LOVERS’ LEGENDS
- The love between Hercules and Iolaus is discussed in the notes to "Hercules and Hylas", page 137.
- Of the other heroes, Agamemnon, the general of Trojan war fame, fell in love with the divinely beautiful Argynnus, whom he surprised swimming naked in the river Cephissus. The poet Thamyris fell for Hymaeneus, presumably before meeting his other great flame, Hyacinthus. Philolaus the Corinthian, who gave laws to the Thebans, loved Diocles, the Olympic victor. They remained together to the end of their days. Their twin tombs were famous in the ancient world: Lovers traveled there to swear faith to each other. Cleomachus, too, had a beloved, before whom he gave his life in battle. Timagoras was head over heels in love with the ungrateful Meles, which proved his undoing, driving him to throw himself off a cliff to prove his devotion. The legendary Cretan king Minos had several beloveds, his charioteer among them, and Theseus the Athenian may also have been one. Likewise, there are indications that Phaeton, the foolhardy son of the sun, and Cycnus may have been an item. After Phaeton fell from the sky, Cycnus dove time and again for his body, and finally was turned into a swan, though another story makes him the beloved of Phylius. The Trojans are represented here by Paris, Helen's ravisher, and by Deiphobus, one of their strongest fighters. They both loved the same youth, Antheus by name (not the same one as Hermes' beloved). Finally, the mythic couple Orestes and Pylades were thought by some in ancient times to have been lovers, though others argued against that claim, just as Achilles and his best friend Patroclus were a subject of contention (see story), as were any couples who did not fit the Greek model of age-structured relationships. Sergent, Hom., passim.
126
