670 THE SURVIVAL OF CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY
he said, "by the belief that the pagan gods were once men" (De Civitate Dei- 18). The seventh-century bishop Isidore of Seville began his chapters on the
pagan gods with the Euhemeristic statement: "Those whom the pagans call gods
are said to have once been men" (Etymologiae 8. 11). Isidore tried to give histor-
ical dates for the men who became gods, and his summary of world history
(Etymologiae 5. 39) did not distinguish between myth and history. Thus he dated
as "historical facts" the invention of the lyre by Hermes and Heracles' self-
immolation. Euhemerism survived throughout the Middle Ages, and it was an
important element in the survival of the gods of Greek mythology.
MYTHOGRAPHERS AND HANDBOOKS
OF CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY
Mythographers, who summarized and classified Greek mythology, demonstrate
another aspect of scholarly interest in mythology. The Alexandrian polymath
Eratosthenes (ca. 225 B.c.) and the Athenian scholar Apollodorus (ca. 145) are
known to have written handbooks on mythology, now lost, and their names are
attached to two surviving mythological compendia. That of "Apollodorus" (per-
haps ca. A.D. 120) is the most complete and contains versions of many of the
legends that are still useful. The shorter work of pseudo-Eratosthenes, called
Catasterisms, deals exclusively with metamorphoses of people into stars. Astral
legends are an aspect of Alexandrianism, and genuinely early Greek astral myths
are rare (the myth of Orion is one example). The Catasterisms, however, include
forty-four such legends, for example, the origins of the Great Bear (Callisto), the
signs of the Zodiac, and the Milky Way. These legends are not myths in the strict
sense, but they are a significant element in the survival of some of the persons
named in classical mythology.
We give two examples of these catasterisms. In the tenth, the constellation
Gemini (the Twins) was formerly the Dioscuri (Castor and Pollux):f
They exceeded all men in brotherly love, for they never quarreled about power
or about anything else. So Zeus, wishing to make a memorial of their unanim-
ity, called them, "the Twins" and placed them together among the stars.
In Catasterism 44, the origin of the Milky Way is given thus:f
The sons of Zeus might only share in divine honors if Hera had suckled them.
Hermes, therefore (so they say), brought Heracles at his birth to Hera and held
him to Hera's breast and she suckled him. But when she realized it was Hera-
cles, she shook him off and the excess milk spurted out to form the Galaxy.^1
A few other mythological handbooks still survive. In the first century B.c.
Parthenius compiled a collection of love stories for the use of the Roman poet
Gallus. A Latin compendium was made in about A.D. 160 by an author who
called himself Hyginus (the name of the librarian of the Emperor Augustus
around 10 B.c.), containing summaries of more than 250 legends. The Mitologiae