Aktaion's death as revenge for orion's death (or vice versa)

Alejandro

Active Member
I'm not using one source or another for my argonauts, instead I took all names from several lists and I'm picking 48 from that (my character Klea and her companion taking two places to have 50 argonauts), some I chose because they have to be in that journey, but most others were selected based on who I can introduce in the webcomic before the journey, so by the time the journey takes place readers don't have to deal with too many unfamiliar faces/names. My list is not complete, I've chosen 42 so far, it was 43 but later I decided to place Iphitos death a few years before the journey. I'm not including any of Dionysus sons in the Argo. As for Hylas, he won't be related to Orion.
I don't know if it's too late to posit "solutions" to the aforementioned chronology problems but there's a different version of Hylas' parentage which calls him the son of King Keyx and Queen Alkyone of Trakhis, neither of whom are directly related to Orion. If there's a need to make an association between Hylas and Herakles this genealogy would still make sense since Keyx and Herakles were good friends.

Meanwhile! I discovered another major chronology and narrative anomaly in the family tree of the Iolkian royal family: Pelias' wife! In the commonest accounts Pelias was married to an Argive princess named Anaxibia, the daughter of Bias, and their son Akastos was old enough at the time of the Argonautic expedition to participate in it, albeit against his father's wishes. Now Bias was a son of Amythaon, one of Pelias' half-brothers, and thus the brother of Pheres and of Jason's father Aison, together with whom he was violently deported from Iolkos by Pelias. This means that Pelias was not only married to his own great-niece but also that he was responsible for exiling her grandfather and great-uncles from their kingdom a couple of generations before her time as well. The anomaly might've been helped if Amythaon was much older than Pelias so that Bias is perhaps slightly older than this uncle + son-in-law of his but we know that Pelias was older (perhaps much older) than Amythaon (and Pheres and Aison), so he'd have to be a really old man by the time he's getting married to [a considerably younger] Anaxibia.

The chronological difficulty is worsened still by Bias' mother, Amythaon's wife Eidomene. In one version she is also an Argive, being daughter of Abas and sister of Akrisios (grandfather of Perseus) and Proitos (father of Bias' wife Iphianassa, the mother of Anaxibia). But in the foremost version she is a daughter of Pheres and therefore a niece of both Amythaon and Pelias! So her granddaughter Anaxibia is both great-niece and great-great-niece of her own husband Pelias! Unless we fall back on the idea that the lifespan in those days was a lot longer than it is now, making "old" a rather relative term back then, this union is otherwise simply impossible. (There's actually a similar [and even more difficult] issue with Perseus and his wife Andromeda, since Andromeda's father Kepheus was Perseus' great-great-great-great-uncle... Fo reelz.) But even assuming that Pelias had a really long youthful life, there's what I think must be an amazing concession from the houses of Amythaon and Pheres since Pelias was able to marry a descendant of brothers he still has condemned to exile. Maybe concern over this anomaly is the origin of the alternate version of who Pelias' wife is. "But according to some," to quote Apollodoros, "his wife was Phylomakhe daughter of Amphion," this Amphion being the son of Zeus who built the walls of Thebes. Phylomakhe would appear to be from the same generation as Pelias but the throne succession stories of Thebes can also be quite tricky so I'm not too sure about this...
 
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Misa

Member
Athena actually talks about Aktaion's death to compare it to the blindness of Teiresias (not sure if this has been brought up? The whole 'Kronos fault!' led me to recalling it)

Therewith the mother clasped her beloved child in both her arms and, wailing the heavy plaint of the mournful nightingale, led him away. And the goddess Athena pitied her comrade and spake to her and said: ‘Noble lady, take back all the words that thou hast spoken in anger. It is not I that made thy child blind. For no sweet thing is it for Athena to snatch away the eyes of children. But the laws of Kronos order thus: Whosoever shall behold any of the immortals, when the god himself chooses not, at a heavy price shall he behold. Noble lady, the thing that is done can no more be taken back; since thus the thread of the Moirai (Fates) span when thou didst bear him at the first; but now, O son of Eueres, take thou the issue which is due to thee. How many burnt offerings shall the daughter of Kadmos burn in the days to come? How many Aristaios?--praying that they might see their only son, the young Aktaion blind. And yet he shall be companion of the chase to great Artemis. But him neither the chase nor comradeship in archery on the hills shall save in that hour, when, albeit unwillingly, he shall behold the beauteous bath of the goddess. Nay, his own dogs shall then devour their former lord. And his mother shall gather the bones of her son, ranging over all the thickets. Happiest of women shall she call thee and of happy fate, for that thou didst receive thy son home from the hills--blind. Therefore, O comrade, lament not; for to this thy son--for thy sake--shall remain many other honors from me. For I will make him a seer to be sung of men hereafter, yea, more excellent far than any other. He shall know the birds--which is of good omen among all the countless birds that fly and what birds are of ill-omened flight. Many oracles shall he utter to the Boiotians and many unto Kadmos, and to the mighty sons of Labdakos in later days. Also will I give him a great staff which shall guide his feet as he hath need, and I will give him a long term of life. And he only, when he dies, shall walk among the dead having understanding, honored of the great Leader of the Peoples.’
So she spake and bowed her head; and that word is fulfilled over which Pallas bows.

- Athena to Khariklo (Chariclo), mother of Teiresias; Callimachus, Hymn 5 Bath of Pallas
 

Dionysus

New Member
Athena actually talks about Aktaion's death to compare it to the blindness of Teiresias (not sure if this has been brought up? The whole 'Kronos fault!' led me to recalling it)

Therewith the mother clasped her beloved child in both her arms and, wailing the heavy plaint of the mournful nightingale, led him away. And the goddess Athena pitied her comrade and spake to her and said: ‘Noble lady, take back all the words that thou hast spoken in anger. It is not I that made thy child blind. For no sweet thing is it for Athena to snatch away the eyes of children. But the laws of Kronos order thus: Whosoever shall behold any of the immortals, when the god himself chooses not, at a heavy price shall he behold. Noble lady, the thing that is done can no more be taken back; since thus the thread of the Moirai (Fates) span when thou didst bear him at the first; but now, O son of Eueres, take thou the issue which is due to thee. How many burnt offerings shall the daughter of Kadmos burn in the days to come? How many Aristaios?--praying that they might see their only son, the young Aktaion blind. And yet he shall be companion of the chase to great Artemis. But him neither the chase nor comradeship in archery on the hills shall save in that hour, when, albeit unwillingly, he shall behold the beauteous bath of the goddess. Nay, his own dogs shall then devour their former lord. And his mother shall gather the bones of her son, ranging over all the thickets. Happiest of women shall she call thee and of happy fate, for that thou didst receive thy son home from the hills--blind. Therefore, O comrade, lament not; for to this thy son--for thy sake--shall remain many other honors from me. For I will make him a seer to be sung of men hereafter, yea, more excellent far than any other. He shall know the birds--which is of good omen among all the countless birds that fly and what birds are of ill-omened flight. Many oracles shall he utter to the Boiotians and many unto Kadmos, and to the mighty sons of Labdakos in later days. Also will I give him a great staff which shall guide his feet as he hath need, and I will give him a long term of life. And he only, when he dies, shall walk among the dead having understanding, honored of the great Leader of the Peoples.’
So she spake and bowed her head; and that word is fulfilled over which Pallas bows.

- Athena to Khariklo (Chariclo), mother of Teiresias; Callimachus, Hymn 5 Bath of Pallas
 
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