has been regarded as a 
rationalising of the earlier legend, but as the Ainianian text shows, it 
may rather have been a return to the earliest and least extravagant 
form of the tale. After his encounter with Erythe at Dodona, we may 
suppose, Herakles took her to Amphilochia, whence they travelled 
with the oxen to Ainis. The author of theilEpt {}avf.Laalwv aKovaf.LaTwV 

(133.4) correctly denies, therefore, that the Herakles of the Ainianian 
poem brought the cattle from Iberia, but we need not agree with his 
inference that their home was near Hypate in Ainis at a place called 
Erythos. Nor need we agree with Hammond when he writes that the 
Thebans interpreted the inscription "to mean that Herakles had given 
them (the Ainianes) their land in memory of their friendship 'under 
the shady oak'" of Dodona:15 for neither the Peripatetic author nor 
the text of the inscription proves that rPLAla between the Ainianes and 
Herakles at Dodona is meant. The allusion is to the love between 
Herakles and Erythe at Dodona or to Pasiphaessa's kindness to the 
hero there. The Ainianes, it is true, wandered from upper Molossia 
deviously to the Spercheios valley16 and once dwelt near a Dodona, 
perhaps the Molossian;17 but our inscription does not record those 
ancient ties. Its concern is with the journey of Herakles. 

No archaic inscriptions have been found in" Ainis,18 and our text can­
not be confidently claimed as one; but it does have the merit of 
showing that Herakles, as the Thebans and Ainianes believed, had ties 
with the Spercheios valley as well as with Trachis and Oeta nearby. It 
helps, too, to illumine the earliest cults of Aphrodite and the earliest 
form of the legend of Geryon's oxen. 

The IIEpt {)avf.Laolwv aKov0f.LcXTWV does not state when the Thebans 
deciphered the text from Ainis, but Herodotos shows (5.59) that 

18 Hammond, op.cit. (supra n.5) 143 and 158 nA. 
14 FGr Hist 1 F 26. 
16 supra n.5. 
16 Pluto Quaest.Gr. 13. 
17 Iliad 2.748-50. 
18 L. H. Jeffery, The Local Scripts of Archaic Greece (Oxford 1961) 96. 



92 A POEM OF THE AINIANES 

attempts to read early incriptions at Thebes had begun in the fifth 
century B.C. The Theban reading of the inscription may well date 
from this period of awakening interest in epigraphy. 

THE QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY OF BELFAST 

December, 1966