Blog Post #2: Corinna - Fragment 2

Blog post #2: Corinna – Fragment #2

“… and of your daughters, three are now

with Zeus the father, king of all;

three are wedded to the ruler of the sea,

Poseidon; two of them have

Phoibos as master of their beds;

and one belongs to Maia’s noble

son, Hermes. For thus did Eros

and Kypris persuade them, that they should

enter your house in secret

and take your nine daughters,

who one day give birth

to a race of heroes, demigods,

and shall be scattered about the earth

and ageless-such, from the oracular

tripod, is what I learned.

This privilege came to me

among fifty mighty brothers,

to be the preeminent spokesman

of the holy shrine, with truthfulness

allotted to me at birth-to me, Akraiphen.

For first the son of Leto

gave to Euonymos the gift

of uttering oracles from his tripods;

expelling him from the land, Hyrieus

was second to acquire the honor,

Poseidon’s son; next was

Orion, our begetter,

after he had regained possession of his own land;

and he now dwells in heavan,

while I told this honor

Therefore … … and I utter

Oracles of the strictest accuracy.

Come then, yield to the immortals

And free your heart from grief,

being father-in-law to gods”

So spoke the seer, much-revered;

and Asopos, joyfully

taking hold of his right hand

and shedding tears from his eyes,

answered him in this way…

The fragment begins with the mention of three gods: Zeus, Poseidon, and Phoibos. The first two names describe two of Greek mythology’s main gods. Zeus is established as the ruler of all, with his brother, Poseidon, the ruler of the mighty sea. The third name Phoibos, is a lesser known name for Apollo, the sun god. A simple search of any dictionary (Merriam-Webster in this case), sheds light on the third god named. An interesting remark is how each of these gods are describes as husbands or lovers. Some daughters are “with Zeus”, another few are “wedded” to Poseidon, and the rest have “Phoibos (Apollo) as master of their beds”. There relationships each god has to their wives are very unique. Poseidon relationships appear more formal as matrimony is established. Zeus’ relationships with the daughters are established, but somewhat less formally. Finally, Apollo’s relationships with the daughters describes the god as having sexual dominance over these women. The usage of “master” and “bed” describe the god as their lustful superior. Each god treats their relationships with their daughters differently, and the author is perhaps characterizing each god with the unique lines. The following stanza describes Maia and her son Hermes. Hermes is commonly known as the messenger of the gods, and a search on Encyclopedia Mythica explains how Maia is a sea nymph who seduced Zeus with the help of Eros and Kypris.  Kypris is the greek name for Aphrodite, goddess of passion and love. The poem explains how Eros and Kypris (Aphrodite), two gods of love, passion, and seduction, aided the copulation of Zeus and Maia. A search of the Google book Greek Nymphs: Myth, Cult, Lore describes Akraiphen as a local hero or wise man known to have been affiliated with Corinna himself. The fifth stanza describes the “son of Leto”, the earlier mentioned Apollo. The next mentioning within the text is of Poseidon’s son, Orion. Known as the hunter, Orion can be seen nightly in several parts of the world. Lastly mentioned is Asopus. A google images search describes Asopus as a series of rivers through Greece. Here, it is established as a person or god, perhaps either as a river god or hero of the river area.