AT LINDUS*)

BY

J. H. CROON

There are, in , a number of myths and legends which can be demonstrated to have been connected with thermal springs. And among the gods and heroes about whom these stories were told, Heracles occupies the foremost place 1). Accordingly, we often find a cult of this hero on the site of hot springs. Now the purpose of this article is to inquire into the background behind one of these stories told about Heracles, which occurs in a parallel form in two regions. In both cases, thermal waters form a conspicuous feature of the geographical environment. I mean the story of Heracles and Theiodamas. It occurs in the Dryopian country, near Mount Oeta. It would be almost a platitude to stress either the importance of the Heracles-cult in this neighbourhood or the connection of the hero with the hot springs that form such a dominant feature in the landscape around there 2). The same tale recurs in a similar, though not identical, form near the Rhodian town of Lindus, and as it is in this Lindian version clearly a cult-legend, our attention must be mainly devoted thereto. The kernel of the story in both forms is this: Heracles has on his journeys an encounter with a ploughing peasant; he wants something to eat, and asks the peasant for some food (or for one of his oxen). The man refuses this, whereupon Heracles takes an ox against his will, and slaughters it with great pleasure. Some form of conflict with the frustrated peasant follows. In the Oetean form the peasant is called Theiodamas, and is a king of the Dryopians, or in other traditions just a notable Dryopian. *) This article contains a slightly altered part of a dissertation on cults, myths and legends connected with hot springs in the Greek world, submitted at the University of Cambridge. 1) See on this the author's The Herdsman ofthe Dead, Utrecht 1952, Chapter 1. 2) The cults of Heracles at Thermopylae and at Aedepsus are well-known; near the neighbouring baths of Hypata we find other traces of his activity; cf. the work quoted in note I, p. 62 sqq. 284

Heracles comes from Aetolia with , and asks Theiodamas for some food on behalf of his little son ; after the hero has slaughtered the ox, the Dryopian wages war against him with the help of his countrymen. Heracles gets a rough time, even Deianira has to be armed, and is wounded in the contest; but at last the hero gains the victory and the Dryopians are compelled to migrate to the In the Lindian form, Heracles disembarks at Thermydra(e), the port of Lindus on Rhodes, where he finds a peasant (whose name is not given); he demands an ox, and on refusal seizes one (or even both) and slaughters it (or them). The peasant, in helpless rage, pours out execrations on the feasting hero (sometimes it is told that he does this standing on a neighbouring slope, and that he also throws stones at him); Heracles, very much amused at this, is not at all disturbed, but says even that he never had a finer feast in his whole life. And from that time on the Lindians sacrifice a bull (or a yoke of oxen) to Heracles with curses, the unfortunate peasant being the first priest 2). Even before the discovery in Egypt of Pap. Berol. 11629 B, it was known that the various accounts of the two stories go back, ultimately, to the Aetia of Callimachus 3), but the publication of this papyrus-fragment made it possible to see more clearly the version of Callimachus himself 4). But there remained a confusion between the Lindian and the Dryopian version. The main point was that the Lindian peasant in Callimachus' version bore the name Theiodamas, whereas in most other accounts, apart from Philostratus and Am-

1) The main source is Schol. Apoll. Rhod. 1, 1212. 2) Main source: Lact. Div. Inst. 1, 21 (= C. S. E. L. XIX, 84 sq.). This and other testimonia collected by R. Pfeiffer, Kallimachosstudien, 86 sqq., esp. 90 sq. They are: Apollod. II, 118; Conon 11, ap. Photius ed. Bekker 132 b 21 sqq. (= Ja- coby, Fr. Gr. Hist. 1, 194); Philostr. Imag. II, 24; Amm. Marc. XXII, 12, 4; Schol. P. in Ovid. Ibis 499; Zenobius IV, 95 (in Gaisford's Paroem. Graeci, p. 337) = Diogen. VI, 15 cf. VII, 96; Prov. e cod. Bodl. 607; Hesych. s.v. AivBvovT1¡V 6uaiav; Apostol. XV, 29; Gregor. or. IV, 103 in Migne, Patr. Gr. XXXV, 640; Orig., c. Cels. VII, 54; Ps-Diogen., epist. 36, 4, in Hercher's Epist. Gr. 250; Tz., Chil. II, 385 (following Apollodorus). 3) See Knaack's papers quoted by Pfeiffer, l.c., 78, especially G.G.A. 1896, 880 sqq. 4) Lit. Wilamowitz, Sitz. Ber. Pr. Akad. 1914, I, 236 sqq. (editio princeps); Callim. fragm. nuper reperta ed. Pfeiffer, Lietzmann's KI. Texte 1921 (ed. maior 1923), fr. 7; Pfeiffer, Kallimachosstudien, 78 sqq.