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BC; in
Mythographi Graeci
, Leipsig, vol. 2).
Pind.
Pindar (lyric poet, 518–438 BC).
Isth.: Isthmian Odes; Nem.: Nemean Odes; 01.: Olympian Odes; Pyth.: Pythian Odes
.
Plut.
Thes
.
Plutarch (first-second century AD) ,
Life of Theseus
.
Procl.
Proclus (of uncertain date, author of summaries of the early epics in the Trojan cycle; translated in
Hesiod and the Homeric Hymns
, Loeb series).
QS
Quintus of Smyrna,
Posthomerica
(epic poem on the fall of Troy, fourth century AD; translated in the Loeb series).
sc.
scholion. (The scholia were marginal notes by ancient and medieval scholars, which often preserve material from lost mythographical works. French translations of some of the scholia relevant to the text of the
Library
can be found in the notes to Carriere’s edition; see Select Bibliography.)
 
NB. In references to scholia conventional abbreviations have been used.
Theog
.
Hesiod’s
Theogony
.
Thuc.
Thucydides,
History of the Peloponnesian War
(fifth century BC).
Tzetz.
Johannes Tzetzes (Byzantine scholar, twelfth-century AD).
VM
The Vatican Mythographers (ed. G. H. Bode,
Scriptores Rerum Mythicarum Latini Tres
, Celle, 1834; late Latin compendia).
    Dates: all are BC unless otherwise indicated.
    Cross-references: these are selective, and the Index should also be consulted.
    Textual matters: notes on these, and on points of language, have been kept to a bare minimum, except with regard to dubious passages andinterpolations (marked by square brackets in the text) and to etymologies, which depend on wordplay in the original Greek (indicated by italics in the text).
    Homer and Hesiod: it is convenient to refer to ‘Homer’, but this implies no judgement as to whether the
Iliad
and the
Odyssey
were composed by the same author, or on the extent to which each poem can be regarded as the work of a single poet. There is disagreement on whether the Hesiodic
Theogony
and
Works and Days
were written by the same author; and other works attributed to Hesiod by the ancients, notably the
Catalogue of Women
and the
Shield
, were certainly written at a later period.
    Modern authors: all references are to editors or translators of the
Library
(see Select Bibliography).
    Pherecydes, Acousilaos, and Hellanicos: for these early mythographer-historians, who are important sources for Apollodorus, see the Introduction.

Ouranos. . . Ge : respectively the Sky and the Earth (who was also referred to as Gaia, the form preferred by Hesiod). For the early history of the universe, cf.
Theog
. 116 ff., but the present account sometimes diverges significantly (perhaps following a theogony from the epic cycle, summarized by Proclus in Photius 319A). In
Theog
., Chaos—representing a yawning gap rather than disorder— comes into being first, followed by Gaia, Tartaros, and Eros (116 ff.), and Gaia gives birth to Ouranos from herself (126 f.).

the Cyclopes : cf.
Theog
. 139 ff.; named the ‘Round-Eyed’ because of their single round eye. Their individual names were suggested by their prime function, as the beings who armed Zeus with his thunder (see p. 28):
(a)sterope
means lightning,
bronte
, thunder, and
arges
refers to the brightness associated with the thunderbolt. For other kinds of Cyclops, see p. 63 and note and pp. 164 f.

in Hades : here used in a loose sense to refer to the Underworld as a whole. In the early tradition at least, a clear distinction was drawn between Hades (where the souls of dead mortals dwell) and Tartaros, a dungeon for gods and monsters that lay far beneath it (cf.
Theog
. 720–819,
Il;
. 8. 13 ff.).

who had been thrown into Tartaros : only the Cyclopes and Hundred-Handers; Hesiod’s account, in which Ouranos also hides away their Titan children
(Theog
. 154 ff), diverges significantly.

from the drops of blood that flowed out : from those that fell on Ge, the Earth, causing her to conceive the Furies, and the Giants whomshe will bring to birth later (p. 34); cf.
Theog
. 183 ff. (In Ap.’s theogony the severed