User:Paul August/Nicostratus (mythology)

Nicostratus (mythology)

Sources

Ancient

Apollodorus

3.11.1

Now Menelaus had by Helen a daughter Hermione and, according to some, a son Nicostratus;¹ and by a female slave Pieris, an Aetolian, or, according to Acusilaus, by Tereis, he had a son Megapenthes;² and by a nymph Cnossia, according to Eumelus, he had a son Xenodamus.

¹ Homer definitely affirms （Hom. Od. 4.12-14; compare Hom. Il. 3.174ff.） that Helen had only one child, her daughter Hermione. But according to Hesiod, whose verses are quoted by the Scholiast on Soph. El. 539, Helen afterwards bore a son Nicostratus to Menelaus. Compare Scholiast on Hom. Od. iv.11, who tells us further that according to more recent writers Helen had a son Corythus or Helenus by Alexander （Paris）. According to Dictys Cretensis v.5, Helen had three sons by Alexander, namely, Bunomus, Corythus, and Idaeus, who were accidentally killed at Troy through the collapse of a vaulted roof. The Scholiast on Hom. Il. iii.175, says that the Lacedaemonians worshipped two sons of Helen, to wit, Nicostratus and Aethiolas. ...

Cinaethon

fr. 3 [= Porphyry ap. schol. (D) Iliad 3.175]

From Helen and Menelaus Ariaithos records a son Maraphius, from whom the Maraphians of Persia descend; or as Cinaethon says, Nicostratus.³¹

³¹ For Nicostratus see “Hesiod,” fr. 175.

Hesiod

fr. 248 Most [= fr. 175 MW; *9 H]

248 (175 MW; *9 H) Schol. in Soph. El. 539a (p. 186 Xenis), de filiis Helenae

248¹ Scholia on Sophocles’ Electra

Hesiod:

She² bore Hermione to spear-famed Menelaus,

and last of all she bore Nicostratus, scion of Ares

¹ In the Catalogue of Women (Fr. 155, ll. 94ff.), the birth of Helen’s daughter, Hermione, is followed immediately after by Zeus’ decision to end the heroic age; the first line of this fragment duplicates Fr. 155, lines 94–95, and it is not clear where one could place the second line (even assuming that it followed the first line directly, although ὁπλότατον, “last of all,” may suggest that other children were named in one or more intervening lines that have been lost). From the Great Ehoiai perhaps?

² That is, Helen.

Pausanias

2.18.6

When Orestes became king of the Lacedaemonians, they themselves consented to accept him for they considered that the sons of the daughter of Tyndareus had a claim to the throne prior to that of Nicostratus and Megapenthes, who were sons of Menelaus by a slave woman.

3.18.13

[Describing the throne of Apollo at Amyclae:] there is one horse only carrying Megapenthes, the son of Menelaus, and Nicostratus.

3.19.9

The name of Therapne is derived from the daughter of Lelex, and in it is a temple of Menelaus; they say that Menelaus and Helen were buried here. The account of the Rhodians is different. They say that when Menelaus was dead, and Orestes still a wanderer, Helen was driven out by Nicostratus and Megapenthes and came to Rhodes, where she had a friend in Polyxo,

Modern

Gantz

p. 322

But a two-line fragment of the same poem [The Catalogue of Women] cited elsewhere seems to say that Helen after Hermione also bore Nikostratos as the youngest of her children (Hes fr 175 MW). The fragment stops before we can be sure that Menelaos is the father, although this seems the understanding of the epic poet Kinaithon (fr. 3 PEG) and the Alexandrian Lysimachos (382F12) who with others also attest the child.^{16 [West (1985.119) concludes that this child Nikostratos was born to Helen and Menelaos after the Trojan War. He suggests too that the two lines of fr. 175 have been juxtaposed by the scholiast who cites them, with the first line simply variantly recalled form of fr. 204.94 (Hermione) and the second (Nikostratos) standing alone at a later point in the poem.]}

p. 573

As we saw in chapter 11 Kinaithon and the Ehoiai mention a son [of Helen] Nicostratos (fr 3 PEG; Hes fr 175 MW), and the Lakedaimonians are cited for two sons Nikostratos and Aitholas (ΣA il 3.175);

Grimal

s.v. Megapenthes 1

... Another story said that after the death of Menelaus, when Orestes was still mad and being pursued by the Erinyes, Megapenthes and his half-brother Nicostratus (the son of Menelaus and Helen; but see MENELAUS) had driven HELEN out. She found safety in Rhodes with Polyxo.

s.v. Menelaus

...The children of this marriage [between Menelaus and Helen] were Hermione (the only child by the Iliad and Odyssey) and a son, Nicostratus (Table 13). ... Nicostratus and Atethiolas were worshipped in Sparta in the historical period. ... The legend that Helen was banished by Nicostratus and Megapenthes after the death of Menelaus derives from this tradition.

p. 534

TABLE 13

Hard

p. 441

Although Hermione is the only child of Helen and Menelaos in the Homeric epics, the couple are sometimes credited with a son too, Nikostratos (Victorious Army), whose name would suggest that he was born after the Trojan War. Or else Nikostratus was an illegitimate son of Menelaos by a slave girl, as is the case with Megapenthes, who was fathers by the king shortly after the abduction of Helen, hence his name (Great Sorrow).^{22 [Hes fr. 175; Apollod. 3.11.1; Paus. 2.18.5 (Nikostratus illegitimate like Megapenthes).]}

Fowler

p. 529

Apollodorus also mentions Nikostratos as another child of Menelaos and Helen, (a slave was the mother says Paus. 2.18.6, 3.19.9). In the Iliad (3.175), Helen ... but both Nikostratos and Hermione were known to Hesiod (fr. 175) and Kinaithon (fr. 3), ... Nikostratus' name reflects his father's victory, so we may infer that he was an invention of the Cyclic poet with the Odyssey behind him (West on Od. 4.12).

Parada

s.v. Nicostratus

Νικόστράτος

•a)Menelaus ∞ Pieris. [sic!]

•b)Menelaus ∞ Helen.

•a)Apd.3.11.1.[sic!] b)Hes.CWE.70 [= Laurentian Scholiast on Sophocles' Electra 539]

Smith

s.v. Nicostratus

（*Niko/stratos), a son of Menelaus by the slave Pieris [sic!]. (Paus. 3.18. 7, 19.9.) Accordinog to others (Apollod. 3.11.1), he was a son of Menelaus by Helena.

Tripp

s.v. Nicostratus

A son of Menelaüs. Nicostratus' mother was either Helen or a slave woman. With his brother, Megapenthes, he was said by some to have driven Helen from Sparta after his father's death. The brothers' claims to the throne were passed over by the Spartans in favor of those of Orestes. [Pausanias 2.18.6, 3.19.9.]