Hierax
Previous tale: the Meleagrides (Tale 2). This page is Tale 3 only. The tale is headed, in the Greek, with its source: Boeus relates it in his Ornithogonia. Greek and English are given paragraph by paragraph, so each paragraph can be checked against the other. Further tales will be added one at a time as they are finished.
1
Ἱστορεῖ Βοῖος Ὀρνιθογονίᾳ.
Ἱέραξ ἐγένετο ἐν τῇ Μαριανδυνῶν γῇ δίκαιος ἀνὴρ καὶ ἐπιφανής. οὗτος ἱερὰ Δήμητρος ἱδρύσατο καὶ πλείστους αὐτῆς καρποὺς ἔλαβεν.
Boeus relates this in his Ornithogonia.
In the land of the Mariandyni, Hierax was a just and distinguished man. He established sanctuaries of Demeter and obtained abundant crops from her.
2
ἐπεὶ δὲ Τεῦκροι κατὰ χρόνον τὸν ἱκνούμενον οὐκ ἀπεδίδοσαν ἱερὰ Ποσειδῶνι, ἀλλὰ ὑπ' ὀλιγωρίας ἐξέλειπον, χαλεπήνας Ποσειδῶν τοὺς μὲν ἐκείνης καρποὺς ἔφθειρε, κῆτος δ' ἐξαίσιον ἐκ τῆς θαλάσσης ἐφώρμησεν αὐτοῖς.
But when the Teucrians failed to offer sacrifices to Poseidon at the proper time, neglecting them through carelessness, Poseidon, angered, destroyed the crops of that goddess and sent a fearsome sea-monster against them from the sea.
3
οὐ δυνάμενοι δὲ πρὸς τὸ κῆτος καὶ τὸν λιμὸν ἀντέχειν ἀπέστελλον οἱ Τεῦκροι πρὸς τὸν Ἱέρακα καὶ ἐδέοντο πρὸς τὸν λιμὸν ἐπαμῦναι κἀκεῖνος ἔπεμπε [τε]καὶ πυρὸν καὶ ἄλλην τροφήν.
Unable to withstand the sea-monster and the famine, the Teucrians sent to Hierax and begged him to relieve their famine. He sent them grain and other provisions.
4
Ποσειδῶν δὲ μηνίσας, ἐπεὶ κατέλυεν αὐτοῦ τὰς τιμάς, ἐποίησεν ὄρνιθα, ὅς ὀνομάζεται <ἔτι> νῦν ἱέραξ, καὶ τὸ ἦθος ἤλλαξεν ἀφανίσας· μέγιστα γὰρ ὑπ' ἀνθρώπων φιληθέντα πλεῖστον <αὐτὸν> ἐποίησεν ὑπὸ τῶν ὀρνέων μισηθῆναι, καὶ πολλοὺς ἀνθρώπους ἀποθανεῖν κωλύσαντα πλείστους ἐποίησεν [αὐτὸν] ὀρνίθων ἀποκτεῖναι.
But Poseidon, enraged because Hierax was undermining his honours, transformed him into a bird, still called a hierax to this day, and changed his nature. For the man most loved by men he made most hated by birds, and the man who had kept many men from dying he made a killer of very many birds.
Notes
- Hierax / hierax: the man's name is the same word as the bird, a hawk. The tale turns on that identity.
- Paragraph 2, “that goddess”: ἐκείνης is Demeter, from paragraph 1.
- Paragraph 2, ἐξαίσιον: “fearsome” is a cautious contextual choice; the adjective can mean extraordinary or portentous, and does not strictly specify size, so “enormous” was not used.
- Paragraph 3, the grain: πυρός is one grain term, not two; the translation says “grain and other provisions,” not barley and wheat. The [τε] is in square brackets in the source, an editorial addition, and nothing in the translation rests on it. “Messengers” was not added, since ἀπέστελλον does not state them.
- Paragraph 4, “undermining his honours”: the text says only that. The explanation belongs in a note: Hierax's provision of food counteracts Poseidon's punishment of the Teucrians, thereby undermining the god's authority.
- Paragraph 4, ἀφανίσας — open textual difficulty: “changed his nature” renders ἤλλαξεν τὸ ἦθος only. ἀφανίσας, “having made [him] disappear” or “having effaced [his former identity],” is not rendered in the text, and its exact relation to the change of nature is unresolved. This stays flagged until the text is checked against a critical edition.
- Paragraph 4, the brackets: <ἔτι>, <αὐτὸν>, and [αὐτὸν] are editorial supplements in the source. The sense does not depend on them.
- Edition check, still open: a text has been reported printing Μυριανδυνῶν and supplements after ἱδρύσατο and ἐκείνης. The copy used here reads Μαριανδυνῶν, with no brackets at either spot. Nothing has been changed on that report; it is part of the standing collation check for this Greek text, which has not yet been checked against a Teubner or critical edition.
Tale 4 will follow when it is finished. Corrections are welcome via the contact form; please say which paragraph you mean.