In Rome, Accius refers to her as the offspring of Tyndareus (fr. 766–73) for another assertion of Zeus's parentage, see Gorg. 17–21 Blondell, R., Helen of Troy ( Oxford, 2013), 185 CrossRef Google Scholar (on Tro. See Allan, W., Euripides: Helen ( Cambridge, 2008), 148 Google Scholar on Hel. 34), but adheres to the myth of Zeus's parentage even after raising doubts. Euripides, for example, often employs the same patronymic Tyndaris ( Andr. But the fact that Tyndareus raised Helen made it natural to think of him as her human parent, and post-Homeric Greek authors frequently describe her as the daughter of Tyndareus without contradicting Zeus's biological fatherhood. I have wondered if this is another instance of pointed nomenclature, different in kind and less drastic than the use of Iphianassa but similar in its effect of restoring historical accuracy to Homer's account of people and events.

Why did Lucretius choose Iphianassa?Ĥ1 In Homer, Helen is called the daughter of Zeus, not of Tyndareus ( Il. From the fifth century b.c.e., the extant sources, beginning with Pindar ( Pyth. Hesiod refers to it in the Catalogue of Women, where he calls the daughter Iphimede ( Cat. The first known mention of this myth was in the Cypria, where, according to the summary of Proclus, the daughter was called Iphigenia (Kinkel, EGF 19 Bernabé, PEG 1.41). 157) mention a daughter of Agamemnon called Iphianassa, but in neither author is she the daughter who was sacrificed at Aulis (and in several versions rescued at the last moment by Artemis). Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum.It is clear that Lucretius treats the name Iphianassa as a synonym for Iphigenia. Hostia concideret mactatu maesta parentis,Įxitus ut classi felix faustusque daretur. Sed casta inceste nubendi tempore in ipso Nam sublata uirum manibus tremibundaque ad aras

Quod patrio princeps donarat nomine regem. Nec miserae prodesse in tali tempore quibat Muta metu terram genibus summissa petebat. Sensit et hunc propter ferrum celare ministros Religio peperit scelerosa atque impia facta.Ĭui simul infula uirgineos circumdata comptusĮt maestum simul ante aras adstare parentem Illud in his rebus uereor, ne forte rearis Here Lucretius illustrates the evils of religion with a description of Iphianassa's sacrifice at Aulis (1.80–101): The name Iphianassa occurs only once in Latin literature-in the proem to De Rerum Natura (= DRN).

Lucretius de rerum natura english