Galaxy/The codex of Canace

A daughter of Aeolus by Enarete, Canace lay with Poseidon and bore him five sons — Hopleus, Nireus, Epopeus, Aloeus, and Triops.1

I

Apollodorus alone among the seven sources fixes Canace's place in the Aeolid house. When Aeolus married Enarete, daughter of Deimachus, he begat seven sons and five daughters — Canace, Alcyone, Pisidice, Calyce, and Perimede — so that Canace stands a mortal daughter of the Hellenic Aeolus, sister to Cretheus, Sisyphus, Athamas, and the rest of the Aeolid stock.2

II

Her motherhood is the heart of the matter. Apollodorus tells that Canace had by Poseidon Hopleus and Nireus and Epopeus and Aloeus and Triops. Through Aloeus the line runs on, for he wedded Iphimedia, daughter of Triops, who fell in love with Poseidon and went often to the sea to draw up the waves into her lap, until the god begat on her Otus and Ephialtes, the giants called the Aloadae.3

III

A darker tale of Canace survives only in Hyginus, who knows nothing of her Poseidon-sons. In his catalogues she is bound to her own brother Macareus, son of Aeolus: when she confessed the incest, Aeolus killed her, while Macareus killed himself on her account. Elsewhere Hyginus reckons her among the women who took their own lives, saying that Canace, daughter of Aeolus, killed herself out of love for Macareus her brother.4

the spine ignites as you read · hover a bond on the card — every mention of them lights in the story

BEYOND THE POETS

How the centuries since have seen Canace — art, artifacts and echoes.

The Death of Canace (Lucanian red-figure hydria from Canosa)
Canace (Roman wall painting from Tor Marancia)
The Suicide of Canace (miniature from Ovid's Héroïdes)
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