182 



NOTES AND QUEEIES. 



[2nd s. No 88., Sept. 5. '57. 



Argive poet, and the Argives themselves, de- 

 clared the tile to have been thrown by the goddess 

 Ceres in the likeness of a woman. A temple of 

 Ceres was, by the command of the oracle, built on 

 the spot where Pyrrhus died, and in this temple 

 he was buried. Strabo (viii. 6. 18., p. 376.) also 

 describes him as having been killed by a tile 

 thrown down on his head by an old woman, but 

 states that the event took place outside the town 

 wall. Nepos (xxi. 2.), Justin (xxv. 5.), and 

 Orosius (iv. 2.), concur in attributing the death 

 of Pyrrhus to the blow of a stone, not of a tile. 

 On the other hand Victor {de vir. ill. 35.), in ac- 

 cordance with Plutarch and Pausanias, says that 

 he was killed by the blow of a tile while he was 

 besieging Argos ; and that his body was brought 

 to Antigonus, and honoured with a sumptuous 

 funeral. The account of Valerius Maximus (v. i. 

 ext. 4.) is, that Antigonus caused the body of 

 Pyrrhus to be honourably burned, and gave his 

 ashes, enclosed in a golden urn, to his son Helenus, 

 to be carried to Epirus for his brother Alexander. 

 The details in this anecdote agree with the ac- 

 count of Plutarch, who mentions the honourable 

 burning of the body of Pyrrhus by Antigonus, 

 and his kind treatment of Helenus. The Alex- 

 ander here spoken of was the son of Pyrrhus by 

 Lanassa, daughter of Agathocles. He was the 

 elder brother of Helenus, and succeeded his father 

 as King of Epirus. 



The words " Achillidse cognato nomine clarum," 

 mean that the name of the historical Pyrrhus was 

 borrowed from that of his mythical ancestor, 

 Pyrrhus the son of Achilles. It is well known 

 that the royal family of Epirus considered them- 

 selves as iEacidse, and as descended from the son 

 of Achilles. Hence the names ^acides, Neopto- 

 lemus, Pyrrhus, Deidamia (the mythical mother 

 of Pyrrhus), Phthia (the territory of Achilles), 

 which occur in it. When Pyrrhus was requested 

 by the Tarentine envoys to assist them in the war 

 against Rome, it occurred to him as a good omen 

 that, being a descendant of Achilles, he would be 

 waging war against a Trojan colony (Pans. i. 

 12.1.). The epigram, moreover, inscribed upon 

 the arms of the Gauls dedicated by Pyrrhus, al- 

 ludes to his iEacid origin : 



" AlxfjLTjTal Kai vvv koX TTapo? AiaKtSai." 



Anthol. Palat., vi. 130. 



In the verses next after those cited from Ovid, 

 King Pyrrhus is described by the epithet ^acides : 



" Nataque ut ^acidae, jaculis moriaris adactis ; 

 Non licet hoc Cereri dissimulare nefas." 



The person here signified is Deidamia, the 

 daughter of King Pyrrhus, who was slain in a 

 temple at Ambracia. (See Droysen, Hellen.^ 

 vol. ii. p. 432.) Pyrrhus was likewise called 

 ^acides by Ennius, in the well-known verse : 

 " Aio, te, ^acida, Romanos vincere posse." 



Cicero deI)ivin.,\i.bQ. 



The third couplet refers to the Pyrrhus or 

 Neoptolemus of mythology, the son of Achilles 

 and Deidamia. According to Hyginus, fab. 

 123., he was slain at Delphi by Orestes, and his 

 bones were scattered in the district of Ambracia. 



" Orestes injuriS, accepta Neoptolemum Delphis sacrifi- 

 cantem occidit, et Hermionen recuperavit: cujus ossa per 

 fines Ambracise sparsa sunt, quae est in Epiri regionibus." 



The slaughter of Neoptolemus at Delphi, 

 though attributed to different origins, is the re- 

 ceived account. According to Pindar, Nem. vii. 

 62,, and Pans. x. 24. 6., his remains were not 

 scattered at Ambracia, but he was buried at 

 Delphi. 



The mistake of referring this couplet to Pyrrhus, 

 the historical King of Epirus, which is committed 

 by Niebuhr, had been previously committed by 

 Casaubon ; see the notes in Burmann's edition, on 

 v. 306. It is clear that the previous couplet refers 

 to Pyrrhus who was killed by a tile, and that this 

 couplet must refer to a different Pyrrhus. It may 

 be added that King Pyrrhus was honourably 

 buried at Argos, where he died, and that the place 

 of his sepulture was shown in the temple of Ceres 

 in that town. 



There is a statement of the historian Hierony- 

 mus (in Pans., i. 9. § 7.) that Lysimachus violated 

 the sepulchres of the Epirot kings in his invasion 

 of Epirus ; and it has been suggested that the 

 couplet of Ovid may refer to this fact. (See notes 

 on Ovid.) But even supposing that Pausanias is 

 mistaken in discrediting the statement in question, 

 it is to be observed that this expedition of Lysi- 

 machus occurred in 286 B.C., during a war against 

 Pyrrhus, and fourteen years before his death ; and 

 therefore that the remains of Pyrrhus, who was 

 still alive, could not have been exhumed on this 

 occasion. (See Droysen, lb., vol. i. pp. 670. 736.) 

 It may be added that, when his death had taken 

 place, he was buried, not in Epirus, but at Argos. 



Lastly, Niebuhr's statement that the Acropolis 

 of Ambracia has now for a considerable time been 

 called Rogus, appears to be as inaccurate as the 

 previous part of the passage. 



A full description of it is given by Mr. Hughes 

 in his Travels in Greece and Albania. 



" In less than half an hour (he says) we saw the ruins 

 of an immense fortress, called the castle of Kogous, sur- 

 mounting a fine eminence, still a place of rendezvous for 

 the banditti of these regions." 



The distance is three hours from Arta, the 

 ancient Ambracia, and Hughes identifies it with 

 the ancient castle called Charadrus or Charadra, 

 vol. ii. p. 461., ed. ii. 1830. The same identifica- 

 tion is made by Col. Leake, Travels in Northern 

 Greece, vol. iv. p. 255., and it is adopted on his 

 authority by Dr. Smith's Diet, of Anc. Geog., art. 

 "Charadra." A full discussion on the site of 

 Arta may be found in Lord Broughton's Journey 

 through Albania, Letter 4. L. 



