Apollodorus, Library and Epitome (ed. Sir James George Frazer)

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I. Having now gone through the family of Deucalion, we have next to speak of that of Inachus.

Ocean and Tethys had a son Inachus, after whom a river in Argos is called Inachus.¹ He and Melia, daughter of Ocean, had sons, Phoroneus, and Aegialeus. Aegialeus having died childless, the whole country was called Aegialia; and Phoroneus, reigning over the whole land afterwards named Peloponnese, begat Apis and Niobe by a nymph Teledice. Apis converted his power into a tyranny and named the Peloponnese after himself Apia; but being a stern tyrant he was conspired against and slain by Thelxion and Telchis. He left no child, and being deemed a god was called Sarapis.² But Niobe had by Zeus ( and she was the first mortal woman with whom Zeus cohabited) a son Argus, and also, so says [p. 131] Acusilaus, a son Pelasgus, after whom the inhabitants of the Peloponnese were called Pelasgians. However, Hesiod says that Pelasgus was a son of the soil.

¹ As to Inachus and his descendants, see Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 177 (who follows Apollodorus); Paus. 2.15.5; Scholiast on Eur. Or. 932; Scholiast on Hom. Il. i.22. According to Apion, the flight of the Israelites from Egypt took place during the reign of Inachus at Argos. See Eusebius, Praeparatio Evangelii, x.10.10ff. On the subject of Phoroneus there was an ancient epic Phoronis, of which a few verses have survived. See Epicorum Graecorum Fragmenta, ed. G. Kinkel, pp. 209ff.

² Apollodorus identifies the Argive Apis with the Egyptian bull Apis, who was in turn identified with Serapis (Sarapis). As to the Egyptian Apis, see Hdt. 2.153 (with Wiedemann's note), iii.27, 28. As to Apia as a name for Peloponnese or Argos, see Aesch. Supp. 260ff.; Paus. 2.5.7; Scholiast on Hom. Il. i.22; Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 177; Stephanus Byzantius, s.v. Apia.

Cross references from Sir Richard Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Ajax:
* [719-865]

Cross references from Diana Buitron-Oliver, Attic Vase Painting in New England Collections:
11 [BLACK-FIGURE NECK-AMPHORA]

Cross references from Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898):
nauplius [Nauplius]
oeax [Oeax]
inachus [Inăchus]
pelasgus [Pelasgus]

This text is based on the following book(s):
Apollodorus. Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. Includes Frazer's notes.
OCLC: 28280131
ISBN: 0674991354, 0674991362

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