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[393] 393-400 have an obvious echo in the Heraclea of Panyasis (fr. 16) “τλῆ μὲν Δημήτηρ, τλῆ δὲ κλυτὸς ἀμφιγυήεις”. Probably enough they are adapted from some older epic dealing with Herakles; cf. 19.95 ff. They seem to belong to the legend of the campaign of Herakles against Pylos, which recurs, but without the divine elements, in 11.690, where the schol. says, “Ἡρακλῆς παρεγένετο εἰς Πύλον χρήιζων καθαρσίων, οἱ δὲ Πύλιοι ἀποκλείσαντες τὰς πύλας οὐκ εἰσεδέξαντο αὐτόν: ἐφ᾽ ὧι ὀργισθεὶς ὁ ἥρως ἐπόρθησε Πύλον. συνεμάχουν δὲ τῶι μὲν Νηλεῖ τρεῖς θεοί, Ποσειδῶν Ἥρα Ἀϊδωνεύς, τῶι δὲ Ἡρακλεῖ δύω, Ἀθηνᾶ καὶ Ζεύς”. According to Hesiod, Scut. Her. 359-67, Ares was among the victims on the same occasion:

“ἤδη μέν τέ ἕ φημι καὶ ἄλλοτε πειρηθῆναι ἔγχεος ἡμετέρου, ὅθ᾽ ὑπὲρ Πύλου ἠμαθόεντος ἀντίος ἔστη ἐμεῖο, μάχης ἄμοτον μενεαίνων”.

So also Pind. Ol. ix. 31-5:

“ἀντίον πῶς ἂν τριόδοντος Ἡρακλέης σκύταλον τίναξε χερσίν, ἁνίκ᾽ ἀμφὶ Πύλον σταθεὶς ἤρειδε Ποσειδᾶν, ἤρειδεν δέ μιν ἀργυρέωι τόξωι πελεμίζων Φοῖβος, οὐδ᾽ Ἀΐδας ἀκινήταν ἔχε ῥαβδόν”.

(Cf. Apollod.ii. 7. 3, and Pausanias vi. 25. 3.) The legend no doubt belongs to the journey to Hades, to recover Alkestis or to bring back Kerberos. There was clearly some primitive idea that Pylos (here the Elean, not the Messenian, see on 2.591) was the gate of the under-world; a cult of Hades there is mentioned by Pausanias, l.c., as being founded on the gratitude of the Pylians for his alliance with them against Herakles on this occasion. But Schol. T says “Ἀρίσταρχος “πύλωι” ὡς χόλωι καὶ ἑσπέρωι”, i.e. Ar. took “πύλος” to be not the name of a town but = “πύλη”, like “χόλος” and “ἕσπερος” beside “χολή” and “ἑσπέρα”, and understood it to mean ‘in the gate of the underworld.’ This is not impossible, for the gates of hell are often spoken of (cf. 646, 9.312, and the epithet “πυλάρτης” applied to Hades), and a masc. “πύλος” = “πύλη” is actually found in a Thessalian inscription (see H. W. Smyth in A. J. P. ix. 491). But this appears to be the only other case in Greek, and H. uses only the pl. “πύλαι”. It seems therefore practically certain that the word is really local, though it is of course possible, in view of the chthonian myths connected with Pylos, that the name of the town meant, or was supposed to mean, the gate of Hades. Ar.'s difficulty arose presumably from the fact that the Hades legend was not attached to the Messenian Pylos. ἐν νεκύεσσι would most naturally mean ‘in the country of the dead,’ and this would agree with such a double sense of “Πύλωι”, but there is no strong reason why it should not be the same as “ἐν νεκάδεσσιν”, 886. In any case it can hardly go with “βαλών”, which means ‘hitting him’; for there is no Homeric analogy for translating it ‘casting him among the dead.’ ωὑτός for “ὁ αὐτός”, here only — an obviously late form, for which we can at once write the Homeric “αὐτός”, or still better “οὗτος”. See note on 6.260.

The Iliad, edited, with apparatus criticus, prolegomena, notes, and appendices. Walter Leaf. London. Macmillan. 1900.

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