Τευμησία
Teumesian, Teumessian
Translated by David Whitehead24 Mar 2010Vetting: high5 revisions
Translation
Those who have written on Theban history have given full accounts of the Teumes[s]ian fox; Aristodemus, for instance.1 For [sc. he says that] this beast was sent by the gods to to punish Cadmus' people, which was why they used to exclude those descended from Cadmus from the kingship. But they say that Cephalus the son of Deion, an Athenian who owned a dog that no beast could escape ([Cephalus was the man] who had accidentally killed his own wife Proknis,2 but the Cadmeans had absolved him by purification), pursued the fox with his dog; and when they had caught up with it near Teumes[s]os,3 both the dog and the fox became stones. These [writers] took the myth from the epic cycle.
Greek original · Adler’s text
Τευμησία· περὶ τῆς Τευμησίας ἀλώπεκος οἱ τὰ Θηβαϊκὰ γεγραφότες ἱκανῶς ἱστορήκασι, καθάπερ Ἀριστόδημος· ἐπιπεμφθῆναι μὲν γὰρ ὑπὸ θεῶν τὸ θηρίον τοῦτο τοῖς Καδμείοις, διότι τῆς βασιλείας ἐξ- έκλειον τοὺς ἀπὸ Κάδμου γεγονότας. Κέφαλον δέ φασι, τὸν Δηϊόνος, Ἀθηναῖον ὄντα καὶ κύνα κεκτημένον, ὃν οὐδὲν διέφευγε τῶν θηρίων [ὃς ἀπέκτεινεν ἄκων τὴν ἑαυτοῦ γυναῖκα Πρόκνιν, καθηράντων αὐτὸν τῶν Καδμείων], διώκειν τὴν ἀλώπεκα μετὰ τοῦ κυνός· καταλαμβανομένους δὲ περὶ τὸν Τευμησὸν λίθους γενέσθαι τόν τε κύνα καὶ τὴν ἀλώπεκα. εἰλήφασι δ' οὗτοι τὸν μῦθον ἐκ τοῦ Ἐπικοῦ κύκλου.
Betacode
*teumhsi/a: peri\ th=s *teumhsi/as a)lw/pekos oi( ta\ *qhbai+ka\ gegrafo/tes i(kanw=s i(storh/kasi, kaqa/per *)aristo/dhmos: e)pipemfqh=nai me\n ga\r u(po\ qew=n to\ qhri/on tou=to toi=s *kadmei/ois, dio/ti th=s basilei/as e)c- e/kleion tou\s a)po\ *ka/dmou gegono/tas. *ke/falon de/ fasi, to\n *dhi+o/nos, *)aqhnai=on o)/nta kai\ ku/na kekthme/non, o(\n ou)de\n die/feuge tw=n qhri/wn [o(\s a)pe/kteinen a)/kwn th\n e(autou= gunai=ka *pro/knin, kaqhra/ntwn au)to\n tw=n *kadmei/wn], diw/kein th\n a)lw/peka meta\ tou= kuno/s: katalambanome/nous de\ peri\ to\n *teumhso\n li/qous gene/sqai to/n te ku/na kai\ th\n a)lw/peka. ei)lh/fasi d' ou(=toi to\n mu=qon e)k tou= *)epikou= ku/klou.
Notes (3)
- Same entry in Photius (tau217 Theodoridis), and the paroemiographer Apostolius (16.42). Other versions of this myth, one of Ovid's Metamorphoses, include Apollodorus 2.4.6.
- 1Aristodemus FGrH 383 F2. ↩
- 2Thus the name as transmitted, but it is an error for Prokris (pi 2488). ↩
- 3A mountain in NE Boiotia; Stephanus of Byzantium s.v.; Barrington Atlas map 55 grid E4. ↩
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Revision history5 revisions · last 12 Mar 2014
- tweaked tr; expanded n.2 — David Whitehead
- Revised — David Whitehead
- augmented notes and keywords — David Whitehead
- another keyword — David Whitehead
- set status — Catharine Roth
- Translated — David Whitehead