Linus and Coroebus

Fr. 25e Harder (= 27 Pf., 28 Mass.) Stob. 4. 24

Fr. 25f Harder (= 28 Pf., = 29 Mass.) A.D. Synt. 83.4

Fr. 26 (= 26 Pf., = 30 Mass.)
  1-16 P. Ryl. 13 col. II [image], Trismegistos 59377
  5 & 8 Σ BDPTU Pi. N. 1d
  14 Valckenaer 

Fr. 30 (= 30 Pf., = 32 Mass.) EtGen. AB s.v. δασπλῆτις

This episode related the death of Linus and the festival that originated in his honor. The story takes place at the beginning of Argive history, before the return of Danaus. Crotopus—the grandfather of Linus—was the son of Agenor, and grandson of Inachus. Apollo, on his return from slaying the Pytho at Delphi, encountered Crotopus' daughter, Psamathe, and had sexual intercourse with her. She became pregnant with Linus, and, when he was born, she hid him among the lambs where he was torn apart by Crotopus' dogs. The Arneia (an Argive festival of the lambs) commemorated this event. Apollo, in anger at these deaths, sent the monster, Poina, to ravage Argos.

Coroebus was the hero who avenged Linus and his mother by killing Poina. After Apollo sent a second plague, Coroebus went to Apollo's oracle at Delphi to learn what he should do. He was told to leave Argos forever, taking a tripod from the temple and, wherever he dropped it, build a temple to Apollo and found a city. The city was Tripodiskos in the Megarid. Statius has quite a long version of this story in his Thebaid (1.557–668), which is clearly indebted to the Aitia; it is related also in Pausanias (1.43.7).

Bibliography

Durbec, Yannick. 2003. "Callimaque, Aitia fr. 26 Pfeiffer (= 30 Massimilla) et la tradition rhapsodique.' Aevum Antiquum 3:531-8.

Stephens, Susan A. 2002. "Linus Song." Hermathena, no. 173/174:13-28.