Epitome 29. Arrow
THIS is an arrow for a bow, and it is said to have belonged to Apollo, who, to avenge Asclepios, used it to kill the Cyclopes who had forged the thunderbolt of Zeus. Apollo hid it in the land of the Hyperboreans,* at the place where the temple made from feathers* was also located. It is said that he retrieved it as soon as Zeus pardoned him for the murder and released him from his servitude to Admetos, which Euripides talks about in his Alcestis. The arrow is supposed to have been transported back through the air on this occasion together with Demeter the Fruit-Bringer. It was of an enormous size, as Heracleides of Pontos* reports in his treatise On Justice. And so Apollo set the arrow among the stars as a constellation to commemorate the fight that he had engaged in.
Hyginus
The Constellation
The Arrow, which lies between the two circles of the summer tropic and the equator, is set above the constellation of the Eagle, and is crossed by the circle which, fixed to the two poles, passes through the Crab and Capricorn [i.e. the solsticial colure]. One point is directed toward the region of the Horse’s hooves, while the other end points toward the shoulders of the Serpent-bearer. It sets at the rising of the Maiden and rises with the Scorpion. In all it has four stars, one at the beginning of the shaft, another in the middle, and the two last at the place where the arrow-head is normally fixed, these lying visibly apart from one another.
The Mythology
This is identified as being one of the arrows of Heracles, the one with which he killed, so the story goes, the eagle that gnawed at the liver of Prometheus; this is a matter about which it would seem not unprofitable to talk at greater length. The ancients used to offer up sacrifices to the immortal gods with the greatest reverence, and it was their custom to allow the victims to be wholly consumed by the flames. And so because the poor were being prevented from offering sacrifices because of the high expense, Prometheus, who was supposed to have created men* by use of his extraordinary mental powers, is said to have won permission from Zeus, through his appeals, for them to throw only part of the victim into the fire, and to keep part for their own consumption. This would subsequently become a practice that was hallowed by custom. Having won this permission with ease from a god, rather than as from a covetous man, Prometheus himself offered up two bulls in sacrifice. After having first placed the entrails on the altar, he collected together the rest of the meat from the two bulls and wrapped it in the hide of one of the bulls, and wrapping all the bones, for their part, in the other oxhide, he laid them out, and allowed Zeus to choose the share that he preferred. Zeus showed no sign of divine wisdom, however, nor did he act as a god should be able to, as one who can foresee all things, but rather—since we have decided to put our faith in legends—allowed himself to be deceived by Prometheus, and supposing that both shares consisted of meat from the bull, selected the bones for his half. And so ever since that time, in solemn rites and sacrifices, the meat from the sacrifices has been eaten, while the rest, which is the gods’ portion, is burned in the same fire.*
But to return to the matter in hand, when Zeus discovered what had happened, he was enraged and snatched fire away from the possession of mortals, to prevent the favour of Prometheus from seeming to outweigh the power of the gods, and to prevent meat from having any value for mortals now that it could not be cooked. But Prometheus, being an inveterate schemer, thought up a way to restore to mortals the fire that had been taken away from them because of him. And so, while all the other gods were away, he went up to the fire of Zeus, removed a small amount, and enclosed it in a fennel stalk;* and in such a state of joy that he seemed to be flying rather than running, he shook the stalk to prevent the smoke from extinguishing the flame as it collected in the narrow space. Thus to this day, men come with all speed for the most part when they have good news to report. In contests at the games, moreover, custom dictates that runners should run in the manner of Prometheus, shaking a torch* as they go.
In response, Zeus wanted to bestow a comparable favour on mortals, and he gave them a woman* who had been fashioned by Hephaistos, and was endowed with all manner of gifts by favour of the gods; for that reason she was called Pandora (‘All-Gifts’). As for Prometheus, Zeus tied him down with a chain of iron on a mountain in Scythia called Caucasos; according to the tragic poet Aeschylus,* he was chained there for thirty thousand years. Zeus sent an eagle, furthermore, to gnaw constantly at his liver, which grew back again each night. This eagle had been born to Typhon and Echidna according to some accounts, or to Earth and Tartaros according to others; but most say that it was fashioned by Hephaistos and brought to life by Zeus.
As to why Prometheus came to be set free, the following tale has been handed down to us. When Zeus sought to win Thetis as his wife, being captivated by her beauty, he failed to gain the consent of the timorous girl, but wanted to achieve his wish nevertheless. Now in those days the Fates used to prophesy, so it is said, what would come about in accordance with nature’s will, and they declared that whoever married Thetis would father a son whose renown would outshine that of his father;* and Prometheus, who remained awake by necessity rather than through any wish of his own, heard this prophecy and reported it to Zeus.* So Zeus, fearing that he would suffer the very fate that he had inflicted on his father Cronos in the same circumstances, by being forced to surrender his father’s throne, gave up all thought of marrying Thetis; and to show due gratitude to Prometheus for his good deed, he set him free from his chains. But because he had sworn an oath about the matter, Zeus did not release him thenceforth from every bond, but told him to wear, by way of commemoration, a ring made of two materials [associated with his enchainment], that is to say, stone and iron. Men have adopted this practice to make reparation to Prometheus, and have thus come to wear rings made of stone and iron. Some say that Prometheus also wore a crown, so as to proclaim his victory in escaping punishment for his crime. And so in times of great joy and in victory, men have established the custom of wearing crowns, as can be seen at athletic contests and banquets.
But I should now return, I think, to my explanation [of the freeing of Prometheus] and to the death of the eagle. Heracles was sent by Eurystheus to fetch the apples of the Hesperides,* but having no idea how to get there, he arrived in front of Prometheus, who was chained on Mount Caucasos as has already been stated. He learned the way from Prometheus, and when he was returning victorious, he was eager to tell him about the killing of the dragon, which we have already discussed, and to thank him for the good turn. For he hastened to pay him, to the best of his ability, the honour that he deserved. [So he shot the eagle, and ever since it was] put out of the way, men have followed the practice, when offering sacrifices, of burning the livers of the victims on the altars of the gods, so as to satisfy them with that in compensation for the liver of Prometheus.
According to Eratosthenes’ account of the Arrow, it was with this arrow that Apollo killed the Cyclopes, who had made the thunderbolt that Zeus had used to kill Asclepios, as many authors have stated. Apollo buried the arrow on the Hyperborean mountain; when Zeus pardoned his son, however, it was carried back to him by the wind, together with the fruits of the season. So that is why it can be seen among the constellations.
Commentary
(i) This is the arrow with which Apollo shot the Cyclopes. When his son Asclepios was struck with a thunderbolt by Zeus for resuscitating the dead (see pp. 59 and 62), Apollo was enraged, but he could hardly take action against Zeus himself, so he quenched his anger by killing the Cyclopes (see pp. 118–19) who had made the thunderbolt.
(ii) Or it is the arrow that Heracles used to kill the eagle that gnawed at the liver of Prometheus (Hyginus recounts the story of Prometheus at length; for the present aspect of it, cf. Ap. 1.7. and 2.5.1, and the early account by Hesiod (Theogony 5.21–31). This idea that this might be that arrow was evidently suggested by the proximity of the Eagle, which is set immediately above the Arrow, although it should be noted that this myth is never invoked to explain how the Eagle came to be set in the sky. The constellation of the Kneeler, moreover, which also lies nearby, was commonly thought to show Heracles in confrontation with the dragon of the Hesperides (see pp. 26–8), and he was said to have killed this eagle while travelling back from that labour. There was also an alternative tradition in which the Kneeler was identified as Prometheus himself.