Twice A Man: The Story of Hippolytus and Virbius, Serv. In Aen. 7.761

Name: Servius Date: 4th – 5th century CE Region: [modern Italy] Citation:   Commentary on the Aeneid, 7.761

And Virbius, the beautiful child of Hippolytus, came for war:

When Hippolyte died, Theseus put his son Hippolytus in the care of [his new wife] Phaedra. When Hippolytus rejected Phaedra’s sexual advances, she lied and told Theseus that he had tried to rape her. Theseus sought vengeance from his father Aegeus. When Hippolytus was driving his chariot, Aegeus* sent a seal to spook the horses, and the chariot crashed. Then Diana, moved by Hippolytus’ chastity, brought him back to life through the work of Aesculapius. 

[Aesculapius was the child of Apollo and Coronis, who was cut from his dying mother’s womb. It happened when Apollo heard from the crow he’d sent to spy on Coronis that she had cheated on him. Angered, he killed the heavily pregnant Coronis with his arrows, changed the crow’s color from white to black, and cut Aesculapius from Coronis’ womb. Aesculapius grew up and  became skilled in medicine. Later on, Jupiter killed him because he’d restored Hippolytus to life. And because of that, Apollo got angry and killed Jupiter’s ironworking cyclopes with his arrows. And because of that, Jupiter stripped Apollo of his divine powers and made him a shepherd of King Admetus’ flocks for nine years.]

Once Hippolytus was restored to life, Diana entrusted him to the nymph Aricia, and ordered him to now be called Virbius [‘twice a man’]. Now his son, called the same name, comes to battle: but this is really unbelievable. For Hippolytus was chaste, and always lived alone, but somehow has a son? Actually, as I said previously, Virbius is the name of a divinity linked with Diana, just like Cybele is linked with Attis, Minerva is linked with Erichthonis, and Venus is linked with Adonis.

7.[761] IBAT ET HIPPOLYTI PROLES PULCHERRIMA BELLO VIRBIUS: Theseus mortua Hippolyte Phaedram, Minois et Pasiphaae filiam, superduxit Hippolyto. qui cum illam de stupro interpellantem contempsisset, falso delatus ad patrem est, quod ei vim voluisset inferre. ille Aegeum patrem rogavit ut se ulcisceretur. qui agitanti currus Hippolyto inmisit focam, qua equi territi eum traxerunt. tunc Diana eius castitate commota revocavit eum in vitam per Aesculapium, filium Apollinis et Coronidis, qui natus erat exsecto matris ventre, ideo quod, cum Apollo audisset a corvo, eius custode, eam adulterium committere, iratus Coronidem maturo iam partu confixit sagittis—corvum vero nigrum fecit ex albo—et exsecto ventre Coronidis produxit ita Aesculapium, qui factus est medicinae peritus. hunc postea Iuppiter propter revocatum Hippolytum interemit: unde Apollo iratus Cyclopas fabricatores fulminum confixit sagittis: ob quam rem a Iove iussus est Admeti regis novem annis apud Amphrysum armenta pascere divinitate deposita. sed Diana Hippolytum, revocatum ab inferis, in Aricia nymphae commendavit Egeriae et eum Virbium, quasi bis virum, iussit vocari. cuius nunc filium cognominem dicit in bellum venire: adeo omnia ista fabulosa sunt. nam cum castus ubique inductus sit et qui semper solus habitaverit, habuisse tamen fingitur filium. re vera autem, ut et supra diximus, Virbius est numen coniunctum Dianae, ut matri deum Attis, Minervae Erichthonius, Veneri Adonis.

Servius [Maurus Servius Honoratus; 4th – 5th century CE] Servius’ name is unfortunately the only thing we know of this author. Little is known about the author or manuscript tradition for the grammatical commentary of Vergil’s Aeneid.

The Greeks Honoring the Fallen Amazons: Pausanias, Description of Greece, 1.41.7

 

Name:  Pausanias Date:        110 – 180 CE Region:    Lydia [modern Turkey] Citation:      Description of Greece  1.41.7

Amazons were a varied and complex component of Athenian art and literature. In this passage, Pausanias describes the tomb of the mythical Amazon warrior Hippolyte, who dies of a broken heart when she loses her sister, Antiope. 

Near the monument to Pandion is the monument to Hippolyta; let me tell you about what the Megarians say about it. When the Amazons attacked Athens to avenge the kidnapped Antiope, they were defeated by Theseus. Many of the Amazons died in battle, but Hippolyte, the sister of Antiope and the Amazons’ general, retreated to Megara with the few remaining survivors. Upset by the defeat in battle, and despairing that that she would never return home to Themiscyra again, she died of grief. When she died, the Megarians buried her and made her tomb in the shape of an Amazon shield.

 ὅτε Ἀμαζόνες ἐπ᾽ Ἀθηναίους στρατεύσασαι δι᾽ Ἀντιόπην ἐκρατήθησαν ὑπὸ Θησέως, τὰς μὲν πολλὰς συνέβη μαχομένας αὐτῶν ἀποθανεῖν, Ἱππολύτην δὲ ἀδελφὴν οὖσαν Ἀντιόπης καὶ τότε ἡγουμένην τῶν γυναικῶν ἀποφυγεῖν σὺν ὀλίγαις ἐς Μέγαρα, ἅτε δὲ κακῶς οὕτω πράξασαν τῷ στρατῷ τοῖς τε παροῦσιν ἀθύμως ἔχουσαν καὶ περὶ τῆς οἴκαδε ἐς τὴν Θεμίσκυραν σωτηρίας μᾶλλον ἔτι ἀποροῦσαν ὑπὸ λύπης τελευτῆσαι: καὶ θάψαι αὐτὴν ἀποθανοῦσαν, καί οἱ τοῦ μνήματος σχῆμά ἐστιν Ἀμαζονικῇ ἀσπίδι ἐμφερές

Prope est Hippolytae monumentum, de qua quae Megarenses dicunt, non praetermittam. Quum Amazones ob captam Antiopen bello Athenienses lacessissent, a Theseo superatae sunt. Quumque earum multae in proelio cecidissent, Hippolyten tradunt, Antiopes sororem, cui feminarum ille parebat exercitus, Megara cum paucis aufugisse: ibi quum re mala gesta animum despondisset, praesertim quod se Themiscyram in patriam suam redire posse desperasset, prae animi angore e vita excessisse: sepultam vero eo quo diximus loco, et eius sane monumentum Amazonici clypei formam prae se fert.

 

Translated into Latin by Romulus Amasaeus (1696)

Pausanias [110 -180 CE, modern Turkey] was a Greek writer from Lydia who lived during the era of the “Five Good Emperors.” His work, the Description of Greece, is an important source for geographical, historical, archaeological, and cultural information about ancient Greece.

Amazons Can Fight, Why Can't I? Propertius 4.3.43-50

 

Name:  Propertius Date:  50 – 15 BCE Region:   Assisium [modern Italy] Citation:    Elegies 4.3.43-50

In this poem, the poet Propertius takes on the persona of Arethusa while she laments the absence of her absent husband Lycotas. Once again Propertius makes a stark contrast between gender roles for Roman women and women from other cultures.

Blessed Hippolyte! With naked breast she took up arms and covered her pretty little face with a barbaric helmet.

If only Romans allowed women to fight!

I would be a faithful follower of your camp; I wouldn’t be discouraged by the Scythian mountains, where the south wind freezes the water into ice.

All love is great, but it is even more potent in a spouse;

Venus herself nourishes this flame with her breath.

Felix Hippolyte! Nuda tulit arma papilla

    et texit galea barbara molle caput.
Romanis utinam patuissent castra puellis!
    Essem militiae sarcina fida tuae,
Nec me tardarent Scythiae iuga, cum Pater altas
    Africus in glaciem frigore nectit aquas.
Omnis amor magnus, sed aperto in coniuge maior:
    hanc Venus, ut vivat, ventilat ipsa facem.

 

Propertius [Sextus Propertius; 50-15 BCE, modern Italy] was an Italian-born Roman lyric poet whose love poetry provides insight into the customs of Augustan Rome. Like Catullus and Tibullus, Propertius used a pseudonym for the object of his attention; many of his love poems were addressed to “Cynthia.”