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A HEAVENLY SON OF ZEUS (DIOG. LAERT. 6.76 = CERCIDAS, FR. 54 LIVREA)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 March 2018

Juan L. López Cruces
Juan L. López Cruces*
Affiliation:
University of Almería (Spain)
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juanluis@ual.es
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Extract

In his Lives of Eminent Philosophers (6.75–6) Diogenes Laertius mentions, among the various traditions of how Diogenes the Cynic met his end, the belief that he committed suicide by retention of the breath. He cites as his authority for this the poet Cercidas of Megalopolis (c.290–post 215 b.c.e.), who, between some fifty and a hundred years after the death of the Cynic, celebrated his ascent to heaven in the following verses.

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Research Article
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The Classical Quarterly , Volume 68 , Issue 1 , May 2018 , pp. 91 - 96
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Copyright © The Classical Association 2018 

In his Lives of Eminent Philosophers (6.75–6)Footnote 2 Diogenes Laertius mentions, among the various traditions of how Diogenes the Cynic met his end, the belief that he committed suicide by retention of the breath. He cites as his authority for this the poet Cercidas of Megalopolis (c.290–post 215 b.c.e.),Footnote 3 who, between some fifty and a hundred years after the death of the Cynic, celebrated his ascent to heaven in the following verses:Footnote 4

… οὐ μὰν ὁ πάρος γα Σινωπεὺς
τῆνος ὁ βακτροφόρας, διπλοείματος, αἰθεριβόσκας,
ἀλλ’ ἀνέβα χεῖλος ποτ’ ὀδόντας ἐρείσας
καὶ τὸ πνεῦμα συνδακών· Zανὸς γόνος ἦς γὰρ ἀλαθέως
οὐράνιός τε κύων.

… Quite unlike thatFootnote 5 was the great man who hailed from Sinope (he carried only his staff; his garb was a cloak doubled over; he who dined and supped under the bright sky); no, he made his ascent by clenching his teeth over his lips, and biting off his breath. For he was in truth a son of Zeus and the heavenly dog.Footnote 6

In his ascent to heaven (3 ἀνέβα) and in his subsequent conversion into a star—in this case into the star Sirius, or ‘Dog Star’ (Canis Maior)—, Cercidas seems to be following an older tradition on Diogenes’ catasterism.Footnote 7 It may already have been present in the epigram which could be read at the funeral tomb, erected in his honour at the gates of Corinth by the men of influence of the city.Footnote 8 The conversion into the ‘heavenly dog’ (5 οὐράνιος … κύων) is preceded by a characterization of Diogenes the mortal man (1 ὁ πάρος … Σινωπεύς). Cercidas makes use of three epithets in the hymnic style,Footnote 9 which refer to three elements singling him out, later to become characteristic of his followers, the Cynics:Footnote 10 the stick (βακτροφόρας), the double cloak (διπλοείματος) and, thanks to the knapsack he used to carry, his habit of ‘eating under the open sky’ (αἰθεριβόσκας).

In my opinion, this is the most reasonable interpretation of the enigmatic epithet αἰθεριβόσκας.Footnote 11 Indeed, since Diogenes did not own a house, he did not distinguish between public and private spaces that regulated life in the cities, and he did everything outdoors.Footnote 12 Additionally, the interpretation of αἰθέρι– as locative dative finds two striking parallels: the compound epithet ἀερίοικοι, which appeared in an unspecified comedy by Eubulus as the third element of a tricolon close to that of Cercidas (fr. 137.1 K.–A. ἀνιπτόποδες χαμαιευνάδες ἀερίοικοι);Footnote 13 and the sentence καὶ ἐν ἀέ[ρι] τ̣έθραμμαι in P.Genev. inv. 271, col. iii.45–6 Martin, which belongs to a dialogue, Cynic in its sentiments, between Alexander and the Brahmans.Footnote 14 Therefore, αἰθέρι– can be perfectly understood as a synonym of ἀέρι in these passages, thus providing the meaning of ‘air’.Footnote 15

Nevertheless, the catasterism alluded to in the following lines provides the compound αἰθεριβόσκας with a second meaning, appropriate to the new status of Diogenes after his death:Footnote 16 if its first meaning is a result of what the Cynic did during his life, then, after his conversion into the heavenly dog (5 οὐράνιος κύων), it can be reinterpreted as ‘feeding in the sky’ or, better, ‘in the ether’, now giving αἰθέρι– its original and more limited meaning. The first known translation of the compound, by Benedetto Brugnoli, fits with this amphibology of the epithet: pascens in aethere.Footnote 17

Further evidence for this second interpretation of the compound promoting the specific meaning of αἰθήρ is provided by the etymology of the name of Diogenes as Zανὸς γόνος in line 4: the Cynic αἰθεριβόσκας is the son of Zeus αἰθέρι ναίων.Footnote 18 This genealogy—possibly the origin of the idealized tradition of Diogenes as a θεῖος ἀνήρ who accomplishes a divine mission among men—Footnote 19 prompts the reader to associate him with a particular son of Zeus, whom the Cynic regarded as his model in life, namely Heracles.Footnote 20 He was the hero who rid human life of monsters and impurities, and who, on seeing that it was pointless to continue living, decided to commit suicide, just like Diogenes. The choice of the phrase Zανὸς γόνος among all the expressions used to refer to the offspring of Zeus—namely Διὸς/Zηνὸς παῖς, τέκνον, ἔκγονος, κοῦρος/κούρη, γένος, γόνος, γένεθλον—is probably an allusion to the hero as well. According to the documentation at our disposal, before Cercidas the phrase had been employed only once by Homer (Il. 14.449) of a great grandson of Zeus, Idomeneus, and twice by Sophocles in Trachiniae with reference to Heracles, whose father, as the hero himself proclaims, ‘is Zeus, lord of the starry sky’ (1106 ὁ τοῦ κατ’ ἄστρα Zηνὸς αὐδηθεὶς γόνος).Footnote 21 The link between Diogenes and Heracles would have been even stronger if we could assume that Cercidas had actually known the tradition which recognized an image (εἴδωλον) of the hero in the constellation of the ‘Kneeler’ (ὁ ἐν γόνασιν), raised up by Zeus to heaven as a reward for one of his ἆθλα.Footnote 22

However, between Diogenes and Heracles there is a distinctive trait which concerns their respective statuses in the remote ether.Footnote 23 On the one hand, the Cynic, on becoming the star of Sirius, will reside in the ether and not in the Underworld (cf. Anth. Pal. 7.64.4 νῦν δὲ θανὼν ἀστέρας οἶκον ἔχει), while, on the other, it is not exactly Heracles himself who will live in the starry ether but, at best, a ghostly image of him, as the true god will live in a palace on Mt Olympus in the company of his wife Hebe.Footnote 24 Thus, ether will be the abode of the true Diogenes and of the spectral Heracles.

In this regard, I am inclined to think that Cercidas has adapted the motif of the dwelling in the ether not from HeraclesFootnote 25 but from other offspring of Zeus: the Dioscuri (Διόσκουροι), whose name—and this may be relevant—also means ‘sons of Zeus’.Footnote 26 Their abode in the ether after leaving the world of the mortals was known of old,Footnote 27 but it was Euripides who gave it a special prominence. In Electra, the Chorus insist on it when they salute Queen Clytemnestra, chanting ‘sister of the two brave sons of Zeus, who live among the stars in the burning ether!’ (El. 990–2 τοῖν ἀγαθοῖν ξύγγονε κούροιν | Διός, οἳ φλογερὰν αἰθέρ’ ἐν ἄστροις | ναίουσι). In Helen, Teucer explains to Helen—who does not know the whereabouts of her brothers—the rumour that ‘they have become gods who resemble stars’ (Hel. 140 ἄστροις σφ’ ὁμοιωθέντε φάσ’ εἶναι θεώ). The expression is ambiguous: we cannot be certain whether Euripides alludes to their becoming the constellation Gemini—of which there is sure evidence only in the Hellenistic and in the Roman periods—or if they have not yet turned into stars but only resemble them when appearing to sailors-in-need in the guise of St Elmo's Fire.Footnote 28 The same ambiguity is revealed by the references to the twins in Trojan Women (Tro. 1000–1 Κάστορος νεανίου | τοῦ συζύγου τ’ ἔτ’ ὄντος, οὐ κατ’ ἄστρα πω) and in Iphigenia in Aulis (IA 768–9 τῶν ἐν αἰθέρι δισ|σῶν Διοσκούρων). Near the end of Helen, before the epiphany of the Dioscuri, the Chorus sing a propemptikon asking them to save Helen crossing the ether with their horses as δαίμονες, ‘who dwell in the heavens beneath the whirling of the bright stars’Footnote 29 (Hel. 1495–500 μόλοιτέ ποθ’ ἵππιον οἶμον | δι’ αἰθέρος ἱέμενοι, | παῖδες Τυνδαρίδαι, | λαμπρῶν ἀστέρων ὑπ’ ἀέλ|λαις οἳ ναίετ’ οὐράνιοι, | σωτῆρε τᾶς Ἑλένας). When they finally appear on stage, they announce to Helen (1666–9) that she is to share a cult with them, perhaps the same cult Apollo refers to in the epilogue of Orestes,Footnote 30 where he assigns her an abode, together with her brothers, ‘in remote ether’ (Or. 1635–7 Zηνὸς γὰρ οὖσαν ζῆν νιν ἄφθιτον χρεών, | Κάστορί τε Πολυδεύκει τ’ ἐν αἰθέρος πτυχαῖς | σύνθακος ἔσται. Cf. Or. 1683–5).

We know that Cercidas made extensive use of Euripides. His second meliamb (2 Livrea = 2 Lomiento = 5 Powell) begins with a reflection on Euripides, fr. 929a Kannicht δισσὰ πνεύματα πνεῖς, Ἔρως, as the starting point to develop the image of the ship of love's voyage through a calm sea and a stormy one (cf. Cercidas 2.11 εὖ λέγων Εὐριπίδας).Footnote 31 Furthermore, reminiscences of Euripides’ Antiope have been detected in the third meliamb (3 Livrea = 3 Lomiento = 7 Powell);Footnote 32 in Amphion, one of the characters of this play, Cercidas may have recognized a forerunner of his own political and musical activity. He may therefore have also read some of these plays where he mentions the Dioscuri—namely Helen Footnote 33 but Electra, Trojan Women, Iphigenia in Aulis and Orestes as well—,Footnote 34 thus benefitting both from the etymology of their name as ‘sons of Zeus’ and from their abode in the ether to envisage Diogenes’ catasterism and to coin a compound epithet as polyvalent as αἰθεριβόσκας.

Footnotes

1

Abbreviations of ancient authors and works follow, whenever possible, those of OCD4. I cite the Lives of Eminent Philosophers of Diogenes Laertius according to T. Dorandi's edition (Cambridge, 2013) and the text of Euripides’ tragedies from J. Diggle's OCT edition (3 vols.) (Oxford, 19872, 19892, 1994). With the testimonies on Diogenes the Cynic and on Antisthenes I include in brackets their number in the edition by G. Giannantoni, Socratis et Socraticorum reliquiae (Rome, 1990), vol. 2, sections SSR V B (Diogenes) and V A (Antisthenes).

References

2 See von Fritz, K., Quellenuntersuchungen zu Leben und Philosophie des Diogenes von Sinope (Leipzig, 1927), 30–3, 40Google Scholar; Livrea, E., ‘La morte di Diogene cinico’, Filologia e forme letterarie. Studi Della Corte (Urbino, 1987), 1.427–33, at 1.427–9Google Scholar, and n. 4 below.

3 See Gerhard, G.A., ‘Kerkidas’ 2, RE XI.1 (1921), 294–309Google Scholar; Goulet-Cazé, M.-O. and López Cruces, J.L., ‘Cercidas de Mégalopolis’, in Goulet, R. (ed.), Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques 2 (Paris, 1994), 269–81Google Scholar.

4 Diog. Laert. 6.76–7 περὶ δὲ τοῦ θανάτου διάφοροι λέγονται λόγοι· οἱ μὲν γὰρ πολύποδα φαγόντα ὠμὸν χολερικῶς ληφθῆναι καὶ ὧδε τελευτῆσαι· οἱ δὲ τὸ πνεῦμα συγκρατήσαντα, ὧν ἐστι καὶ Κερκίδας ὁ Μεγαλοπολίτης ἢ Κρής, λέγων ἐν τοῖς μελιάμβοις οὕτως· ‘οὐ μὰν κ.τ.λ. (= Cercidas, fr. 54 Livrea = 60 Lomiento = 1 Powell = Diog. Cyn. SSR V B 97). Cercidas’ fragment on Diogenes’ death may reflect—according to Livrea (n. 2), 428—a version accepted in influential Cynic circles of the third century. (Cercidas is labelled as a Cynic in the colophon of P.Oxy. 1082 Κερκίδα κυνὸς [Με]λίαμβοι.) I reproduce the fragment as edited by Livrea (n. 2), 429, who in the last sentence accepts two divergences from the text as transmitted in the MSS of Diogenes Laertius, which read ἦς γὰρ ἀλαθέως Διογένης Zανὸς γόνος οὐράνιός τε κύων: 1. the name Διογένης, which may have appeared in the previous section of the poem, now lost, is regarded as an intrusion into the text of what had been an explanatory gloss of the phrase Zανὸς γόνος, and therefore must be deleted, and 2. Zανὸς γόνος must itself be transposed. These divergences were proposed by von Arnim, H., ‘Zu den Gedichten des Kerkidas’, WS 34 (1912), 1–27, at 6 and 25–6Google Scholar. Lomiento, Both L., Cercidas (Rome, 1993), 121, 308Google Scholar and Dorandi (n. 1), 452 have retained the unmodified text.

5 οὐ μὰν at the beginning of the fragment implies a contrast between Diogenes and somebody or something previously mentioned. At least three possibilities have been suggested. First, it may be a contrast with another philosopher, perhaps an elderly hedonist boorishly clinging to life (Webster, T.B.L., Hellenistic Poetry and Art [London, 1964], 231Google Scholar) or with a degenerate Cynic (Pohlenz, M., ‘Die hellenistische Poesie und die Philosophie’, Χάριτες Leo zum 60. Geburtstag dargebracht [Berlin, 1911], 76–112Google Scholar [= repr. Hildesheim, 1965, 1–37], at 80 n. 4); see also Livrea, E., ‘Un frammento di Cleante ed i Meliambi di P.Oxy. 1082’, ZPE 67 (1987), 37–41, at 40Google Scholar. Second (and more speculatively), the contrast may be with Alexander the Great, who was sometimes considered a son of Zeus (F. Williams, forthcoming). Third and finally, if we assume that Cercidas’ poem was informed by Anth. Pal. 7.64 (see n. 8 below), the contrast may be between, on the one hand, the expectations of a traveller who, on visiting the tomb of Diogenes in Corinth, thinks that the Cynic lies in the Underworld and, on the other, the answer he receives from the dog that guards the tomb, who explains to him that Diogenes is no longer there but now in heaven (López Cruces, J.L., Les méliambes de Cercidas de Mégalopolis [Amsterdam, 1995], 239–40Google Scholar).

6 Translation by Frederick Williams.

7 On Diogenes’ catasterism, see Pohlenz (n. 5), 80 n. 4; Livrea (n. 2), 432; and Lomiento (n. 4), 309; on Sirius, see Eratosth. [Cat.] 33 and Aratus, Phaen. 329–37, 340. Cf. Anth. Pal. 7.64 (= SSR V B 110), adesp.: εἰπέ, κύον, τίνος ἀνδρὸς ἐφεστὼς σῆμα φυλάσσεις; | —‘τοῦ Κυνός.’ —ἀλλὰ τίς ἦν οὗτος ἀνὴρ ὁ Κύων; | —‘Διογένης.’ —γένος εἰπέ. —‘Σινωπεύς.’ —ὃς πίθον ᾤκει; | —‘καὶ μάλα· νῦν δὲ θανὼν ἀστέρας οἶκον ἔχει.’ Auson. Epigr. 54 Green (= SSR V B 111) is a free adaptation of this epigram.

8 Cf. Diog. Laert. 6.78 ἐπέστησάν τε αὐτῷ κίονα καὶ ἐπ’ αὐτῷ λίθου Παρίου κύνα. According to Häusle, H., Sag mir, o Hund—wo der Hund begraben liegt. Das Grabepigramm für Diogenes von Sinope (Hildesheim, Zürich and New York, 1989)Google Scholar, the epigram which originally accompanied the tomb is Anth. Pal. 7.64 (cited in the previous note). However that may be, this epigram is probably very old, dated to soon after the Cynic's death by Follet, S., ‘Les Cyniques dans la poésie épigrammatique à l’époque impériale’, in Goulet-Cazé, M.-O. and Goulet, R. (edd.), Le Cynisme ancien et ses prolongements (Paris, 1993), 359–80, at 363Google Scholar.

9 The two cola of the line where the three hymnic epithets appear form a perfect hexameter, with the second colon beginning with two short syllables instead of the regular enhoplian, which begins with a short or with a long syllable (cf. Heph. 15.6 p. 49 Consbruch). This may be a stylistic effect, through which Cercidas seeks to evoke the hexametric tradition of hymnic and epic poetry.

10 Cf. especially Ps.-Diog. Ep. 7.1 ἀμπέχομαι τρίβωνα διπλοῦν καὶ πήραν φέρω κατ’ ὤμων καὶ ῥάβδον ἔχω διὰ χειρός and Anth. Pal. 11.158.1–4 (Antipater) αἰάζει πήρη τε καὶ Ἡράκλειον ἔρεισμα (F. Williams : ἄριστον MS) | βριθὺ Σινωπίτου Διογένευς ῥόπαλον | καὶ τὸ χύδην ῥυπόεντι πίνῳ πεπαλαγμένον ἔσθος | διπλάδιον, κρυερῶν ἀντίπαλον νιφάδων. (ἔρεισμα, which has been proposed by Williams per litteras, is supported by the parallel of Eur. HF 108–9 ἀμφὶ βάκτροις | ἔρεισμα, 254 οὐ σκῆπτρα, χειρὸς δεξιᾶς ἐρείσματα.) On the Cynic's outfit, see Williams, F., ‘Two notes on Cercidas of Megalopolis’, EClás 87 (1984), 351–7, at 356 n. 40Google Scholar; Giannantoni (n. 1), 4.499–505; Goulet-Cazé, M.-O., ‘Le cynisme à l’époque impériale’, ANRW II 36.4 (1990), 2720–833, at 2738–46Google Scholar.

11 It was proposed for the first time by Henricus Stephanus (sub diuo pastus) in his second edition of the Lives of Diogenes Laertius ([Geneva, 1593], 414); cf. Tomasso Aldobrandini's sub dio uescens in his translation of Laertius, posthumously published in Venice in 1594, on page 156. It has been supported with good arguments by Williams (n. 10), 354–7, who translates it as ‘eating out of doors’. An alternative interpretation is ‘feeding on ether’, which implies an understanding of αἰθέρι– as instrumental dative; this has been supported by Giangrande, G., ‘Cercidas, fr. 1 Powell’, REA 76 (1984), 213–16CrossRefGoogle Scholar from the parallels of Ar. Ran. 892 αἰθήρ, ἐμὸν βόσκημα and Soph. Aj. 558–9 τέως δὲ κούφοις πνεύμασιν βόσκου, νέαν ψυχὴν ἀτάλλων. The interpretation of the compound as ‘living under the open sky’ is not taken into account, in so far as it implies giving –βόσκας (see LSJ s.v. βόσκω) the vague meaning of ‘living’. It was first proposed by W. Crönert in his revision of Passow's, F. Wörterbuch der griechischen Sprache (Göttingen, 1912), 1.52Google Scholar.

12 The testimonies of this exclusively public dimension of the Cynic are numerous, including, for example, Diog. Laert. 6.69 (= SSR V B 147) εἰώθει δὲ πάντα ποιεῖν ἐν τῷ μέσῳ, καὶ τὰ Δήμητρος καὶ τὰ Ἀφροδίτης, 6.58 (= SSR V B 186), Arr. Epict. diss. 3.22.15 ἐν ὑπαίθρῳ, 16.87 ὕπαιθρος δίαιτα, Dio Chrys. Or. 6 (= SSR V B 583) passim, Max. Tyr. Diss. 36.5 (= SSR V B 299) συνήθης τῷ ἀέρι. (Parallels adduced by Williams [n. 10], 355 n. 33 and Livrea [n. 2], 431.) An especially illustrative testimony from the Arab tradition, Muntaḫab Ṣiwān al-Ḥikma, Diogenes 1 (= fr. 151.1 Gutas), may now be added to them: ‘He would eat from day to day; whenever he got hungry he ate bread wherever he would find it, regardless whether it was day or night, and regardless whether he was in the company of a king or commoners, not being ashamed of anybody.’ Translation by D. Gutas, ‘Sayings by Diogenes preserved in Arabic’, in Goulet-Cazé and Goulet (n. 8), 475–518, at 490.

13 Athenaeus (3.113f) directed this hexameter (inspired by Il. 16.235) against the Cynics, but there is no evidence for its original context; see Hunter, R.L., Eubulus The Fragments (Cambridge, 1983), 228–9Google Scholar.

14 Parallel adduced by Lomiento (n. 4), 307.

15 It would therefore have the same meaning as the first part of the compound αἰθριοκοιτεῖν in Theoc. Id. 8.78. In its favour is the fact that the Homeric distinction between ἀήρ as the lower layer of heaven and αἰθήρ as the upper one reaching the vault of heaven (cf. Schol. Il. 2.458 [Aristonicus] δι’ αἰθέρος] ὅτι καθ’ Ὅμηρον πρῶτος ἀπὸ γῆς ἐστιν ὁ ἀήρ, εἶτα μετὰ τὰ νέφη αἰθήρ, ὃν καὶ ὁμωνύμως τῷ στερεμνίῳ οὐρανὸν καλεῖ) was not always observed; see Livrea on Ap. Rhod. Argon. 4.443. In fact, as Kahn, C.H., Anaximander and the Origins of Greek Cosmology (New York, 1960), 145Google Scholar pointed out, ‘The primary contrast between ἀήρ and αἰθήρ is a question of visibility, not of relative location’.

16 On the typically Alexandrian ambiguity of the compound, see Giangrande (n. 11), 216, according to whom αἰθερι– conveys two different meanings: αἰθήρ as the principle of existence, in so far as it allows breathing; αἰθήρ as the purity of a soul as spiritual as Diogenes’. My proposal also conveys two meanings, although not simultaneous but successive, in harmony with the transit from the human Diogenes to the heavenly one.

17 B. Brugnoli (ed.), Diogenes Laertius. De Vita et Moribus philosophorum (Venetiis: Nicolas Jenson, 1475). (I have used the edition dated to 1490; the translation is on fol. 60v, 7.) In the Latin version by Ambrogio Traversari accompanying the text of Diogenes Laertius’ Lives, Brugnoli interpolated his own translation of the poetic passages. These had been entrusted by Traversari to Francesco Filelfo, but in the end they did not appear in the original publication (1424–1431); see Dorandi, T., Laertiana (Berlin and New York, 2009), 223–4Google Scholar.

18 As pointed out by Williams (n. 10), 356–7. For the formula αἰθέρι ναίων, cf. Il. 2.416, 4.166, Od. 15.523, Hes. Op. 18, fr. 343.9 M.–W., Thgn. 756; also Eur. fr. 487 ὄμνυμι δ’ ἱερὸν αἰθέρ’, οἴκησιν Διός (parodied in Ar. Thesm. 272 αἰθέρ’, οἴκησιν Διός and Ran. 100, 311 αἰθέρα Διὸς δωμάτιον), Bacch. 393–4 αἰθέρα ναίον|τες ὁρῶσιν τὰ βροτῶν Oὐρανίδαι. On the identification of Zeus with αἰθήρ, cf. Eur. frr. 941, 877 Kannicht.

19 Knowledge of the tradition was widespread because of writers from the Imperial era; cf. e.g. Diog. Laert. 6.20–1 (= SSR V B 2), Ps.-Diog. Ep. 7.1 (= SSR V B 537) καλοῦμαι … κύων ὁ οὐρανοῦ, οὐχ ὁ γῆς, Arr. Epict. diss. 3.22.23 (= SSR V B 27) ἄγγελος ἀπὸ Διὸς ἀπέσταλται πρὸς τοὺς ἀνθρώπους, 38.69 ὅλον πρὸς τῇ διακονίᾳ τοῦ θεοῦ …, τὸν ἄγγελον καὶ κατάσκοπον καὶ κήρυκα τῶν θεῶν, Max. Tyr. Diss. 36.5 (= SSR V B 299) ἐλευθερωθέντα ὑπὸ τοῦ Διὸς καὶ τοῦ Ἀπόλλωνος, Julian, Or. 9 (6).8.188a–c (= SSR V B 8), 7.7.211b–d (= SSR V B 10). See Goulet-Cazé, M.-O., ‘Le livre VI de Diogène Laërce: analyse de sa structure et réflexions méthodologiques’, ANRW II 36.6 (1992), 3880–4048, at 3913–14Google Scholar, and M. Billerbeck, ‘Le cynisme idéalisé d’Épictète à Julien’, in Goulet-Cazé and Goulet (n. 8), 319–38, at 320.

20 Diogenes may have been influenced by the works devoted to the hero by Antisthenes the Socratic. Among his works (cf. Diog. Laert. 6.15–18 = SSR V A 41) were Heracles the Greater or On Strength (Book 4), Heracles or Midas, and Heracles or On Intelligence, or On Strength (Book 10); cf. SSR V A 92–9. On Heracles in the literary tradition, especially in Cynicism, see R. Höistad, Cynic Hero and Cynic King (Diss., University of Uppsala) (Lund, 1948), 22–73. According to Diog. Laert. 6.80 (= SSR V B 117), Diogenes the Cynic composed a tragedy called Heracles, now lost.

21 Translation by Jebb, R.C., Sophocles. The Plays and Fragments (Cambridge, 1892), 5.161Google Scholar. See López Cruces, J.L., ‘Sófocles, Diógenes y Cércidas’, in Jiménez, A. Pérez et al. (edd.), Sófocles el hombre, Sófocles el poeta (Málaga, 2004), 245–57, at 253–5Google Scholar. The other passage is Soph. Trach. 956 τὸν Zηνὸς ἄλκιμον γόνον, where Triclinius’ Zηνός, although seeming the correct reading, has been replaced in all the MSS by Διός, which will not scan; see Easterling ad loc.

22 Cf. Eratosth. [Cat.] 3 and 4; Avienus, Arat. 175–90. See Hard, R. (trans.), Eratosthenes and Hyginus: Constellation Myths, with Aratus's Phaenomena (Oxford, 2015), 26–31Google Scholar, and Dorda, E. Calderón, ‘Heracles: mito y astronomía. A propósito de Arato, Phaen. 63–70’, in Pérez-Jiménez, A. (ed.), Estudios en honor del Profesor Carlos García Gual (Saragossa, 2014), 203–12Google Scholar.

23 The remote ether is the space between the celestial dome where the stars lay (cf. Eur. Ion 1147 οὐρανὸς ἀθροίζων ἄστρ’ ἐν αἰθέρος κύκλῳ) and the flat surface that men distinguish from below; see Graz, L., Le feu dans l'Iliade et l'Odyssée. ΠΥΡ: champ d'emploi et signification (Paris, 1965), 82Google Scholar. Cf. Eur. Or. 1636 ἐν αἰθέρος πτυχαῖς (see Willink ad loc.), Hel. 866 αἰθέρος μυχούς, Med. 1297 ἐς αἰθέρος βάθος (with Page ad loc.), fr. 978.3 Kannicht ἐκ βαθείας … αἰθέρος. Assaël, J., Euripide, philosophe et poète tragique (Louvain, Namur, Paris and Sterling, Victoria, 2001), 45–72Google Scholar has compiled all the poetic uses of αἰθήρ up to the time of Euripides.

24 Cf. Od. 11.601–4, Hes. Theog. 950–5, Cat. fr. 25.26–33 M.–W. Although the authenticity of these passages was challenged in antiquity (cf. Schol. Od. 11.385, 11.604 and Il. 2.4; for Hesiod, see West on Hes. Theog. 947–55), the artistic tradition actually shows that at the beginning of the sixth century b.c.e. the hero's apotheosis, his wedding with Hebe, and his abode on Mt Olympus were all bona fide pieces of information; see Gantz, EGM 460–3, Wilkins on Eur. Heracl. 910–18, and Hard (n. 22), xiv.

25 Cf., after Cercidas’ time, Lucian, De mort. Peregr. 33 χρῆναι γὰρ τὸν Ἡρακλείως βεβιωκότα (sc. Περεγρῖνον) Ἡρακλείως ἀποθανεῖν καὶ ἀναμιχθῆναι τῷ αἰθέρι, and, in the fifteenth century, the Anon. Exegesis in Hes. Theog. 394.11–13 Flach ὁ Ἡρακλῆς, ἤτοι ὁ ἥλιος, ὁ τοῦ ἀέρος ὢν κλέος, ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ Διός, ἤτοι ὁ ὅμοιος τῷ αἰθέρι.

26 See Gantz, EGM 318–28 and Walker, H.J., The Twin Horse Gods (London and New York, 2015), 126–96Google Scholar.

27 In Homeric Hymn 33 they already appear as skilful riders hurtling through the ether (13 δι’ αἰθέρος ἀΐξαντες) to protect sailors from the perils of the stormy sea, perhaps in the guise of St Elmo's Fire (see below). Cf. Eur. El. 1349 διὰ … αἰθερίας στείχοντε πλακός.

28 Cf. Eratosth. [Cat.] 10; Hor. Carm. 1.3.2 sic fratres Helenae, lucida sidera. See Burian on Eur. Hel. 140; in favour of the catasterism, see Pearson and Calderón Dorda ad loc., and against it, see Kannicht ad loc.

29 Translation by Allan, W., Euripides Helen (Cambridge, 2008), 326Google Scholar. On the meaning of the expression, see Kannicht on Hel. 1495–511.

30 On this cult, see Willink on Or. 1635–7.

31 Assuming that Lomiento, L., ‘Nota a Cercida, fr. 2, 11–12 D. (= 2, 1112 Livrea)’, QUCC 27 (1987), 97–100Google Scholar is right in retaining the transmitted word order of lines 2.11–12 (where the name of Euripides appears), the predilection Cercidas had for the tragedian led him even to break the alternation of regular meliambic cola precisely at this point in order to introduce a metrical sequence recurrent in Euripides’ plays.

32 See López Cruces, J.L., ‘Cércidas y la Antíope de Eurípides’, Emerita 80 (2012), 275–94CrossRefGoogle Scholar (DOI: 10.3989/emerita.2012.14.1111).

33 The same uncertainty that Teucer in Hel. 137–43 manifests in the presence of Helen about the whereabouts of the twins, who may have died or may have turned into gods, is found in the dialogic epigram on Diogenes’ catasterism by Auson. 54.5–6 Green (= SSR V B 111): —obiit? —non obiit sed abit … clari flagrat qua stella Leonis, | additus est iustae nunc canis Erigonae.

34 On the reception of these plays up to the third century b.c.e., see Carrara, P., Il testo di Euripide nell'Antichità (sec. IV a.C. – sec. VIII d.C.) (Firenze, 2009), 97–9Google Scholar (no. 14 = P.Duke inv. MF 74.18 [615], including Or. 939–54), 114–16 (no. 18 = P.Vindob. inv. G 2315, incl. Or. 338–44), 116–19 (no. 19 = P.Leid. inv. 510, incl. IA 1500?–9, 784–93?), 120–2 (no. 20–1 = P.Hib. I, 7 and P.Berol. inv. 12319, incl. El. 367–79 and 254–6), 124–6 (no. 24 = P.Yale I, 20, incl. Hel. 1688–92).