Suicidal Females in Greek and Roman Mythology: A Catalogue
Dr. Elise P. Garrison
e-garrison@tamu.edu
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX
October 2000
The following is a catalogue arranged alphabetically of the females of mythology who commit suicide along with a thumbnail sketch of their lives and deaths. For more narrative details please consult R.E. Bell, Women of Classical Mythology. A Biographical Dictionary (Oxford 1991); P. Grimal, The Dictionary of Classical Mythology, tr. A.R. Maxwell-Hyslop (Oxford 1996); J. March, Cassell Dictionary of Classical Mythology (Cassell 1998). For convenience the primary sources dealing specifically with the suicides have been gathered and here presented in English in chronological order, and there is a bibliography of these sources with brief biographical notes at the end. This catalogue accompanies Suicide in Classical Mythology: An Essay by the same author.
The daughter of Pittheus of Troezen, and the mother of Theseus. Hyginus claims that she killed herself when she learned of Theseus' death.
- Hyginus, Fables 243
Aethra, daughter of Pittheus, killed herself because of the death of her sons.
The daughter of Cecrops and Agraulos, and sister of Herse, Pandrosos and Erysichthon. After Erichthonius was born, Athena placed him in a basket and gave him to the daughters of Cecrops with a strict order not to look in the basket. Curiosity got the better of them and when they opened the basket and saw the snaky baby they went mad and jumped to their death from the Acropolis.
- Pseudo-Apollodorus 3.14.6
Erichthonius was born from the sperm [of Hephaestus] which fell on the ground. She [Athena] reared him without the knowledge of the other gods, wishing to make him immortal. She put him in a basket and gave him to Pandrosus, the daughter of Cecrops, forbidding her to open the basket. But the sisters of Pandrosus opened it out of curiosity and saw a snake coiled around the baby. According to some they were killed by the snake, but others claim that they were driven insane because of Athena's anger and threw themselves down from the Acropolis.
- Pausanias 1.18.2
It was to Aglaurus and her sisters, Herse and Pandrosus, that they say Athena gave Erichthonius, whom she had hidden in a chest, forbidding them to pry curiously into what was entrusted to their charge. Pandrosus, they say, obeyed, but the other two (for they opened the chest) went mad when they saw Erichthonius, and threw themselves down the steepest part of the Acropolis.
- Hyginus, Fables 166
When Minerva was secretly caring for him, she gave him in a chest to Aglaurus, Pandrosus, and Herse, daughters of Cecrops, to guard. A crow gave the secret away when the girls opened the chest, and they, driven mad by Minerva, threw themselves into the sea.
- Hyginus, Poetic Astronomy 2.13
Minerva is said to have hidden him [Erichthonius], like a cult-object, in a chest. She brought the chest to the daughters of Erechtheus and gave it to them to guard, forbidding them to open it. But man is by nature so curious, that the oftener he is forbidden to do something, the more he desires to do it. So the girls opened the chest and saw the snake. As a result they were driven mad by Minerva, and threw themselves from the Acropolis.
Another version makes Agraulos a heroine who threw herself from the Acropolis to comply with an oracle that declared that Athens would be victorious if someone would sacrifice his or her life.
- Philochorus (FGrH ii. p. 328 F105)
When Eumolpos was making a campaign against Erechtheus Apollo oracled that the city would be saved if someone would destroy himself on behalf of the city. Agraulos willingly gave herself to death. For she hurled herself from the wall. (My translation--TLG)
The devoted wife of Admetus, who voluntarily ended her life so that his could continue.
- Euripides, Alcestis 15-27; 33-6
But when he had sounded all his near and dear in turn, [his father and the aged mother who bore him,] he found no one but his wife who was willing to die for him and look no more on the sun's light. She is now on the point of death, held up by the arms of her family within the house. For it is on this day that she is fated to die. And I, to avoid the pollution of death in the house, am departing from this palace I love so well. [Enter Death by Eisodos A.] Ah, I see that Death, the sacrificer of the dead, is already drawing near. He is about to take her down to the house of Hades. He has arrived punctually, watching for today when she must die. Was it not enough that you prevented the death of Admetus, tripping up the Fates by cunning trickery? Are you now standing guard, bow in hand, over her, Pelias' daughter, who promised to free her husband by dying in his stead?
- Pseudo-Apollodorus 1.9.15
Apollo advised him [Admetus] to propitiate the goddess and asked the Fates, when the time came for Admetus to die, to release him from death, if someone agreed to take his place. When the day appointed for his death came, since neither his father nor his mother wished to die for him, Alcestis died in his stead.
- Hyginus, Fables 51
When neither his father nor mother was willing to die for him, his wife Alcestis offered herself, and died for him in vicarious death.
- Hyginus, Fables 243
Alcestis, daughter of Pelias, for the sake of her husband, Admetus, died a vicarious death.
- Fulgentius, The Mythologies 1.22
…by entreating Apollo, who said he could do nothing for him in his sickness unless he found one of his relatives who would voluntarily accept death in his place. This his wife undertook.
After abandoning her husband and children for a stranger, she came to her senses and threw herself into the sea.
- Parthenius, Love Stories 27
Alcinoe, so the story goes, was the daughter of Polybus of Corinth and the wife of Amphilochus the son of Dryas; by the wrath of Athene she became infatuated with a stranger from Samos, named Xanthus. Thus afflicted, Alcinoe reached such a state that she left her home and the little children she had borne to Amphilochus, and sailed away with Xanthus; but in the middle of the voyage she came to realize what she had done. She straightway shed many tears, calling often, now upon her young husband and now upon her children, and though Xanthus did his best to comfort her, saying that he would not hurt his wife, she would not listen to him, but threw herself into the sea.
Daughters of Antipoenus of Thebes. An oracle once promised victory to Heracles if the most nobly born person in Thebes would kill himself. Antipoenus, a descendant of the Spartoi, refused, but his daughters did so gladly.
- Pausanias 9.17.1
For when Heracles and the Thebans were about to engage in battle with the Orchomenians, an oracle was delivered to them that success in the war would be theirs if their citizen of the most noble descent would consent to die by his own hand. Now Antipoenus, who had the most famous ancestors, was loath to die for the people, but his daughters were quite ready to do so. So they took their own lives and are honored therefor.
The mother of Meleager who controls the length of Meleager's life by means of a semi-burned log. When Meleager kills Althaea's brother, she burns the log and then kills herself.
- Pseudo-Apollodorus 1.8.3
When Meleager died, Althaea and Cleopatra hanged themselves, and the women who were weeping over the dead man were turned into birds.
- Ovid, Metamorphoses 8. 560-2
Althaea, maddened in her mother's grief,
Has punished herself with a ruthless hand,
She pierced her heart with iron.
The wife of Latinus and mother of Lavinia. In the contest between Turnus and Aeneas for marriage to Lavinia, Amata sided whole-heartedly with Turnus. At Turnus' destruction, she killed herself.
- Virgil, Aeneid 12.603-8:
And, mad with sudden sorrow, shrieked aloud
Against herself, the guilty chief and cause
Of all this ill; and, babbling her wild woe
In endless words, she rent her purple pall,
And with her own hand from the rafter swung
A noose for her foul death.
The daughter of Autolycus, wife of Laertes and mother of Odysseus. She died from grief at the imagined fate of her son after his long absence at the Trojan War.
- Hyginus, Fables 243
Anticlia, daughter of Autolycus and mother of Ulysses, killed herself on hearing a false report about Ulysses.
- Scholia on Homer's Odyssey 11.85
The story goes that Anticleia on account of longing for her son ended her life by hanging. (My translation--TLG)
The daughter of Oedipus and Jocasta. After her brothers kill each other and Creon, the Regent, forbids burial of Polyneices, Antigone carries out the burial anyway. She is condemned to burial alive, but instead hangs herself.
- Sophocles, Antigone 1220-1
This search, at our desperate master's word, we went to make, and in the furthest part of the tomb we saw her [Antigone] hanging by the neck, fastened by a halter of fine linen threads.
- Hyginus, Fables 243
Antigone, daughter of Oedipus, killed herself on account of the burial of Polynices.
The wife of Peleus who killed herself when Astydameia, spurned by Peleus, wrote to her claiming Peleus was about to wed another.
- Pseudo-Apollodorus 3.13.3
Astydamia, the wife of Acastus, desired Peleus and sent him a message proposing sexual intercourse. Unable to persuade him, she informed Peleus' wife [Antigone] that he was going to marry Sterope, the daughter of Acastus. Hearing this, she hanged herself.
A woman from Ithaca and mother of Corax. After Corax fell off a cliff during a hunt, Arethusa hanged herself.
- Eustathius, On the Odyssey 13.408
Corax, the son of Arethusa, while pursuing a hare in Ithaca was swept off a crag and died. His mother in grief went to a stream and hanged herself. (My translation--TLG)
The daughter of Minos, who helped Theseus kill the minotaur. She was abandoned by him on his return to Athens and in some versions killed herself.
- Plutarch, Theseus 20.1
There are many other stories about these matters, and also about Ariadne, but they do not agree at all. Some say that she hung herself because she was abandoned by Theseus; others that she was conveyed to Naxos by sailors and there lived with Oenarus the priest of Dionysus, and that she was abandoned by Theseus because he loved another woman.
After being raped by Tmolus (the husband of Omphale), she took sanctuary in the temple of Artemis where she hanged herself.
- Pseudo-Plutarch, On Rivers 7.5
Tmolus, son of Ares and Theogone, king of Lydia, while hunting on the Karmanorian mountain saw the maiden Arsippe attending Artemis. He became filled with lust and desire for her and pursued her wishing to rape her. But she at the point of being overtaken ran into the temple of Artemis. Disdaining the superstition, the tyrant destroyed her maidenhood in the sanctuary. Despondent she hung herself with a rope. (My translation--TLG)
The daughter of Argaeus who killed herself to avoid losing her virginity before marriage.
- Antoninus Liberalis, Metamorphoses 13
Thus it was that one day he bade his men fetch Aspalis, daughter of Argaeus, one of the notables. When the girl heard about this order, she hanged herself before the arrival of those who were to fetch her away.
The daughter of Miletus and Tragasia, and sister of Caunus for whom she conceived an illicit passion. When she tried to persuade him to reciprocate, he left in horror, and she followed him and eventually hanged herself.
- Conon, Narrations 2 (FGrH i. pp. 192-3)
And renouncing her endless desires she attached her girdle as a noose to a tree and hanged herself. (My translation)
- Parthenius, Love Stories 11
However, most authors say that Byblis fell in love with Caunus [her brother], and made proposals to him. He was horrified at what she said, and crossed over to the country then inhabited by the Leleges,..and there founded the city called Caunus. She, as her passion did not abate, and also because she blamed herself for Caunus's exile, tied the fillets of her head-dress to an oak, and so made a noose for her neck.
- Hyginus, Fables 243
Biblis, daughter of Miletus, out of love for Caunus her brother, killed herself.
- Stephanus of Byzantium, "Kaunos"
Caunus, a city in Caria, after Caunus, whom his sister Byblis lusted after. When he ran away from her she hung herself. (My translation--TLG)
A Calydonian maiden who rejected the love of a priest of Dionysus. In anger Dionysus sent a plague which could only be ended by the sacrifice of Callirrhoe or a substitute. Inspired by her would-be lover's courage, she cut her own throat.
- Pausanias 7.21.3-5
On this occasion the oracles from Dodona declared that it was the wrath of Dionysus that caused the plague, which would not cease until Coresus sacrificed to Dionysus either Callirrhoe herself or one who had the courage to die in her stead. When the maiden could find no means of escape, she next appealed to her foster parents. These too failing her, there was no other way except for her to be put to the sword. When everything had been prepared for the sacrifice according to the oracle from Dodona, the maiden was led like a victim to the altar. Coresus stood ready to sacrifice, when, his resentment giving way to love, he slew himself in place of Callirrhoe. He thus proved in deed that his love was more genuine than that of any other man we know. When Callirrhoe saw Coresus lying dead, the maiden repented. Overcome by pity for Coresus, and by shame at her conduct towards him, she cut her throat at the spring in Calydon not far from the harbor, and later generations call the spring Callirrhoe after her.
The daughter of Lycus, who fell in love with Diomedes. She helped him escape sacrifice at the hands of her father, but Diomedes then abandoned her. She hanged herself.
- Plutarch, Lesser Parallels 311B
And Callirrhoe, the daughter of Lycus, because she fell in love with Diomedes betrayed her father and saved Diomedes by loosening his fetters. But he forgot the kindness and sailed away. She killed herself by hanging. (My translation--TLG)
The famous nymph of the Odyssey. Though her parentage is varied, her immortality would seem to preclude suicide.
- Hyginus, Fables 243
Calypso, daughter of Atlas, out of love for Ulysses killed herself.
The daughter of Aeolus and Enarete. She had an incestuous relationship with her brother Macareus, from which a child was born. They tried to smuggle it out of the palace but when it cried out, Aeolus threw the baby to the dogs and sent a sword to Canace with which she killed herself.
- Ovid, Heroides XI
If these words are blotted out, you should know that
My blood will have stained this little roll.
The pages lie here flattened, my right hand holds
A pen and my left hand holds a sword. (1-4)
Then, one of his men
Wearing a grieving face came to me and said
These shameful words: 'To you, Aeolus
Sends a sword and wishes you to know its use
From your deed.' I know and I shall use
It bravely. I shall bury my father's gift
In my breast. (118-21)
I too will follow the shade of this infant,
I will give myself the blade so that
Not for long will I be known to all the world
As both grief-stricken and a mother. (146-49)
- Plutarch, Lesser Parallels 312C
And judging herself lawless she fell on the sword sent by her father and perished. (My translation--TLG)
- Hyginus, Fables 243
Canace, daughter of Aeolus, because of her love for Macareus her brother, killed herself.
The daughter of Merops and wife of Cyzicus. When Cyzicus was mistakenly killed by the Argonauts, she hanged herself.
- Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 1.1063-104
Cleite the king's bride was unable to face life alone, with her husband in the grave. Capping the evil she had suffered with a worse one of her own devising, she took a rope and hanged herself by the neck.
- Orphica, Argonautica 595-7
When she heard that her husband had perished, beating her breast she shrieked terribly. And around her neck she attached a rope and took her life with the noose. (My translation--TLG)
- Parthenius, Love Stories 28
Seeing him lying dead, she flung her arms round him and bewailed him sorely, and then at night she avoided the watch of her serving-maids and hung herself from a tree.
The daughter of Idas and Marpessa and wife of Meleager who killed herself after Meleager's mother burned the brand that the Fates had told her would keep her son alive as long as it remained intact.
- Pseudo-Apollodorus 1.8.3
After the death of Meleager, Althaea and Cleopatra hanged themselves, and the women who mourned the dead man were turned into birds.
- Hyginus, Fables 174
And Alcyone, wife of Meleager, died from grief in mourning for him.
The daughters of Orion who in compliance with an oracle to rid their homeland of a plague offered themselves and used their weaving tools to kill themselves.
- Antoninus Liberalis, Metamorphoses 25
Of course not one of the maidens in the city complied with the oracle until a servant-woman reported the answer of the oracle to the daughters of Orion. They were at work at their loom and, as soon as they heard about this, they willingly accepted death on behalf of their fellow citizens before the plague epidemic had smitten them too. They cried out three times to the gods of the underworld saying that they were willing sacrifices. They thrust their bodkins into themselves at their shoulders and gashed open their throats.
- Ovid, Metamorphoses 13.681-4
Orion's daughters in the Theban square,
One giving her bare throat a cruel cut,
One with her shuttle making clumsy wounds;
Both dying for their people.
Wife of Heracles who thinking she was sending him a love potion in fact sent him a poisoned robe that led to his immolation and translation to divinity. On seeing what she had mistakenly done, she stabbed herself.
- Sophocles, Women of Trachis 920-30
Then she broke out in warm streams of tears and said: "Ah, my bridal bed and bridal chamber, farewell now and for ever, since you will never more receive me in these covers as his wife." She says no more, but with a vehement hand she loosens her robe where the brooch of beaten gold lies above her breasts and bares all her left side and arm. Then I run with all my strength, and warn her son of her intent. But even in the space between my going and our return, we find that she has driven a two-edged sword up through her side to the heart.
- Pseudo-Apollodorus 2.6.7
Deianeira hanged herself when she learned what had happened.
- Hyginus, Fables 36
But Deianeira, because of what had happened to Hercules, killed herself.
- Hyginus, Fables 243
Deianeira, daughter of Oeneus, killed herself on account of Hercules; deceived by Nessus, she had sent him a tunic in which he was burned.
- Seneca, Hercules Oetaeus 1027-30
Now spare me, nations! Where can I go? Now death alone will grant safe haven. By the flaming glare of the sun and by the gods I swear: though I must die, I leave behind Hercules, on earth, alive.
Queen of Carthage, lover of Aeneas, who stabbed herself upon Aeneas' departure from Carthage.
- Virgil, Aeneid 4.663-70
From yonder sea
May his cold Trojan eyes discern the flames
That make me ashes! Be this cruel death
His omen as he sails!" She spoke no more.
But almost ere she ceased, her maidens all
Thronged to obey her cry, and found their Queen
Prone fallen on the sword, the reeking steel
Still in her bloody hands.
- Virgil, Aeneid 6.463-5
O suffering Dido! Were those tidings true
That thou didst fling thee on the fatal steel?
- Hyginus, Fables 243
Dido, daughter of Belus, out of love for Aeneas killed herself.
- Servius, On Aeneid 4.682
Varro says that not Dido, but Anna [Dido's sister] compelled by love of Aeneas killed herself on the pyre. (My translation--Perseus)
The daughter of Icarius, to whom Dionysus taught viticulture. When Icarius shared his new knowledge with his neighbors they became intoxicated and thinking they had been poisoned, killed and buried Icarius. When Erigone discovered the grave, she hanged herself from a tree.
- Pseudo-Apollodorus 3.14.7
His [Icarius'] dog Maera led his daughter Erigone, who was looking for him, to the body. After weeping for her father, she hanged herself.
- Hyginus, Fables 130
The dog Maera, howling over the body of the slain Icarius, showed Erigone where her father lay unburied. When she came there, she killed herself by hanging in a tree over the body of the father.
- Hyginus, Fables 243
Erigone, daughter of Icarus, killed herself by hanging because of the death of her father.
- Hyginus, Poetic Astronomy 2.4
As soon as the girl saw it [her father's body], abandoning hope, and overcome with loneliness and poverty, with many tearful lamentations she brought death on herself by hanging from the very tree beneath which her father was buried.
- Statius, Thebaid 11.644-7
As when in the Marathonian glade sorrowful Erigone wept her fill for her slain sire, and already was untying the fatal girdle, and bent on death was fastening it to the sturdy boughs.
A daughter of Clytemnestra and Aegisthus. After Orestes was acquitted of murdering his mother, Erigone (his half-sister) hanged herself.
- Dictys of Crete 6.4
Orestes, it was decided unanimously, should go to Athens and there stand trial before the court of Areopagus. Thus Orestes plead his case, and the Areopagus acquitted him; this court was reputedly the most severe in all Greece. This acquittal so grieved Orestes' half-sister, Erigone, who was the daughter of Aegisthus, that she hanged herself.
Wife of Creon, mother of Haemon, who killed herself upon hearing of the suicides of Antigone and Haemon.
- Sophocles, Antigone 1301
By the altar, with a sharp-whetted sword, she struck until her eyes went slack and dark.
The daughter of Iphis and wife of Capaneus. She hurled herself onto his burning funeral pyre.
- Euripides, The Suppliants
In honor's cause I will hurl myself from this rock with a leap into the fire below, to mix my ashes in the ruddy blaze with my husband's, to lie side by side with him, there in the couch of Persephone, for never will I, to save my life, prove untrue to you where you lie in your grave. (1015-20)
To that pyre where dead Capaneus lies, I will leap down. (1065)
See! I cast myself down, no joy to you, but to myself and to my husband blazing on the pyre with me. (1070-1)
- Ovid, Art of Love 3.21
'Oh take me, Capaneus, to share your pyre',
Evadne cried and leapt upon the fire.
- Hyginus, Fables 243
Evadne, daughter of Phylacus, because Capaneus, her husband, perished at Thebes, threw herself on the same funeral pyre.
- Statius, Thebaid 12.800-3
How fearless Evadne with impetuous bound had her fill of the fires she loved and sought the thunderbolt in that mighty breast, how as she lay and showered kisses on his terrible form his unhappy spouse made excuse for Tydeus.
- Servius, On Aeneid 6.447
This was the wife of Capaneus who hurled herself onto the burning funeral pyre of her husband (My translation--Perseus).
A lover of Poseidon, whose sons turned out to be malicious. Aphrodite, as a result of an insult to her, caused them to go mad and gang rape their mother. Poseidon struck them down and Halia threw herself into the sea.
- Diodorus of Sicily 5.55
Poseidon…became enamoured of Halia, the sister of the Telchines, and lying with her he begat six male children and one daughter, called Rhodos, after whom the island was named…And Aphrodite, they say, as she was journeying from Cytherae to Cyprus and dropped anchor near Rhodes, was prevented from stopping there by the sons of Poseidon, who were arrogant and insolent men; whereupon the goddess, in her wrath, brought a madness upon them, and they lay with their mother against their will…but when Poseidon learned of what had happened he buried his sons beneath the earth…and Halia cast herself into the sea, and she was afterwards given the name Leucothea.
Sister of Agraulos. See above "Agraulos."
The daughter of Oenomaus and Sterope and wife of Pelops. When Pelops had an affair with a nymph that produced Chrysippus, she reared him with all her own children, though begrudgingly. After Chrysippus was carried off she persuaded Thyestes and Atreus to kill him. After fleeing Pelops' anger she killed herself.
- Hyginus, Fables 85
Laius, son of Labdacus, carried off Chrysippus, illegitimate son of Pelops, at the Nemean Games because of his exceeding beauty. Pelops made war and recovered him. At the instigation of their mother Hippodamia, Atreus and Thyestes killed him. When Pelops blamed Hippodamia, she killed herself.
- Hyginus, Fables 243
Hippodamia, daughter of Oenomaus and wife of Pelops, killed herself because by her urging, Chrysippus was killed.
The daughters of the Lacedaemonian Hyacinth. Their patriotic self-sacrifice is confused with that of the Erechtheidae.
- Demosthenes, Funeral Speech 60.27
All the Erechtheidae were well aware that Erechtheus, from whom they have their name, for the salvation of this land gave his own daughters, whom they call Hyacinthides, to certain death, and so extinguished his race.
- Pseudo-Apollodorus 3.15.8
When the war had gone on for some time, Minos, unable to capture Athens, prayed to Zeus for revenge against the Athenians. Thereupon both a famine and a plague fell upon the city. At first the Athenians, in accordance with an old oracle, slaughtered the daughters of Hyacinth: Antheis, Aegleis, Lytaea, and Orthaea, upon the grave of Geraestus, the Cyclops. (Their father Hyacinth had come to Athens from Lacedaemon and lived there).
- Suda, "Parthenoi"
[Protogeneia and Pandora, daughters of Erechtheus gave themselves to be sacrificed on behalf of the city, since an army was invading from Boiotia.] And they were sacrificed in the village called Hyacinthos by the Sphendonion. For this reason, they are called Hyacinthides…(My translation--TLG)
A very beautiful female centaur, wife of the centaur Cyllarus. At a wedding Cyllarus was killed and Hylonome fell on the spear that killed him.
- Ovid, Metamorphoses 12.425-8
With mourning words, which clamor of the fight
Prevented me from hearing, she threw herself
On the spear that pierced her Cyllarus and fell
Upon his breast, embracing him in death.
The oldest daughter of Priam and Hecuba, wife of Polymestor. She passed off her own son as her brother and her brother Polydorus, whom she had accepted from Hecuba at his birth, as her son to keep the right of succession in her natal family. In an intrigue with Agamemnon to betray Troy, because of Iliona's ruse, Polymestor ended up killing his own son. After Troy fell her only hope was for Polydorus to succeed to Polymestor's throne. Polydorus received an oracle that was inconsistent with what he believed to be his heritage and when Iliona told him the truth they took revenge on Polymestor. She blinded him and Polydorus killed him. She then killed herself.
- Hyginus, Fables 243
Iliona, daughter of Priam, killed herself on account of the misfortunes of her parents.
The daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia and second wife of Athamas. Jealousy of his first wife's children caused her to devise a plot to get rid of them. She sabotaged the seed and bribed messengers to the Delphic oracle to say that the only salvation from drought was to sacrifice the children. Nephele, the first wife, saved them in the nick of time. Ino and Athamas were also the foster parents of Dionysus and after Ino disappeared for awhile in Bacchic rites, Athamas married Themisto. After Ino returned and Themisto mistakenly killed her own children instead of Ino's, Athamas went insane and killed Learchus, the son of Ino. She then fled with Melicertes, the other son, and jumped with him into the sea.
- Hyginus, Fables 2
The king, thus informed of the crime [against his first wife's sons], gave over his wife Ino and her son Melicertes to be put to death, but Father Liber cast mist around her, and saved Ino his nurse. Later, Athamas, driven mad by Jove, slew his son Learchus. But Ino, with Melicertes her son, threw herself into the sea.
- Hyginus, Fables 4
Moreover, Athamas, while hunting, in a fit of madness killed his older son Learchus; but Ino with the younger, Melicertes, cast herself into the sea and was made a goddess.
- Hyginus, Fables 243
Ino, daughter of Cadmus, hurled herself into the sea with her son, Milcertes.
Mother-wife of Oedipus, who according to some hung herself upon learning of her incestuous relationship, but according to others stabbed herself after her sons killed each other.
- Homer, Odyssey 11.275-80
Howbeit he abode as lord of the Cadmeans in lovely Thebe, suffering woes through the baneful counsels of the gods, but she went down to the house of Hades, the strong warder. She made fast a noose on high from a lofty beam, overpowered by her sorrow, but for him she left behind woes full many, even all that the Avengers of a mother bring to pass.
- Sophocles, Oedipus the King 1264
MESSENGER: By her [Iocaste] own hand.
There [in the bedroom of Oedipus and Iocaste] we beheld the woman hanging by the neck on a twisted noose of swinging cords.
- Euripides, The Phoenician Women 1455-60
But when their [Eteocles and Polyneices] mother saw this sad event, in her overmastering grief she snatched a sword from the dead, and did a fearful deed; for she drove the steel right through her throat, and there she lies, dead with those she loved so well, her arms thrown round them both.
- Pseudo-Apollodorus 3.5.8
When they learned what they had done, Jocasta hanged herself and Oedipus blinded himself and was banished from Thebes.
- Hyginus, Fables 243
Jocasta, daughter of Menoeceus, killed herself on account of the death of her sons and the disgrace.
- Statius, Thebaid 11.637-41
And with much complaining of the gods above and her dire couch and her son's madness and the shade of her first lord she strove with her right hand, yet scarce at length as she leaned forward did the steel make entrance to her breast; the wound rent her aged veins, and the ill-fated couch is purged in blood.
The daughter of Agamemnon whom Artemis required to be sacrificed before the troops assembled at Aulis could depart for Troy. In some versions her selfless sacrifice for the good of Greece is emphasized. In most versions, she is rescued by Artemis and transported to Tauris.
- Euripides, Iphigenia at Aulis 1375-8
I am resolved to die, and this I want to do with honor, dismissing from me what is mean.
- Cicero, Tusculan Disputations 1.48.117
Iphigenia required that she should be led to sacrifice at Aulis that by her blood blood should be drawn from foemen's veins.
Daughter of Acastus, wife of Protesilaus. When her husband's corpse was brought back from Troy, she begged the gods to grant her time to talk with him for a few hours. The request was granted, and when it was time for him to die again, she leapt into the fire and was consumed with him.
- Servius, On Aeneid 6.447
She was the wife of Protesilaus who, when she first leant that her husband had perished in the Trojan War prayed to see his shade. When it was granted her she, not forsaking the shade, died in his embrace (My translation--Perseus).
Hyginus adds a different spin to the story:
- Hyginus, Fables 104
When Laodamia, daughter of Acastus, after her husband's loss had spent the three hours which she had asked from the gods, she could not endure her weeping and grief. And so she made a bronze likeness of her husband Protesilaus, put it in her room under the pretense of sacred rites, and devoted herself to it. When a servant early in the morning had brought fruit for the offering, he looked through a crack in the door and saw her holding the image of Protesilaus in her embrace and kissing it. Thinking she had a lover he told her father Acastus. When he came and burst into the room, he saw the state of Protesilaus. To put an end to her torture he had the statue and the sacred offerings burned on a pyre he had made, but Laodamia, not enduring her grief, threw herself on it and was burned to death.
- Hyginus, Fables 243
Laodamia, daughter of Acastus, killed herself out of longing for her husband Protesilaus.
A daughter of Priam and Hecuba who, dreading Greek captivity, prayed successfully to be swallowed by the earth.
- Pseudo-Apollodorus, Epitome 5.23
Laodice, the most beautiful of Priam's daughters, was swallowed up by the earth in full view of everyone.
- Quintus of Smyrna 13.544-51
And then it was, I fancy, men say that Laodice, daughter of long-suffering Priam, lifted her arms to the sky, praying to the tireless blessed ones that the earth might swallow her before she put her had to slavish tasks. And one of the gods heard her and immediately caused the great earth to break beneath her. At the request of the god, the earth received the glorious girl within the hollow gulf, as Troy was being destroyed.
- Scholia in Lycophron 495
Laodice, when Troy was destroyed, because she did not want to become a slave, prayed to be and was swallowed up by the earth . (My translation–TLG)
Daughters of Leo who were sacrificed in accordance with an oracle that promised relief to Athens from famine.
- Demosthenes, Funeral Speech 60.29
The Leontidae had heard the stories related of the daughters of Leo, how they offered themselves to the citizens as a sacrifice for their country's sake. When, therefore, such courage was displayed by those women, they looked upon it as a heinous thing if they, being men, should have proved to possess less of manhood.
- Aelian, Various Narratives 12.28
The sanctuary of the daughters of a certain Leo, Praxithea and Theope and Eubule, in Athens is called the Leocorion. The story goes that these girls were sacrificed by the city of Minerva, when their father Leo handed them over in accordance with the Delphic oracle. For the oracle said that he could not save the city if they were not sacrificed. (My translation--TLG)
The daughter of Heracles and Deianeira, who moved to Athens after she and her brothers were expelled from Trachis. Their uncle Eurystheus immediately declared war on Athens and an oracle predicted victory for Athens only if one of the children of Heracles died voluntarily. Macaria complied.
- Euripides, Heracleidae 528-33
Lead me to the place where my body must be killed, and garland me and take the first sacrificial cutting, if it is your will. Defeat the enemy. For my life is at your disposal, and full willingly. I offer to be put to death on my brothers' behalf and on my own. For of course if I am no coward I have made a most splendid discovery, how to die with glory.
- Pausanias 1.32.6
In Marathon is a spring called Macaria with the following legend. The story says that an oracle was given the Athenians that one of the children of Heracles must die a voluntary death, or else victory could not be theirs. Thereupon Macaria, daughter of Deianeira and Heracles, slew herself and gave to the Athenians victory in the war and to the spring her own name.
- Zenobius 2.61
An oracle was given [to the Athenians] that said that they could stave off the raid of Eurystheus if one of the Heracleidae willingly gave himself to death; Macaria gave herself freely and the Athenians defeated Eurystheus. (My translation)
The dog of Erigone who led her to her father's grave. After Erigone hanged herself, the dog also committed suicide by jumping into a well.
- Hyginus, Poetic Astronomy 2.4
And the dog made atonement for her [Erigone's] death by its own life. Some say that it cast itself into the well, Angirus by name.
The daughter of Evenus and Alcippe and wife of Idas. Together they had Alcyone who married Meleager. The Dioscuri killed Idas, Meleager was killed by his mother, and Alcyone committed suicide. Marpessa is also said to have committed suicide.
- Pausanias 4.2.7
We know of no child by Lynceus, but Idas had by Marpessa a daughter, Cleopatra, who married Meleager. The writer of the epic Cypria says that the wife of Protesilaus, the first who dared to land when the Greeks reached Troy, was named Polydora, whom he calls a daughter of Meleager the son of Oeneus. If this is correct, these three women, the first of whom was Marpessa, all slew themselves on the death of their husbands.
A little-known mythological female, daughter of Autolycus, who killed herself because her son had died.
- Hyginus, Fables 243
Neaera, daughter of Autolycus, killed herself on account of the death of her son Hippothous.
The daughter of the river-god Sangarius and Cybele. Both Eros and Dionysus, both of whom she spurned loved her. Dionysus at last intoxicated her and from the union came Telete. After the child was born, Nicaea hanged herself.
- Nonnos, Dionysiaca 16.390-4
She sought a remedy in death by the hanging noose, and encircled her neck with a choking throttling loop, to avert the malice of her mocking yearsmates. Unwilling she left the ancient beatbreeding forest, being ashamed after that bed to show herself to the Archeress.
In a variation on the usual story, Niobe was the daughter of Assaon and wife of Philottus. After arguing with Leto about the beauty of their children, Leto caused her husband to be ripped apart during a hunt. Niobe's father then conceived a passion for his daughter and when Niobe rejected him, he killed the children in a fire, killed himself and Niobe threw herself from a cliff.
- Parthenius, Love Stories 33
…and for having had her dispute with Leto about the beauty of their children, her punishment was as follows: Philottus [husband] perished while hunting; Assaon [father], consumed with love for his own daughter, desired to take her to wife; on Niobe's refusing to accede to his desires, he asked her children to a banquet, and there burned them all to death. As a result of this calamity, she flung herself from a high rock.
The daughter of Colonus. She fell in love with Eunostus, son of Elinus. When he rejected her she accused him of trying to seduce her. Her brothers killed him. In remorse Ochne confessed that she had lied and then threw herself from a cliff.
- Plutarch, Greek Questions 40
After Colonus made his judgment, the brothers of Ochne fled, but she hurled herself from a cliff. (My translation)
First wife of Paris who was hurt deeply when he abandoned her for Helen. Though she had promised to heal him if the need should arrive, she refused after Philoctetes wounded him. Though she relented, she arrived at Troy too late. In her grief she hanged herself or wasted away or threw herself on Paris' funeral pyre.
- Lycophron, Alexandra 58-68
…and herself, the one skilled in drugs, seeing the baleful wound incurable of her husband wounded by the giant-slaying arrows of his adversary, shall endure to share his doom, from the topmost towers to the new slain corpse hurtling herself head foremost, and pierced by sorrow for the dead shall breathe forth her soul on the quivering body.
- Pseudo-Apollodorus 3.12.6
He [Alexander] returned to Oenone on Ida, but she was angry because he had deserted her and refused to heal him. Alexander was carried back to Troy where he died. Oenone changed her mind and brought medicine with which to heal him. When she found him dead she hanged herself.
- Conon, Narrations 23 (FGrH i. p. 197)
When she learned from the herald that he had died and that she had destroyed him, she, beating her head with a stone for her crime lifts him and weeps over the corpse of Alexander and blaming their common fate hung herself with her girdle. (My translation)
- Parthenius, Love Stories 4
…however, the messenger reached Alexander first, and told him Oenone's reply, and upon this he gave up all hope and breathed his last: and Oenone, when she arrived and found him lying on the ground already dead, raised a great cry and, after long and bitter mourning, put an end to herself .
- Dictys of Crete 4.21
They say that Oenone–she had been married to him before his abduction of Helen–was so shocked by the sight of his body that she lost all power of speech, lost her spirit and, gradually being overwhelmed with grief, fell down dead.
- Quintus of Smyrna 10.467
As she said this,…she wasted away like wax before a fire…. Then, while her father and the slaves slept in the halls, she broke through the gateways and rushed out like the wind; so Oenone, running swiftly, went over the long paths on speeding feet, seeking to climb upon the terrible funeral pyre. … When Oenone saw him [her husband] clearly before her, she gave no expression to her grief, overwhelmed as she was, but covered her beautiful face with her robe and leapt at once upon the pyre.
- Tzetzes, On Lycophron 61
She brought the drug to prevent his death, but she found him already dead and so killed herself. (My translation–TLG)
The daughters of Erechtheus. When an oracle demanded the sacrifice of one of his daughters, Otionia volunteered and her two sisters joined her because of a pact they had made.
- Pseudo-Apollodorus 3.15.4
When Erechtheus asked the oracle how the Athenians could win the war the god replied that they would be successful if he would slaughter one of his daughters. When he slaughtered the youngest, the others also killed themselves, for some say that they had sworn an oath with each other to die together.
- Cicero, Tusculan Disputations 1.48.116-117
But noble deaths, sought voluntarily, for the sake of country, are not only commonly reckoned glorious by rhetoricians but also happy. They go back to Erechtheus, whose daughters sought even with eagerness for death to save the lives of their fellow-citizens;
Hyginus claims the first sacrificed was Chthonia.
- Hyginus, Fables 46
And so when Chthonia, his daughter, had been sacrificed, the others in accordance with their oaths killed themselves. Erechtheus himself at Neptune's request was smitten with a thunderbolt by Jove.
An unfortunate player in the dysfunctional house of Pelops. She was the daughter of Thyestes, who learned that the only way to avenge himself on Atreus was through an incestuous offspring with his daughter. Later recognizing her father as the rapist she took the sword and killed herself.
- Hyginus, Fables 88
…He [Aegisthus] replied that his mother Pelopia had given it [the sword] to him. He bade her be summoned. She told him she had taken it from some unknown person in a rape by night, and from that embrace had borne Aegisthus. Then Pelopia snatched the sword pretending to examine it, and plunged it in her breast.
- Hyginus, Fables 243
Pelopia, daughter of Thyestes, killed herself on account of her father's crime.
Sister of Daedalus, mother of Talos. When Talos [a.k.a. Kalos] threatened to outshine his uncle in creativity, Daedalus threw him over the cliff of the Acropolis. Perdix was overcome with grief and hanged herself.
- Apostolius 14.71
After Daedalus, due to jealousy of his [Kalos'] skill hurled him from the Acropolis, Perdix hanged herself. (My translation)
- Suda, "Perdix"
Daedalus, because he was jealous of his [Kalos'] skill, hurled him from the Acropolis. Because of this Perdix hanged herself, and the Athenians honored her. (My translation--TLG)
Wife of Theseus who because of Aphrodite's anger at Hippolytus, fell in love with her stepson Hippolytus. When he rejected her she hanged herself.
- Euripides, Hippolytus 778
Nurse: [within] Ho there! Ho! Help, neighbors of this house! My lady, Theseus' wife, has hanged herself!
- Pseudo-Apollodorus, Epitome 1.19
When Phaedra's passion for him became known, she hanged herself.
- Hyginus, Fables 47
When she could not bend him to her desire, she sent a letter to her husband saying that she had been attacked by Hippolytus, and slew herself by hanging.
- Hyginus, Fables 243
Phaedra, daughter of Minos, killed herself by hanging because of her love for her stepson, Hippolytus.
Phyllis fell in love with Demophon, and the king gave him part of the kingdom when the young man married her. He grew homesick and begged to visit Athens, with a promise to return shortly. He was delayed. When Demophon failed to show up, Phyllis hanged herself and was metamorphosed into a leafless almond tree. (Although most stories tell of her withering away.)
- Pseudo-Apollodorus, Epitome 6.17
When the time appointed for his return had passed Phyllis cursed Demophon and killed herself.
- Ovid, Heroides II.226-44
I want to drown myself in that place,
And I will if you are not faithful to me.
The currents will carry me to you
And your eyes will see my unburied body.
If you were hard as iron still you would
Be driven to say, 'Not in this way, Phyllis,
Should you have followed me to this place.'
I long for poison; I wish that I could plunge
A sword in my heart so that my blood
Could be poured out and my life would be finished.
Since you placed your arms about my neck
I should gladly tie a noose about it now.
In choosing death, I will not delay.
You will be the cause of my dying; my tomb
Will have the following inscription:
'Demophoon killed Phyllis: a guest, he stole love
and by his theft caused the death that came from her hand.'
- Hyginus, Fables 243
Phyllis killed herself by hanging on account of Demophon, son of Theseus.
According to Pausanias she was the daughter of Meleager and Cleopatra who married Protesilaus and committed suicide.
- Pausanias 4.2.7
The writer of the epic Cypria says that the wife of Protesilaus, the first who dared to land when the Greeks reached Troy, was named Polydora, whom he calls a daughter of Meleager the son of Oeneus. If this is correct, these three women, the first of whom was Marpessa, all slew themselves on the death of their husbands.
Daughter of Autolycus, wife of Aeson and mother of Jason and Polymachus. In some versions after Pelias killed Aeson, he sent men to murder Polymede and Polymachus. They killed Polymachus in full sight of his mother who then ran to the hearth of Pelias. She cursed him to his face and then killed herself (authors vary as to methods).
According to Pseudo-Apollodorus, she hanged herself before the son was killed.
- Pseudo-Apollodorus 1.9.27
Jason's mother cursed Pelias and hanged herself, leaving behind an infant son Promachus; but Pelias slew even the son whom she had left behind.
According to Diodorus of Sicily, she [here called Amphinome] stabbed herself.
- Diodorus of Sicily 4.50.2
But Amphinome, his mother, they say, when on the point of being slain, performed a manly deed and one worthy of mention; for fleeing to the hearth of the king she pronounced a curse against him, to the effect that he might suffer the fate which his impious deeds merited, and then, striking her own breast with a sword, she ended her life heroically.
According to Valerius Flaccus, she [here called Alcimede] along with her husband Aeson drank the blood of a sacrificial bull.
- Valerius Flaccus, Argonautica I. 818-26
Eagerly they drank and drained the [bull's] blood from the bowl. A tumult arose; with a shout there burst in soldiers bearing stern commands and weapons drawn at the king's behest. They behold the aged pair already in the grip of doom, their eyes dulled in death, and spewing forth a poisonous stream of blood; and the, child, innocent on the threshold of life and pale at the sight of thy parents' death, they mutilate and set thee with thy kindred. Near by Aeson shuddered as he passed away, and his ghost carried the memory to the clouds above.
A daughter of Priam and Hecuba, and connected in various ways with Achilles. Later traditions say that she and Achilles fell in love, though it was a brief but intense one. When Paris killed Achilles, she is said to have killed herself on her beloved's tomb.
- Flavius Philostratus, Vita Apollonius 4.16
And he said that this is true, that she was slaughtered not by the Achaeans, but willingly she went to the grave [of Achilles] and thinking their love of greatest importance fell on a sharp sword. (My translation--TLG)
Daughter of Nisus, who was invulnerable as long as a certain purple lock of hair grew on his head. Scylla fell in love with the invader Minos and betrayed her father by cutting off the magic lock. Though Minos was successful when he learned about Scylla's treachery he rejected her and she threw herself into the sea.
- Hyginus, Fables 198
He [Minos] said that holy Crete would not receive such a criminal. She threw herself into the sea to avoid pursuit.
A young girl who killed herself on her mother's grave rather than submit to her father's incestuous advances.
- Dionysius, On Birds 1.7
The story goes that a certain man losing his daughter, Side by name, to marriage looked at her so shamefully that she in order to avoid intercourse with her father killed herself on her mother's grave. (My translation)
The 3 (or 4) dulcet voiced seductresses whose song lured passersby to their deaths. Odysseus, warned by Circe, was able to resist them and the Sirens in frustration at their failure threw themselves into the sea and drowned.
- Orphica, Argonautica 1284-90
And they groaned terribly when the sorrowful lot of death came. And they hurled themselves from the rocky crag into the depths of the rushing sea, and exchanged their form and arrogant figure with the rocks. (My translation)
- Hyginus, Fables 141
Ulysses proved fatal to them, for when by his cleverness he passed by the rocks where they dwelt, they threw themselves into the sea.
The female monster that terrorized Thebes until Oedipus solved her riddle, whereupon she threw herself to her death.
- Pseudo-Apollodorus 3.5.8
The Sphinx thereupon threw herself down from the acropolis.
- Hyginus, Fables 67
Oedipus, son of Laius, came and interpreted the riddle. The Sphinx leapt to her death.
The daughter of Iobates and wife of Proteus. When Bellerophon rejected her amorous advances, she accused him of rape and killed herself.
- Hyginus, Fables 57
But the king, praising his [Bellerophon's] valor [in killing the Chimaera] gave him his other daughter in marriage, and Stheneboea, hearing of it, killed herself.
- Hyginus, Fables 243
Stheneboea, daughter of Iobas, and wife of Proteus, killed herself out of love for Bellerophon.
The daughter of the Lapith king Hypseus and Chlidanope, and second (or third) wife of Athamas. Due to jealousy, she attempted to murder the children of Athamas' previous wife Ino, but because of a switch of covers she killed her own children instead and then killed herself.
- Hyginus, Fables 1
Themisto, robbed of her marriage by Ino, wished to kill Ino's children. She hid, therefore, in the palace, and when an opportunity presented itself, thinking she was killing the sons of her rival, unwittingly killed her own, deceived by the nurse who had put the wrong garments on them. When Themisto discovered this, she killed herself.
- Hyginus, Fables 4
When Athamas, king in Thessaly, thought that his wife Ino, by whom he begat two sons, had perished, he married Themisto, the daughter of a nymph, and had twin sons by her. Later he discovered that Ino was on Parnassus, where she had gone for the Bacchic revels. He sent someone to bring her home, and concealed her when she came. Themisto discovered she had been found, but didn't know her identity. She conceived the desire of killing Ino's sons, and made Ino herself, whom she believed to be a captive, a confidant of the plan, telling her to cover her children with white garments, but Ino's with black. Ino covered her own with white, and Themisto's with dark; then Themisto mistakenly slew her own sons. When she discovered this, she killed herself.
- Hyginus, Fables 243
Themisto, daughter of Hypseus, killed herself because, at the instigation of Ino, she had killed her sons.
A beautiful Babylonian maiden loved by Pyramus. Being forbidden to marry they devised a plan to meet secretly one night. Frightened by a lion, Thisbe ran from the appointed meeting place dropping her shawl. The lion nuzzled the garment with her bloody mouth and when Pyramus found it he thought Thisbe had been murdered and stabbed himself in despair. Thisbe returned and finding Pyramus dead stabbed herself.
- Ovid, Metamophoses 4.212-4
No more she said;
and having fixed the point below her breast,
she fell on the keen sword, still warm with his red blood.
- Hyginus, Fables 243
Thisbe of Babylon killed herself because Pyramus had killed himself.
A lover of Heracles who pined during his absence to such an extent that she died.
- Conon, Narrations 17 (FGrH i. p. 195)
She, during Heracles' absences, was weighed down with desire and longing for him and died. (My translation)
Bibliography
The primary sources for classical mythology span several centuries and genres. Below are the sources in alphabetic order with a brief sketch of each. Many of the sources are not available in English and they have been listed separately.
Primary sources readily available in English:
- The Perseus Digital Library (www.perseus.tufts.edu) offers on-line access to many of the following sources, in both Greek or Latin and English.
- Homer, Iliad and Odyssey, Greek epic poet 8th c. BCE
- Herodotus, Histories, Greek historian 5th c. BCE
- Greek Tragedians 5th c. BCE:
- Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides (see catalogue above for play titles)
- Demosthenes (see catalogue for works used), Greek orator 4th c. BCE
- Virgil, Aeneid, Roman epic poet 1st c. BCE
- Ovid, Metamorphoses, Roman poet 1st c. BCE-1st c. CE
- Pausanias, Description of Greece, Greek geographer 2nd c. CE
- Plutarch (see catalogue for works used), Greek philosopher/biographer, 2nd c. CE
- Antoninus Liberalis, mythographer, 2nd c. CE, The Metamorphoses of Antoninus Liberalis. ATranslation with a Commentary. F. Celoria. Routledge 1992.
- Pseudo-Apollodorus, mythographer, 1st c. CE?, Gods and Heroes of the Greeks. The Library of Apollodorus. Tr. M. Simpson. University of Massachusetts Press 1976.
- Apollonius of Rhodes, poet/scholar, 3rd c. BCE
- The Voyage of Argo: The Argonautica
. Tr. E.V. Rieu. Penguin Books 1986.
- Cicero, Roman orator, 1st c. BCE. Tusculan disputations, with an English translation. Tr. J. E. King. Harvard University Press 1950. Loeb Classical Texts.
- Dares of Phyrgia/Dictys of Crete, supposed participants in the Trojan war, but the actual works were composed in the 2nd or 3rd c. CE, The Trojan War. The Chronicles of Dictys of Crete and Dares the Phrygian. Tr. R. M. Frazer, Jr. Indiana University Press 1966.
- Diodorus of Sicily, historian, 1st c. BCE, Diodorus of Sicily. Tr. C.H. Oldfather, Harvard University Press 1939. Loeb Classical Texts.
- Fulgentius, mythographer, 5th-6th c. CE, Fulgentius the Mythographer. Tr. L. G. Whitbread. Ohio State University Press 1971.
- Pseudo-Hyginus, mythographer, 1st c. BCE?
- The Myths of Hyginus
. Ed. M.Grant. University of Kansas Press 1960.
- Lycophron, Greek tragic poet/librarian, 4th c. BCE, Lycophron with an English Translation. Tr. A.W. Mair. Harvard University Press 1969. Loeb Classical Texts.
- Nonnos, epic poet in Egypt, 6th c. CE?
- Dionysiaca
. Tr. W.H.D. Rouse. Harvard University Press 1940. Loeb Classical Texts.
- Ovid (works not on Perseus), Ovid, The Love Poems. Tr. A.D.Melville with Intro and notes by E.J. Kenney. Oxford University Press 1990
- Ovid. Heroides
. Tr. H. Isbell. Penguin Books 1990.
- Parthenius, Greek poet/mythographer, 1st c. BCE, Daphnis and Chloe [The Love Romances of Parthenius]. Tr. S. Gaselee, G.P. Putnam's Sons 1916. LoebClassical Texts.
- Pausanias, Greek geographer, 2nd c. CE, Pausanias Guide to Greece, 2 vols. Tr. P. Levi. Penguin Classics 1971.
- Quintus of Smyrna, Greek epic poet, 4th c. CE, Quintus of Smyrna. The War at Troy: What Homer Didn't Tell. Tr. F. M. Combellack. University of Oklahoma Press 1968.
- Seneca, Roman tragedian, 1st c. CE, [Hercules Oetaeus] Seneca's Tragedies, with an English translation. Tr. Frank Justus Miller. Harvard University Press c1953. Loeb Classical Texts.
- Statius, Roman poet, 1st c. CE
- Statius, Thebaid. Tr. J.H. Mozeley. Harvard University Press 1961. Loeb Classical Texts.
- Valerius Flaccus, Roman poet, 1st c. CE, Valerius Flaccus, with an English translation. Tr. J.H. Mozley. Harvard University Press 1936. Loeb Classical Texts.
Works not so readily available in English (Many of these authors are also available via the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae -- www.tlg.uci.edu)
- Aelian, Roman philosopher/rhetorician, 2nd — 3rd c. CE: Various Narrations -- Aeliani De natura animalium, varia historia, epistolae et fragmenta. Porphyrii philosophi de abstinenta et de antro nympharum. Philonis. Paris 1858.
- Apostolius, Proverb writer, 15th c. CE, Corpus Paroemiographorum Graecorum. Vol. 1 and 2. Edd. E. L. Leutsch and F. G. Schneidewin. Gottingen 1839.
- Conon, mythographer, 1st c. BCE — 1st c. CE
- Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker
. (FGrH). Ed. Felix Jacoby. E.J. Brill c1986.
- Dionysius Periegetes, Greek author, 2nd c. CE?Ixeuticon seu de Aucupio. Ed. A. Garzya. Leipzig 1963.
- Eustathius, monastic scholar, 12th c. CE TLG.
- Flavius Philostratus, philospher, 2nd — 3rd c. CE TLG.
- Orphica, Argonautica, dates and authors unknown
- Orphica.
accedunt Procli Hymni, hymni magici. Ed. E. Abel. Leipzig 1885.
- Philochorus, Atthidographer, 4th c. BCE
- Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker
. (FGrH). Ed. Felix Jacoby. E.J. Brill, c1986.
- Plutarch (not all on Perseus): Greek Questions of Plutarch. Ed Halliday. Arno Press 1975; Lesser Parallels. TLG.
- Scholia, bodies of notes which expound or criticize the works of various authors. TLG.
- Servius, grammarian/commentator, 4th c. CE On the Aeneid, Perseus
- Stephanus of Byzantium, Greek grammarian 6th c. CE, Stephani Byzantii Ethnicorvm quae svpersvnt. Ed. A. Meineke. Berlin 1849, repr. 1958. Also available on TLG.
- Suda, Suidas. Suidae lexicon. Editio stereotypa editionis primae 1928-38. Stuttgart 1967-1971 (5 vols). Also available on TLG.
- Tzetzes, Byzantine polymath, 12th c. CE
- Zenobius, Proverb writer, 15th c. CE?, Corpus Paroemiographorum Graecorum. Vol. 1 and 2. Edd E. L. Leutsch and F. G. Schneidewin. Gottingen 1839.
www.stoa.org/diotima