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"Do you not see how mighty
is the goddess Aphrodite? She sows and gives that
love from which all we upon this earth are born."
[Nurse of
Phaedra. Euripides,
Hippolytus
450]
"Mighty the victory which
Aphrodite bears away." [Sophocles,
Trachiniae
497]
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Aphrodite is in charge of wedlock and the tender
passions.
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Birth
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[See notes below under Parentage.]
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Hephaestus
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Aphrodite was married to
Hephaestus
[Vir.Aen.8.372; QS.2.139], the god of
smiths, who discovered the ways of working copper,
iron, silver and gold.
Hephaestus, who is
lame in the legs because
Zeus cast him out from
Heaven causing his fall to the island of
Lemnos, is one of the
Olympian gods and the
fatherless son of Hera, the
queen of Heaven, or perhaps the son of
Zeus and
Hera [Apd.1.3.5;
Hes.The.929ff.; Hom.Il.1.571].
Aphrodite and
Hephaestus never had
children.
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Love affair with Ares
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This couple was not a happy one, for Aphrodite
loved Ares, the god of war
and warriors, and they lay in the house of
Hephaestus whenever
the god-smith was away. But
Helius, the sun-god who
sees everything, warned
Hephaestus who, with
a clever device of his own invention, trapped the
two naked lovers in bed, exposing them to the
laughter of the other gods [Hom.Od.8.260;
Hyg.Fab.148].
Aphrodite had three children by
Ares: Deimos, Phobus 1
(Fear and Panic) and Harmonia 1 [for Harmonia 1 see
Robe & Necklace of Harmonia
1]. The first two children appear usually in
battles causing disorder among the ranks of
soldiers [Hes.The.933; Hom.Il.9.4].
Their daughter Harmonia 1 married
Cadmus, a Phoenician
prince who came to Boeotia and founded
Thebes [Apd.3.4.2;
Hes.The.975].
Cadmus and Harmonia 1
started, thus, the Royal House of
Thebes, and had four
daughters and one son, Polydorus 2, who became king
of Thebes after his
father. One of their daughters, Ino, became a
sea-goddess and was, since then, called Leucothoe
[Apd.1.9.1-2; Hyg.Fab.224;
Pin.Oly.2.30]. Another daughter,
Semele, was loved by
Zeus and became the mother
of Dionysus 2, the
vine-god [Apd.3.4.3; Hes.The.949]. When
Cadmus and Harmonia 1
died they were first turned into serpents and then
sent to the Elysian
Fields, which is the abode of the happy
immortals [Apd.3.5.4]. Sometimes it is said that
Harmonia 1 was nursed by Electra 3, one of the
PLEIADES, the daughters
of Atlas, but some say
that, in reality, Harmonia 1 was the daughter of
Zeus and Electra 3
[Dio.5.48.2].
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Dionysus 2
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Some say that Aphrodite and
Dionysus 2 had a son
and that his name was
Priapus. But others say
that Priapus' mother was
not Aphrodite but a Nymph [Strab.13.1.12], while
yet others say that
Priapus' father was
Hermes without mentioning
his mother [Hyg.Fab.160].
Priapus is a phallic
deity. He is said to have contended with an ass
(the saddle-ass of the Satyr
Silenus, adviser and
instructor of Dionysus
2 [Dio.4.4.3]) "on a matter of physique" (the
size of their members), or that the same ass
prevented him from loving either Lotis, a Nymph, or
Hestia [Dio.5.68.1;
Apd.1.1.5; Cic.ND 2.67; Pin.Nem
11.1], the first-born of the
OLYMPIANS and guardian
of altars, hearths and States [Hyg.Ast.2.23;
Ov.Fast.1.415ff., 6.335ff.]. Lotis is said
to have turned into the flower lotus while fleeing
from Priapus
[Ov.Met.9.347].
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Hermes
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Also Hermes, an
Olympian god who leads the soul of the dead to
Hades and is the
messenger and herald of
Zeus, loved Aphrodite and
they had a child called
Hermaphroditus or
sometimes Atlantius.
Hermaphroditus
was so much loved by a Naiad (water-nymph) called
Salmacis that their bodies were united in one
[Ov.Met.4.288ff.; Hyg.Fab.271].
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Anchises 1
[Anchises 2 is father of Echepolus 2, a
Sicyonian]
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Hephaestus,
Ares,
Hermes and
Dionysus 2 are the
gods who loved Aphrodite. But she was also loved by
mortal men. One of them was
Anchises 1, king of
Dardania, a region near the city of
Troy. It is said that
Zeus killed him with a
thunderbolt for having told, over
wine, about his affair with
Aphrodite, or that he committed suicide for unknown
reasons [Hyg.Fab.94]. But it is also said
that he died in exile [Vir.Aen.3.709].
Anchises 1 and
Aphrodite had two sons (some add one daughter):
Aeneas and Lyrus
[Apd.3.12.2; Hom.Il.2.819-821, 5.311-313;
Hes.The.1008-1010ff.]. Very little is known
about Lyrus, except that he died childless.
Aeneas defended
Troy during the war and
when the city fell he took his father with him and
went into exile. Aeneas
loved Queen Dido of
Carthage and he established the kingdoms of
Lavinium and Alba Longa in Italy, predecessors of
the Roman power [see also
Throne Succession from Troy to
Rome]. The circumstances of
Aeneas' death have not
been well established. He is said to have
mysteriously disappeared after a battle
[DH.1.64.4], to have died in Italy without further
detail, or even to have died in Thrace, the region
between the Black and Aegean seas, without ever
reaching Italy [DH.1.49.1-2].
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Phaethon 1
[Phaethon 2 is one of
Eos' steeds and
Phaethon 3 is the son
of Helius]
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Phaethon 1 was a boy "in the tender flower of
glorious youth" when he was ravished by Aphrodite
[Hes.The.986]. According to some he was the
son of Tithonus 2 [Apd.3.14.3], son of Cephalus 2,
but some say that Cephalus 2 was Phaethon 1's
father [Pau.1.3.1; Hes.The.986]. In any case
with the ravishing of Phaethon 1 a familiar
tradition was firmly established, because both
Tithonus 1 (founder of Susa [Apd.3.12.14;
Nonn.15.279]) and Cephalus 2 had been carried off
by Eos (Cephalus 2 to
Syria). Cephalus 2's wife and Phaethon 1's mother
is said to have been either
Eos (Dawn) or Hemera (Day).
In spite of this common trait of abducting lovers,
or because of it, Aphrodite did not like
Eos particularly, and she
caused her to be perpetually in love because
Eos had lain with
Ares [Apd.1.4.4].
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Adonis
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Adonis' mother
(Smyrna, according to some) loved her own father,
and with the complicity of her nurse lay with him.
When he discovered her, he pursued her with a sword
and being overtaken she asked to the gods that she
might become invisible; so the gods out of
compassion turned her into the tree called smyrna
(myrrh). Ten months afterwards the tree burst and
Adonis was born. He was
so beautiful that, while still a boy, Aphrodite hid
him in a chest and entrusted it to
Persephone, the queen
of the Underworld.
But when Persephone beheld his beauty, she would
not give him back. The case was tried before
Zeus and
Zeus decided to divide the
year into three parts, so that
Adonis should stay by
himself for one part of the year, with
Persephone for one
part, and with Aphrodite for the remainder. But
Adonis gave to Aphrodite
his own share of time [Apd.3.14.4].
But sometimes it is said that
Adonis was the child of
Cinyras 1 &
Metharme, who was the daughter of that king of
Cyprus, Pygmalion 1,
who fell in love with a statue of his own making,
which was given life by Aphrodite. It is also said
that Smyrna's father was not
Cinyras 1 but Thias,
king of Assyria, and that it was with him that she
committed incest. Thias himself committed suicide
when he learned what had happened. Yet others say
that Adonis' father was
Phoenix 1, the brother of
Europa after whom
Phoenicia was called (the same
Europa that was carried
off by Zeus, who had taken
the form of a bull), and that the name of his
mother was Alphesiboea 2 [Apd.3.14.3;
Lib.Met.34].
Aphrodite and Adonis
had a daughter, whose name was Beroe 5 (also called
Amymone 2), though sometimes she is said to be the
daughter of the TITANS
Oceanus and Tethys
[Nonn.41.153-155, 42.66]. The city Berytos (Beyrut)
in Lebanon was called after her. When Beroe 5 was
born Aphrodite went to visit the Allmother Harmonia
3, Nurse of the world, asking her whether the gift
of Justice would be assigned to the city of her own
daughter Beroe 5. Later both
Poseidon and
Dionysus 2 fell in
love with Beroe 5 and had to fight for her, but it
was Poseidon who won
her love [Nonn.41.318ff., 41.367, 42.40ff.,
42.506ff., 43.394].
However Adonis was
attacked by a boar and killed, they say through the
anger of Artemis, the
virgin Olympian goddess, protectress of hunters
[Apd.3.14.4; Hyg.Fab.248].
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Butes 1
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Butes 1 was the son of Teleon and Zeuxippe 1.
His mother was the daughter of the river-god
Eridanus (a fabulous river sometimes identified
with the Po, the Nile, the Milky way, or the Ocean
that surrounds the world) [Apd.1.9.24, 2.5.11;
Arg.4.506, 4.596, 4.610, 4.623, 4.628;
Ov.Met.2.324, 2.372; Nonn.2.327, 11.32,
11.310, 19.185, 22.89, 23.244, 23.251, 38.94,
38.100, 38.411, 38.431, 42.420, 43.414;
Hyg.Fab.152a, 154; Dio.5.23.3].
Butes 1 joined Jason
and the ARGONAUTS, who
sailed in the vessel "Argo" to Colchis in the
Caucasus to bring the Golden Fleece, which was in
the power of King Aeetes.
As the ARGONAUTS
sailed past the SIRENS
(who destroy sailors after attracting them with
their enchanting voices), Butes 1 could not be
restrained by Orpheus'
counter-melody and he swam off to the
SIRENS. But Aphrodite
intervened and, carrying him away, settled him in
Lilybaeum, which is in western Sicily [Apd.1.9.25].
A Sicilian king called Eryx 1, who was killed by
Heracles 1 in a
wrestling-match, is said to be the son of Butes 1
& Aphrodite, but some say that he was the son
of Poseidon without
naming his mother [Apd.2.5.10; Dio.4.23.2].
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Eros
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Aphrodite is sometimes considered to be the
mother of Eros (Love)
[Hyg.Ast.2.30; Nonn.33.56], but this is a most
disputed matter. Eros is
often considered one of the first to have come into
being. It has been said that there was no race of
immortals until Eros caused
all things to mingle, and that
Nyx (Night) laid an Egg in
Erebus (the Darkness of the
Underworld) and in
time Eros was born
[Ari.Birds.683ff.]. According to others,
Eros was one of the first
to be born out of Chaos
[Hes.The.116ff.], the kind of void that was
the original state of the universe. Some say that
not Aphrodite but Ilithyia [Pau.9.27.2], the
goddess of childbirth, daughter of
Zeus and
Hera, was his mother. But
still others say that Zephyrus
1 (the West Wind) was his father and
Iris 1 (the rainbow, a
heavenly messenger) his mother [Nonn.31.111]. And
there are also those who say that he was born out
of Chronos (Time), who
is said to be the same as the Titan
Cronos, father of the
first OLYMPIANS, and
identify him with Phanes 1, who was considered to
be the first-born and eternal god [AO.12.16;
Cic.ND.2.64; Nonn.9.142, 9.157, 12.34,
19.207]. Eros and Psyche
(Soul) loved each other, but she was not supposed
to see the lover who was visiting her by night
[Apuleius,
The
Golden Ass].
Aphrodite is also said to be the mother of
Anteros [see Eros ], who is
the avenging spirit of spurned love [Pau.1.30.1;
Ov.Fast.4.1].
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Some interventions of Aphrodite:
Aphrodite's interventions are innumerable, as
she often is involved whenever love and its retinue
of passions, including jealousy, appear. Here are
recalled some circumstances in which Aphrodite
played a more complex role:
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Helping young people in love
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Aphrodite would often help young people in love:
Atalanta, a virgin
huntress who remained always under arms, used to
force her wooers to race before her and if she
caught them she would put them to death, but if
anybody would survive she would marry him. But
Melanion came to the race bringing the golden
apples that Aphrodite had given him. He dropped the
apples as he was running, and because
Atalanta could not help
to pick up the fruit she was beaten in the race
[Apd.3.9.2; Hyg.Fab.185].
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Punishes those who do not honour her
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But Aphrodite could be harsh toward those who
defied her: Theseus,
king of Athens and
Troezen, had a son by an
Amazon, Hippolytus 4, who would not worship
Aphrodite, and thus aroused the goddess wrath
against himself. Aphrodite made
Phaedra, daughter of
Minos 2, king of
Crete, and
Theseus' young wife, to
fall in love with her stepson. In the drama that
followed both Phaedra
and Hippolytus 4 lost their lives [Euripides,
Hippolytus
].
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Punishes Lemnian women
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Because the Lemnian women did not honour her,
she caused their husbands to consort with Thracian
women. When the
ARGONAUTS came to
Lemnos the island was
then ruled by women and the queen was Hypsipyle.
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The Judgement of Paris
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The "Judgement of
Paris" is perhaps the
intervention of Aphrodite who had most dramatic
consequences. Eris
(Discord) was not invited to the wedding of
Peleus and Thetis.
Therefore she threw an apple as a prize of beauty
to be contended for by
Hera,
Athena and Aphrodite.
Following Zeus' decision
the three goddesses were led by
Hermes to Mount Ida (near
Troy) in order to be judged
by Paris. It was Aphrodite
who succeeded in bribing
Paris promising him the
hand of Helen, who was
married to Menelaus,
king of Sparta. In that
way Aphrodite won the apple of Eris,
Paris the hand of
Helen, and the world the
Trojan War
[Eur.Hel.24; Ov.Fast.4.121;
Apd.Ep.3.1ff.; Col.39, 64ff.; Hdt.2.113-120;
Apd.3.12.5-6; Eur.IA.468; Lib.Met.11;
Hyg.Fab.92; Nonn.20.35, 39.385]
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Some interventions during the
Trojan War
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During the Trojan
War Aphrodite helped the Trojans as much as she
could, protecting Paris
and even saving his life [Hom.Il.3.384ff.].
In helping her loved ones she could even endanger
herself as when she saved
Aeneas in battle and was
wounded by Diomedes 2
[Hom.Il.5.310ff., 5.375]. On another
occasion she was knocked down by
Athena because of having
aided her beloved Ares
[Hom.Il.21.405ff.]. But Aphrodite's devotion
to love was stronger than her strategic
considerations: When Hera,
for the sake of helping the Achaeans in the
Trojan War, wished to
keep Zeus from the battles,
she received Aphrodite's help in the form of her
magic belt, and so she could distract him with the
belt's and her own charms
[Hom.Il.14.154ff.].
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Aphrodite Urania and Aphrodite Pandemos
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One guest in Plato's
Symposium
distinguished two Aphrodite, though more as
philosophical reflection than mythological account.
The elder, Aphrodite Urania (Heavenly), he
called the daughter of
Uranus, of no mother
born, and the younger he called Aphrodite
Pandemos (Common), daughter of
Zeus and Dione. These two
Aphrodite stand respectively for a nobler and
meaner kind of love.
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Parentage [three versions]
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Mates
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Offspring
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Notes
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Zeus
& Dione 1
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Uranus' Genitals.-
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Egg 2.-
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Homer, among others, believed that
Aphrodite was the daughter of
Zeus and Dione
1 [Apd.1.3.1; Hom.Il
5.370ff.; Hom.Aph.5.81; Nonn
31.210; AO. 1323;
Eur.Hel.1098]. Who this Dione was
is not quite clear. She could be one of
the daughters of
Uranus (Sky) and
Gaia (Earth)
[Apd.1.1.3], thus a kind of Titaness, or
she could be an Oceanid, that is a
daughter of the
TITANS
Oceanus and
Tethys [Hes.The.350ff.]. Less
probable alternatives are a Nereid also
called Dione, daughter of the sea-god
Nereus and the Oceanid Doris [Apd.1.2.7],
or another Dione, daughter of the Titan
Atlas, who
married Tantalus
1 (he who is still being punished in
the
Underworld)
and became mother of
Pelops 1, after
whom the Peloponnessus was named
[Hyg.Fab.82, 83; Pau.3.22.4;
Ov.Met. 6.172].
The most famous story about Aphrodite's
birth is the one told by Hesiod
[Theogony
189ff.], who said that she had sprung from
the foam (aphros in Greek [Plato,
Cratylus
406D]) that gathered round the severed
genitals of
Uranus (Sky)
as they floated in the sea. These had been
cut off with an adamantine sickle and
thrown into the sea by the Titan
Cronos during
the TITANS'
Revolt against their father
Uranus
[Theogony
159ff.]. Hesiod's account of Aphrodite's
birth makes her the most ancient of the
Olympian
gods.
Egg 2 was an egg of wonderful size that
is said to have fallen into the Euphrates
River. The fish rolled it to the bank and
doves sat on it, and when it was heated it
hatched out Aphrodite
[Hyg.Fab.197], later called Syrian
Goddess. This is why the Syrians do not
eat fish or doves, considering them as
gods.
One guest in Plato's
Symposium
distinguished two Aphrodite, though more
as philosophical reflection than
mythological account. The elder,
Aphrodite Urania (Heavenly), he
called the daughter of
Uranus, of no
mother born, and the younger he called
Aphrodite Pandemos (Common),
daughter of Zeus
and Dione. These two Aphrodite stand
respectively for a nobler and meaner kind
of love [Plato
Symposium
180D; Pau.1.14.7, 1.19.2, 1.22.3]
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Lyrus
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For Lyrus see main text above.
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Harmonia 1
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See Robe & Necklace of
Harmonia 1.
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Deimos
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For these two see main text above and
Ares.
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Phobus 1
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unknown
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Anteros
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See Eros.
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Phaethon 1
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Astynous 1
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Astynous 1 was father of Sandocus who emigrated
from Syria to Cilicia and founded a city,
Celenderis. Sandocus is sometimes called father of
Cinyras 1, the founder
of Paphos in Cyprus [Apd.3.14.3]
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Priapus is a phallic
deity. When Dionysus 2
was afflicted with madness, he came to a large
swamp which he could not cross. He was then met by
two Asses and one of them carried him across the
water so that he could reach a temple of
Zeus. When
Dionysus 2 came to the
temple he was freed at once from his madness and,
feeling gratitude for the Asses he put them among
the stars (Asellus Borealis and Asellus Australis
in Cancer) and gave human voice to the Ass which
had carried him. This Ass is said to be the
saddle-ass of Silenus, a
Satyr adviser and instructor of
Dionysus 2 [see
Gigantomachy for
the role of these Asses in the fight against the
GIANTS].
Later this Ass met
Priapus and had a
dispute with him on a matter of physique
(supposedly the size of their members). But some
say the trouble Priapus
had with the Ass was of another nature. He was
quietly approaching the Nymph Lotis as she slept,
and the Ass, by giving out an ill-timed roar,
prevented Priapus from
making love to her. Lotis escaped and turned into
the flower called Lotus, but
Priapus, enraged, killed
the Ass. However sometimes it is said that
Priapus tried to rape
not Lotis but Hestia,
during a feast to which Cybele had invited both
SATYRS and
NYMPHS. To this rural
party came also Silenus
with his Ass, though he was not invited.
Priapus is sometimes
called son of Hermes, and
at other times son of
Dionysus 2 & Nymph
21.
Other deities resembling
Priapus are the Attic
Conisalus, Orthanes and Tychon.
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Butes 1
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Eryx 1
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See main text above.
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Beroe 5
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See main text above.
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