Early Modern Mythological Texts: Troia Britanica XIV, Notes
Thomas Heywood. Troia Britanica (1609)
Notes to CANTO XIV
Ed. Patricia DORVAL
Penthesilea: F, Penthisilea, queen of the Amazons.
Pyrrhus: Neoptolemus, also called Pyrrhus, son of Achilles and Deidamia. See Troia XII, 7-18. Back to text
spleen: courage, impetuosity.
Amphimacus: F, Amphimachus; Caxton: Amphymacus; Le Fèvre: Amphimacus; one of Priam’s bastard sons in Caxton’s Recuyell, III, 25: according to Caxton, Amphimacus was hostile to Antenor’s proposal of a peace with the Greeks, as a result of which Antenor persuaded them to ask that Amphimacus be banished from Troy.
Scythia’s: F, Scithiaes, of Scythia. Back to text
Artemisia: F, Artimesia. Artemisia of Caria ruled over Halicarnassus, and made her claim to fame during the battle of Salamis. Herodotus makes her an incarnation of courage and virility (Histories, especially VII.99 and VIII.87). Here referred to as King Mausolus’ widow. See Heywood’s endnotes to this canto.
Galatian: F, Galathian.
Camma: F, Camna, a woman of Galatia, who avenged the death of her husband Sinatus upon his murderer Synorix by luring him into drinking from a poisoned cup on pretence of marrying him. See Heywood’s endnotes to this canto. Back to text
Edward: Edward of Woodstock, Prince of Wales, eldest son of King Edward III. Popularly known as the Black Prince, he earned fame with his victories over the French at the battles of Crécy and Poitiers. He fought the Najera campaign, in support of the deposed King Peter of Castille whom he restored to his throne. He died in 1376, one year before his father, after a long illness. Back to text
Tewkesbury: F, Teuxbury. Edward of Westminster also known as Edward of Lancaster (1453-1471), only son of King Henry VI of England and his wife, Margaret of Anjou, who died at Tewkesbury, one of the most decisive battles in the Wars of the Roses between the House of Lancaster and the House of York.
rivelled: wrinkled, shrivelled.
he: Edward.
semblant: comparable, similar. Back to text
Sir Philip Sidney: he lost his life during a campaign against the Spanish in the Netherlands in 1586.
seventeen Belgian states: historically, counties and duchies in the Low Countries known as the Seventeen Provinces and united under a single ruler. After Charles V’s abdication in 1555, the provinces went to his son, Philip II of Habsburg, King of Spain. Conflict arose between the Spanish king and his Dutch subjects, and led to the Eighty Years’ War, starting in 1568.
sounded: celebrated.
bare: bore. Back to text
Prince Arthur: Arthur, Prince of Wales, was the eldest son and heir apparent of King Henry VII and his wife, Elizabeth of York. His birth in 1486 was viewed with great hope as a way of sealing the union between the Tudors and the Yorks, putting an end to the Wars of the Roses. He died shortly after his marriage in 1502 at the age of 16 of an unknown ailment. His brother, Henry, Duke of York, became King Henry VIII in 1509, and reigned until his death in 1547.
doffs: lays aside. Back to text
M. T. Cicero: F, M. F. Cicero. Marcus Tullius Cicero, anglicized as Tully. Cicero was exiled in May 58 B.C. for having executed five leaders of the Second Catilinarian Conspiracy without due trial. He was recalled from exile in Greece and returned in August 57 B.C. to Italy, where he was greeted by a cheering crowd. Back to text
him: Achilles.
immured: confined within the city walls. Back to text
They: the Greeks.
dread: dreaded.
front: face in defiance and hostility. Back to text
domineered: swaggered. Back to text
equipage: stand in rank with, hence match. See Gynaikeion where the verb is intransitive: “This incomparable lady I know not where to equipage, or in what rank to place” (VIII, 396). Back to text
raught: reached.
Spartan king: Menelaus.
entreat: treat. Back to text
cask: helmet. Back to text
fee: to hold in fee, to hold as one’s absolute and rightful possession (OED), i.e. exerted control over the other Greeks.
bloods: wounds.
Athenian duke: Menestheus, a son of Peteus, who led the Athenians during the Trojan war (Iliad, II, 546-56). See Caxton, Recuyell, III, 24. Back to text
Epistropus: see Troia X, 23.
Sarpedon: see Troia XI, 21.
rangèd: F, rengèd; only occurrence as an adjective in the OED.
foiled: discomfited. Back to text
Polydamas: see Troia XI, 79. Back to text
thews: manners of behaving or acting as well as personal qualities.
bravel’: bravely, for metrical purposes.
sware: swore. Back to text
impeach: (†) to affect detrimentally, endamage, impair. Back to text
mated: defeated.
bruitful: renowned; only occurrence in OED. Back to text
besprinked: (†) besprinkled. See Troia I, 6.
justle: just or joust, collision in tournament. Back to text
perforced: forced, obliged.
marshalled: arranged, set. Back to text
Thoas: a Greek. See Troia X, 24.
invades: assaults.
Athenian Duke: see Caxton’s “Troilus beat down the Duke of Athens and slew many of the Mirondones [Myrmidons]” (Recuyell, III, 22). Back to text
courses: a course is a “rush together of two combatants in battle or tournament; charge, onset; a passage
at arms, bout, encounter” (OED). Back to text
The elder of th’Atrides: Agamemnon.
unshook himself: himself unshaken.
Pelean: Achilles, son of Peleus. Back to text
bail: set free.
pursueth: F, pursuith. Heywood uses the very same rhyme “youth” / “ruth” / “pursuth” in Troia VII, 79 with the spelling “pursuth”. Back to text
stand: F, stands. Back to text
marked: although Achilles was hiding behind his train of Myrmidons, Troilus saw him.
wrought: managed (to reach him). Back to text
dare: challenge.
train: trick, wile. Back to text
stanzas 33-39: Heywood borrows the whole episode of the betrothal to Polixena from Caxton, Recuyell III, 23.
Withal: as well as.
zeal (A thing in zeal she can no longer hide): a thing she cannot seriously hide. Back to text
sued: appealed.
slake: abate, assuage.
conspire his harm: conspire against him. Back to text
upbraids: The agreement of plural noun with singular verb favours the rhyme.
Archilochus: not to be mistaken for another Archilochus, a Greek king slain by Hector in Troia, XII, 58. Heywood follows Caxton (Recuyell, III, 23) and Le Fèvre, both of whom spell the name Archilogus. Homer mentions an Antilochus, son of Nestor in The Iliad, VI, 33. Back to text
strows: archaic form of “strews”.
line: lain. See Heywood’s Gynaikeion, II, 67: “Oft in one shade the hare and hound hath lyne”. Back to text
Achilles and Archilochus: the trap set for Achilles and Archilochus and their ensuing deaths are related in Caxton, Recuyell, III, 23.
bandy: contend, fight. Back to text
Pyrrhus: see Troia, XII, 11. Caxton explains that Menelaus was sent to King Lycomedes to fetch Neoptolemus, otherwise called Pyrrhus (III, 23). He writes about the arrival of Penthesilea and the Amazons at Priam’s side and how Pyrrhus slew the Scythian queen in III, 24. Back to text
height: high degree of any quality, here high valour.
dun: to darken, become dusky.
unfleshed: not yet stimulated by tasting flesh, hence inexperienced, untried or new (OED). Back to text
tale: the tale spans stanzas 42-87. All Caxton relates about the Amazons is that they dwelt in a province by the name of “Amazone” without men; at a small distance was an island where men lived. Three times a year they spent some time there in their company before going back to their place. By then they were pregnant. If the child was male, they sent him back to his father, if female, they brought her up and burnt her right breast to allow her to wield the spear and bow more conveniently, and trained her in the feats of arms (Recuyell, III, 24).
entreat: treat.
’biding: abiding, lasting.
gelt: gelded, castrated. Back to text
trains: tricks, wiles; see above, stanza 32.
applause: assent. Back to text
submiss: submissive. Back to text
livings: means of support. Back to text
questionèd: threatened. Back to text
estate: state, condition. Back to text
strowed: with limbs spread out. Back to text
amain: without delay, in haste.
steed: stead. To stand in stead: to be of use or advantage. Back to text
51: F, 52.
cates: victuals. Back to text
excel: what comes out of this purse surpasses the virtue of this jewel. Back to text
sure: make safe, secure. Back to text
surview: F, suriew; survey, take a general view of. Back to text
judicial: discerning, critical. Back to text
shon: shun, for rhyming purposes.
brooked: put up with, endured. Back to text
there: F, theare, to rhyme with “dear” and “fear”.
Censuring: judging.
spite: despite. Back to text
erst: before.
port: bearing. Back to text
cates: victuals, food. Back to text
cheer: provisions, viands, food. Back to text
homely: ordinary.
fare: food regarded with reference to its quality (OED). Back to text
cater: caterer, supplier of provisions. Back to text
at all assays: on all occasions. Back to text
nigromantic: necromantic. Back to text
wrack: harm. Back to text
aggrieved: affected with grief.
ranger: keeper of a royal park. This erotic image recalls Shakespeare’s Venus and Adonis: “I’ll be a park, and thou shalt be my deer. … Then be my deer, since I am such a park” (231, 239). Back to text
fond: foolishly credulous. Back to text
forlorn: bereft, stripped of his “jewel”. Back to text
rueing: regretting.
barbar: barbarian. Also a pun on barber (see below, stanza 76). Back to text
love: charming, delightful object. No such meaning is referenced prior to the 19th century by the OED. Back to text
75: F, 74. Back to text
behooves: (†) behoves, is of use, necessary to.
proves: endeavours. Back to text
match: agreement.
free: generous. Back to text
abroad: stretched his arm out.
queen: F, queenes. Back to text
project: scheme.
scanned: considered. Back to text
weal: (†) wealth, riches, but also more generally prosperity.
compass: achieve, obtain. Back to text
speed: bring them success, with an allusion to “swiftness” as the Queen says she is impatient for things to be over. Back to text
hag: an ugly old woman.
prove: try.
nigher: place the pears closer to the fire so that they may roast more quickly. Back to text
pleasure: allows the pears time to roast at leisure, in parallel to the couple’s sexual pleasure.
wayward: intractable. Back to text
wager: solemn pledge.
ceased: (†) made her subdued. Back to text
brook: tolerate. Back to text
Ne’er: never; F, neare.
casks: helmets; see stanza 12.
Where’er: wherever; F, where eare. Back to text
Philomines: Caxton, Philemenus. See also Troia, XI, 31 and XII, 55. In Caxton, this is alternately spelt “Philemenis” or “Philemems”. Homer calls that same King “Pylaemenes”, and relates how “the Paphlagonians Pylaemenes of the stout heart led from the land of the Eneti” (Iliad, II, 851-52), and again “the two slew Pylaemenes, peer of Ares, the leader of the great-hearted Paphlagonian shieldmen” (V.576-77).
Paphlagone: Paphlagonia, an ancient area of north central Anatolia. Caxton: “At the prayer of Panthasilee [Penthesilea], on the morn betimes was the gate opened, and issued out the King Philemenus [Philomines] with all them of Paphaghone [Paphlagonia]” (Recuyell, III, 24).
Cassilius: a Greek who appears later in Caxton, accompanying Antenor in his attempt to persuade King Priam to make peace with the Greeks. “Anthenor [Antenor] prayed to the Greeks that they would deliver to him the King Cassilus [elsewhere spelt Cassilyus] that was a much ancient man for to go with him to Troy to the entente [understanding] that he might be the better believed and that he knew the will of the Trojans, that is to wit if they would have peace with the Greeks, and also for to say to them the will and desire of the Greeks” (Recuyell, III, 25). “Cassilius” in Le Fèvre. At no point does Caxton mention Cassilius fighting on the battle field. Cassilius does not appear in Homer.
Amphimacus: See Argumentum 2. Back to text
Lycomedes: king of Scyros entrusted with the upbringing of Achilles, hence Pyrrhus’ grandfather Achilles. See note to XII, 7.
seven-folded targe: Ajax’s shield, made of seven layers of leather covered by a layer of bronze, described in the Iliad (VII, 244-48) and in Chapman (Seaven Bookes of the Iliades, London, John Windet, 1598), p. 53: “Thus sent he [Hector] his long javelin forth; it struck his foe’s huge shield, / Neere to the upper skirt of brass, which was the eight it held: / Six folds th’untamèd dart struck through, and in the seventh tough hide / The point was checked.” Ovid presents Ajax as the master of the sevenfold shield (“clipei dominus septemplicis Ajax”, Metamorphoses, XIII, 2)—also using the same phrase in Amores, VII, 7. Shakespeare’s Antony exclaims: “The sevenfold shield of Ajax cannot keep / The battery from my heart” (IV.xv.38-39). Another exceptional shield in the Iliad is Achilles’, crafted by Vulcan. See Heywood’s description of Achilles’ shield in Troia XIII, 37-55.
Sal’mine: Salamine, i.e. Ajax. See note to Troia VIII, 69. Back to text
quite: requite, repay. Back to text
reeking: steaming, said of the glaive soaked with blood. See Shakespeare’s Macbeth where the adjective is used for wounds: “Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds / Or memorize another Golgotha, / I cannot tell” (I.ii.39-41).
Paris: while Heywood follows Caxton (Recuyell, III, 23) in relating how Paris was slain, he does not mention Ajax’s simultaneous death from one of Paris’s poisoned shafts. He knows from Ovid (Metamorphoses XIII, 385-98) that Ajax will commit suicide, announcing this in canto XIII, 98, and describing his death in canto XV, 98. Back to text
raptor: Paris, who abducted Helen. If Paris had died at birth, instead of being hidden away by his mother, he would not have abducted Helen and caused the war against Troy.
Asia’s glory: Troy.
corse: dead body, corpse.
harness: defensive or body armour of a man-at-arms or foot-soldier; also all the defensive equipment of an armed horseman, for both man and horse; military equipment or accoutrement (OED).
blemished: spoilt, damaged.
Blurring: staining.
his: F, their. This edition suggests a new reading. Heywood imagines Ajax fighting on, stained with the bloodshed on the battlefield. Back to text
bruit: F, Brute, i.e. rumour, tidings. Back to text
worst: F, wurst.
make roomth: make way. Back to text
Deiphebus: See below, stanza 100.
valiant Greek: possibly a King Cressus from Caxton’s opening lines in Recuyell, III, 21: “When the truce were passed, they began to fight as they had been accustomed. Deiphebus assailed in his coming the King Cressus of Grece, and he addressed him to him gladly, and justed that one against that other. But Deiphebus beat the King Cressus dead down to the ground.”
ranks: rides in rank, alongside.
apace: with speed. Back to text
Pelides: only occurrence in Heywood. Usually the name refers to Peleus’ son, Achilles (as in the rare fifteenth and early sixteenth-century occurrences), but it cannot refer here by extension to Achilles’ son Pyrrhus. Caxton’s Recuyell contains no mention of Pelides or any spelling variants. Heywood may have had in mind the passage from Virgil’s Aeneid, II, 259-64, when Sinon opens the trapdoor in the Trojan horse, setting free the Greeks Thessandrus, Sthenelus, Ulysses, Acamas, Thoas, Neoptolemus of Peleus’ line (“Pelidesque Neoptolemus”, i.e. Pyrrhus), prince Machaon, Menelaus and Epeus. Skimming over the lines, Heywood may have read “Pelidesque” as a separate character.
spears: spearmen. Back to text
Tysander: not in Caxton. Thessandrus (also anglicised as Thessander) is one of the Greeks in the Trojan horse (see note to Pelides, above). Latin editions of the second half of the sixteenth century consistently spell the name “Tisandrus”, which was variously translated as “Thesander” (Henry, Earl of Surrey, 1557), “Thersander” (Thomas Phaer, 1562), “Tisandrus” (Richard Stanyhurst, 1583); in his 1697 translation, John Dryden uses the same spelling as Heywood, “Tysander”.
Sthenelus: F, Steuelus. See Troia, XII, 54.8.
Atrides: Menelaus and Agamemnon, sons of Atreus.
Achiaces: It seems likely that Heywood is referring to the two “Aiaces”, i.e. the two Ajax: Ajax Telamon and Ajax, son of king Oileus. Back to text
fare: go on.
ruffles: hostile encounters, skirmishes.
death of Deiphebus: Caxton relates how Palamedes “took a great spear, and addressed him to Deiphebus, and smote him so hard in the breast that the spear entered into his body, and the spear broke and the truncheon abode in the body of Deiphebus” (Recuyell, III, 21). In Caxton Deiphebus
dies before Troilus (III, 22) and Paris (III, 23). In Heywood, Troilus is slain in XIV, 31, Paris in XIV, 93 and Deiphebus in XIV, 100.
Amphimacus: Caxton does not mention the death of Amphimacus, Priam’s son (see note to Argumentum 2). In Recuyell, III, 14, Aeneas kills Amphimacus, king of Lycia.
tried: experienced. Back to text
hardiment: hardihood.
assays: puts to the proof.
sol’ly: F, soly. Back to text
obey: F, obay.
reprieve: grant her a respite.
her: the city, Troy.
prey: F, pray.
immured: surrounded. Back to text
bides: withstands. Back to text
eath: easy.
naked: unarmed. Back to text
at her last cast: at the last shift; close to ruin.
bail: confine.
front: confront. Back to text
Dares: Aeneas’ and Antenor’s conspiracy is told by Caxton, Recuyell, III, 25-26. Dares narrates this story (De Excidio Troiae Historia, 39-41), but not the story of the theft of the Palladium, which is told by Dictys Cretensis, Ephemeris Belli Trojani, V, 5-8.
Palladium: see endnotes to this canto, as well as Troia, VIII, 57 and endnotes. For a description of the Palladium, first mentioned in Troia, V, 9, see Troia, VI, 52 and VIII, 57 and endnotes; the passage from Conti is provided in the editorial note to “Palladium” in Heywood’s endnote, canto VIII. Back to text
The Palladium bought by Ulysses: Heywood departs from Caxton who tells how Antenor went to the priest named “Thoant”, who kept the Palladium, and offered him a great quantity of gold. Thoant resisted, before finally yielding and handing the Palladium to the treacherous Antenor (Recuyell, III, 26), who gave it to Ulysses. Le Fèvre borrowed Thoant from Colonna’s Thoans, himself derived from Dictys’ Thoano, priestess of Athena and Anthenor’s wife. See endnotes.
stick: hesitate, scruple, be reluctant to.
sol’ly: F, soly. Back to text
[Heywood’s endnotes to canto XIV]
Artemisia: F, Artimisia.
Mausolus: F, Mansolus.
Mausolea: F, Mansolea; plural of Mausoleum, tomb of Mausolus erected at Halicarnassus (fourth century B.C.).
Plutarch, lib. de virtutibus mulierum: The text was available in Philemon Holland’s translation of Plutarch’s Moralia (1603), which include The Virtuous Deeds of Women, with a chapter on Camma. Plutarch’s story is retold by George Pettie: “Sinorix and Camma”, A Petite Pallace of Pettie His Pleasure (London, R.W.[atkins], 1576), sigs A4v-D4v. Back to text
Antimachus: according to Conti, Antimachus recalls how the earth shook when Achilles leapt off the ship onto the Trojan shore and how a crystal-clear fountain sprang up at his feet: this is to be found in the paragraph which precedes the passage retracing how Paris lay in ambush in Apollo’s temple and slew Achilles (Mythologia, IX, 12), p. 655.
poised: weighed.
Lycophron in Alexandra: from Natale Conti, Mythologia, IX, xii, p. 656. Heywood quotes the first two lines of Conti’s Latin translation of Lycophron’s Alexandra, 271-72: “But one day he shall for recompense pour in the scales an equal weight of the far-shining metal of Pactolus”, transl. Alexander W. Mair (Cambridge, MA.: Harvard University Press, 1921).
Auri: F, Auris.
Pactoli: F, partolij.
Boristhenes: from Natale Conti, Mythologia, IX, xii, p. 656: “Vocata est insula Borysthenis Achillea, quod Achilles ibi fuerit sepultus” (The island of Borysthenis was called Achillea, because Achilles was buried there). Back to text
Phereclus: In the Iliad (V, 59-64), Meriones kills Phereclus, Harmonides’ son. Homer goes on to explain that he had built Paris’ ship. Commentators argued whether this applied to Phereclus or to Harmonides. Ovid opted for Phereclus, Heroides, XVI, “Paris to Helen”, 22.
pierced: travelled through.
Bunichus, Corythus, Aganus, Idaeus: F, Dunichus, Carithus, Aganus, Ideus. Heywood borrows those names from Natale Conti, Mythologia, VI, xxiii, p. 439. They ultimately derive from Dictys Cretensis’ Ephemeris Belli Trojani, V, 5, where they appear as Bunomus, Corythus, and Idaeus.
Sporad Islands: Sporades Islands.
venery: pursuit of sexual pleasure. Back to text
Ibycus: from Natale Conti, Mythologia, IX, xii, p. 656: “Fabulati sunt antiqui praeterea Medeam nupsisse Achilli, ubi ille in campos Elyseos post mortem descendisset, sicuti memoriae prodidit Ibycus” (Furthermore, the ancients told the fable that Medea married Achilles when he descended to the Elysian fields after his death, as Ibycus reminds us). See Ibycus, Fr. 291 in David A. Campbell, ed., Greek Lyric, vol. 3 (Cambridge, MA.: Harvard University Press, 1982), pp. 258-59.
Herodotus in Euterpe: Heywood borrows this reference from Natale Conti’s Mythologia, VI, xxiii, p. 438. After narrating Paris’ abduction of Helen, Conti concludes: “ut scriptit autor Cyprionum carminum et Herodotus in Euterpe” (thus wrote the author of the Cyprian poems and Herodotus in “Euterpe”). See Herodotus, Histories, II, 117, ed. Alfred D. Godley (Cambridge, MA.: Harvard University Press, 1921), vol. 2, pp. 408-09. Back to text
Diognetus in rebus Smyrnaeis: F, Diognetes in rebus. Smernais. From Natale Conti’s Mythologia, VI, xxiii, p. 438-39: “At Diognetus in rebus Smyrnaeis non legatum inisse Alexandrum inquit, neque commotum fuisse superiorum exemplis, sed Veneris monitu cuius etiam consilio Harmonidas [sic], vel (ut placuit Andraetae) Phereclus navem illi fabricavit” (But Diognetus writes in his work on the Smyrnians that Paris did not go as an emissary, nor was he prompted by precedents, but he went on Venus’ recommendation; on Venus’ advice too Harmonides or, according to Andraetae, Phereclus built a ship for him). Back to text
Harmonides: F, Harmonidas; modelled on Natale Conti: see previous note.
Androetas: F, Andretas, from Natale Conti’s Andraetas (see note on Diognetus). Androetas Tenedius is known to have written a Sailing the Propontide, according to a scholion on Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica (II, 159). The fragment Conti is alluding to does not appear in Felix Jacoby’s Fragmente der Grieschischen Historiker (FGr H 599), nor in Karl Müller’s Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum (FHG 4, 304). The original marginalia is misplaced. Back to text
Duris Samius: borrowed from Natale Conti, Mythologia, VI, xxiii, p. 439: “Sunt qui dicant hinc Alexandrum nulla re sibi ablata Troiam confugisse, inter quos fuit Duris Samius” (Some—among whom Duris of Samos—say that Paris left from there without taking anything away for himself).
Euripides: from Natale Conti, Mythologia, VI, xxiii, p. 439: “Alii cum idolo Helenae in patriam revertisse aiunt, ut sensit Euripides” (Others—among whom Euripides—say that he came back to his country with a phantom of Helen). See Euripides, Helen, 33-35 and passim. Back to text
Alexander in rebus Phrygiis: borrowed from Natale Conti, Mythologia, VI, xxiii, p. 439: “alii dicunt in Cranae, quae una est Sporadum, Paridem congressum fuisse, quae insula postmodo Helene ab ista vocata fuit; am Paris ab invita, et prope per vim extorsisset, quam jam paenituerat maritum reliquisse, dicitur ex eius lachrymis nata esse herba Helenium vocata; quae si in vino bibatur a mulieribus creditor Venerem excitare, et inducere hilaritatem, ut scribit Alexander Cornelius in rebus Phrygiis” (Others say that Paris made love with Helen in Cranae, one of the Sporades islands; after that, this island was called Helen after her; as Paris seized her against her will and almost by force because she was already regretting to have left her husband, one says that from her tears originated the herb called helenium; if women drink this herb mixed in wine, it is believed to cause lust and laughter, as Alexander Cornelius writes in his work on the Phrygians). Although Conti mentions Cornelius Alexander Polyhistor, the origin and properties of helenium were well known from Pliny’s Natural History, XXI, xxxiii and xci, the text of which Conti reproduces almost word for word. None of the fragments from Polyhistor’s De Phrygia, collected in Müller’s Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum (FHG 3, 233), mentions helenium. Back to text
Megapenthes: F, Megapenthe.
Polyxo: F, Polixo.
Pausanias in rebus Laconicis: F, Pausanius. Borrowed from Natale Conti (Mythologia, VI, xxiii, p. 439), who follows Pausanias, Description of Greece, III, xix, 9-10. Back to text
Helen: on Helen taking her own life by hanging herself because she cannot bear having lost her former beauty, no source has been traced. Heywood later devotes another passage to Helen’s despair and she strangles herself onstage at the end of The Iron Age, Act V (1632). Laurie Maguire, in Helen of Troy: From Homer to Hollywood (The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009), contends that “it is not until the sixteenth century that a poet manages to kill off Helen”. She mentions The Triumph of Truth, published by T.P. (possibly Thomas Proctor) in the 1580s, and Heywood (pp. 17-18). Back to text
Palladium: in Fasti, Ovid recollects that it is not known for sure who got hold of the Palladium: “seu genus Adrasti, seu furtis aptus Ulixes, / seu fuit Aeneas, eripuisse ferunt” (“Whether it was the descendant of Adrastus [Diomedes], or the guileful Ulysses, or Aeneas, they say someone carried it off”) (VI, 433-35). Conti briefly narrates that Ulysses stole the Palladium from the citadel after he slew the men who were guarding it (IX.1 on Ulysses). Before him, Virgil describes how “impius … / Tydides sed enim scelerumque inventor Ulixes, / fatale adgressi sacrato avellere templo / Palladium, caesis summae custodibus arcis, / corripuere sacram effigiem manibusque cruentis / virgineas ausi divae contingere vittas” (“the ungodly son of Tydeus [Diomedes] and Ulysses, the author of crime, dared to tear the fateful Palladium from its hallowed shrine, slew the guards of the citadel-height, and, snatching up the sacred image, ventured with bloody hands to touch the fillets of the maiden goddess”) (Aeneid, II, 163-68). Ovid also recalls how Ulysses reminded Ajax of his feat: “cur audet Ulixes / ire per excubias et se committere nocti / perque feros enses non tantum moenia Troum, / verum etiam summas arces intrare suaque / eripere aede deam raptamque adferre per hostes?” (“Why does Ulysses dare to go out beyond the sentinels, commit himself to the darkness and, through the midst of cruel swords, enter not alone the walls of Troy but even the citadel’s top, steal the goddess from her shrine and bear her captured image through the enemy?”) (Metamorphoses, XIII, 341-45). Heywood recounts that Ulysses received the Palladium against a reward (stanza 107) while Caxton writes that Antenor bought it from the priest and gave it to Ulysses (Recuyell, III, 26).
deities: F, dietyes.
Apollodorus, lib. 3: marginal note misplaced in F. Borrowed from Natale Conti (Mythologia, IV, v, p. 202), who follows Apollodorus, The Library, III, xii, 3. Back to text
Back to canto XIV (1-50 & 51-109)
How to cite
Patricia Dorval, ed., 2017. Troia Britanica Canto XIV (1609). In A Dictionary of Shakespeare's Classical Mythology: A Textual Companion, ed. Yves Peyré (2009-).
http://www.shakmyth.org/page/Early+Modern+Mythological+Texts%3A+Troia+Britanica+XIV%2C+Notes
<< back to top >>