Elymus (mythology) explained

Elymus (Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: Ἔλυμος|Élymos) was the supposed Trojan ancestor of the Elymians (Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: Ἔλυμοι), an indigenous people of Sicily, in Greek and Roman legend.

Legends

Elymus was a Trojan, a natural son of Anchises^[1] and the half-brother of Eryx through Aphrodite.^[2] Previous to the emigration of Aeneas, also a son of Anchises, Elymus and Acestes had fled from Troy to Sicily, and had settled on the banks of the river Crinisus, in the country of the Sicani. When afterwards the Trojan refugees led by Aeneas also arrived there, Elymus built for them the towns of Segesta and Elyme, and the Trojans who settled in that part of Sicily called themselves Elymi, after Elymus.^[3]

Strabo^[4] calls him Elymnus, and says that he went to Sicily with Aeneas, and that they together took possession of the cities of Eryx and Lilybaeum. Elymus was further believed to have founded Asca and Entella in Sicily.^[5]

In the Aeneid, Vergil has Elymnus competing in the funeral games held on Sicily for Anchises, in the footrace in which Nisus and Euryalus are introduced.^[6] As Helymus, he is also listed among the competitors by Hyginus, who says he finished second to Euryalus and was awarded an Amazonian quiver.^[7]

References

Bibliography

• Dionysus of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities. English translation by Earnest Cary in the Loeb Classical Library, 7 volumes. Harvard University Press, 1937-1950. Online version at Bill Thayer's Web Site
• Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Antiquitatum Romanarum quae supersunt, Vol I-IV. . Karl Jacoby. In Aedibus B.G. Teubneri. Leipzig. 1885. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Gaius Julius Hyginus, Fabulae from The Myths of Hyginus translated and edited by Mary Grant. University of Kansas Publications in Humanistic Studies. Online version at the Topos Text Project.
• Maurus Servius Honoratus, In Vergilii carmina comentarii. Servii Grammatici qui feruntur in Vergilii carmina commentarii; recensuerunt Georgius Thilo et Hermannus Hagen. Georgius Thilo. Leipzig. B. G. Teubner. 1881. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Publius Vergilius Maro, Aeneid. Theodore C. Williams. trans. Boston. Houghton Mifflin Co. 1910. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Publius Vergilius Maro, Bucolics, Aeneid, and Georgics. J. B. Greenough. Boston. Ginn & Co. 1900. Latin text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Scholia to Lycophron's Alexandra, marginal notes by Isaak and Ioannis Tzetzes and others from the Greek edition of Eduard Scheer (Weidmann 1881). Online version at the Topos Text Project.. Greek text available on Archive.org
• Strabo, The Geography of Strabo. Edition by H.L. Jones. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Strabo, Geographica edited by A. Meineke. Leipzig: Teubner. 1877. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.

Notes and References

1. [John Tzetzes|Tzetzes]
2. Tzetzes ad Lycophron, 959
3. [Dionysius of Halicarnassus|Dionysius Halicarnassus]
4. Strabo 13.608 (p.608) (Index)
5. [Virgil]
6. Virgil, Aeneid 5.286 ff.
7. [Hyginus]