Athenaeus, The Learned Banqueters (Deipnosophistae) 603d · 603d
Lovers in myth
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Carystius, quoted by Myrtilus — ἢ Ἀλέξανδρον.’
Myrtilus — Ῥαδαμάνθυος δὲ τοῦ δικαίου Ἴβυκος ἐραστήν φησι γενέσθαι Τάλων. Διότιμος δ’ ἐν τῇ Ἡρακλείᾳ Εὐρυσθέα φησὶν Ἡρακλέους γενέσθαι παιδικά, διόπερ καὶ τοὺς ἄθλους ὑπομεῖναι. Ἀγαμέμνονά τε Ἀργύννου ἐρασθῆναι λόγος, ἰδόντα ἐπὶ τῷ Κηφισῷ νηχόμενον· ἐν ᾧ καὶ τελευτήσαντα αὐτὸν ( συνεχῶς γὰρ ἐν τῷ ποταμῷ τούτῳ ἀπελούετο) θάψας εἵσατο καὶ ἱερὸν αὐτόθι Ἀφροδίτης Ἀργυννίδος. Λικύμνιος δ’ ὁ Χῖος ἐν Διθυράμβοις Ἀργύννου φησὶν ἐρώμενον Ὑμέναιον γενέσθαι. Ἀντιγόνου δὲ τοῦ
…or Alexander.” Ibycus says that Talos was the lover of Rhadamanthys the just. Diotimus, in his Heracleia, says that Eurystheus was the beloved of Heracles, which is why Heracles endured the labours. And the story is that Agamemnon fell in love with Argynnus when he saw him swimming in the Cephisus; when Argynnus died in it (for he bathed in this river constantly), Agamemnon buried him and founded a shrine there to Aphrodite Argynnis. Licymnius of Chios, in his Dithyrambs, says that Hymenaeus was the beloved of Argynnus. And King Antigonus'…
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The setting
Carystius' anecdote ends with Darius' prayer. Then Myrtilus lists lovers from myth, each from a different poet. Licymnius of Chios wrote dithyrambs around 400 BC; Diotimus wrote a poem on Heracles.
A note on this passage
These are lovers made by poets. Rhadamanthys was a king of Crete who became a judge of the dead; Talos in other stories is the bronze giant who guarded the island. Diotimus turns the labours of Heracles into a love story. In the Iliad Eurystheus gets power over Heracles by a trick of Hera's at their births, and the labours are his orders (19.95–133); here Heracles takes them on for love.<br><br>Argynnus' death explains a local cult, as such stories often do: a shrine of Aphrodite with his name. Licymnius' twist is that Hymenaeus, the god sung at weddings, was a boy someone loved.
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