Fables

The author continues to discuss the arrangement of the fables, specifically noting that when he placed the story of Ceyx and Alcyone, he followed the same intent: to praise the piety of both spouses. He recalls that Apollodorus original: "Apollodori I 9, 3" reports how the refuge of Aegina was betrayed by Sisyphus, son of Aeolus, to Asopus, who was searching for his father. However, since the mythographer kept silent about this matter and made no mention of Sisyphus, it is evident that the core of the story does not rest so much on the flight of Aegina as it does on the men born from ants by the grace of Aeacus.

We have stated that in Chapter LXVI, the argument abandoned by the author after Chapter XI is resumed. That the order of the fables in the Freising Codex codex Frisingensis was the same as that preserved in other manuscripts is proven by a certain rewritten leaf which G. B. Niebuhr made public at the end of his edition of M. Tullius Cicero's orations pro M. Fonteio and pro C. Rabirio (Rome 1820, pp. 105–107; cf. p. 16), and which he entitled "A fragment concerning Theban affairs." Each page consists of twelve lines, of which every tenth line has become obscured due to wear in the fold; furthermore, they are not complete but are diminished by a third, so that now page 1, line 1 begins with the words asphinge from the sphinx, and line 17 begins with the syllables onis; page 2, line 1 ends with the word polynici to Polynices, and line 17 ends with the word thebanus (commonly "Thebanis"). It is probable that in the original leaf, page 1, line 1 began with the word cupidine desire, and page 1, line 17 began with the words expulsus esset he had been expelled; page 2, line 1 ended in coniu— marriage, and line 2, line 17 ended in diffideret he would distrust.

The anterior page of the fragment contains the conclusion of Chapter LXVII along with the beginning of LXIX; the posterior contains Chapters LXX and LXXI^A, connected with the version of Chapter LXXI^B which the same Hyginus expressed in Chapter LXVIII. Therefore, either LXVIII must be substituted in place of the inferior LXXI^B, or we must command that LXXI^B and LXXII be moved to follow LXVIII. The latter method, if I am not mistaken, is better, even though the order of narrated events does not everywhere agree with chronological considerations. For the fables of the descendants of Cadmus Cadmidarum Cadmeans, continued until the death of Antigone, are certainly not a disgrace; seven sections were added by way of a corollary: Adrastus, the seven leaders who set out against Thebes, the Epigoni, Amphiaraus, Hypsipyle, and Tiresias, as these are themes much occupied by the work of the poets.

The skill of our mythographer in organizing matters is best understood from the continuity of Chapters LXXVII through CXXIV and their more articulated partitioning. At one time, I myself wondered why Leda, not Tantalus, was the beginning of this section, but I soon understood that Chapters CLXXI (Althaea) and LXXXIII (Amphiaraus) demand this very beginning, since with it the fables of the Aeolids reach their end.