Sinope the Single, Apollonius Rhodes Argonautica 2.948ff

Sinope the Single

Name:  Apollonius of Rhodes Date:    3rd century BCE Region:     Rhodes [modern Greece] Citation:   Argonautica  2. 948 – 954

Then the Argonauts landed in Assyria, where Jupiter ran into

Sinope, the daughter of Asopus, and, being outfoxed,

Granted the nymph her own virginity.

For he wooed her, and in his zeal, vowed that he would give her

Whatever she wished.

And she—clever girl!—asked to be left alone.

She did the same to Apollo, who also wished to hook up with her,

And did the same to the river god Halys, too,

Nor did any man take her into his loving arms.

 

αὐτίκα δ᾽ Ἀσσυρίης ἐπέβαν χθονός, ἔνθα Σινώπην, θυγατέρ᾽ Ἀσωποῖο, καθίσσατο, καί οἱ ὄπασσεν παρθενίην Ζεὺς αὐτός, ὑποσχεσίῃσι δολωθείς. δὴ γὰρ ὁ μὲν φιλότητος ἐέλδετο: νεῦσε δ᾽ ὅγ᾽ αὐτῇ δωσέμεναι, ὅ κεν ᾗσι μετὰ φρεσὶν ἰθύσειεν. ἡ δέ ἑ παρθενίην ᾐτήσατο κερδοσύνῃσιν. ὧς δὲ καὶ Ἀπόλλωνα παρήπαφεν εὐνηθῆναι ἱέμενον, ποταμόν τ᾽ ἐπὶ τοῖς Ἅλυν: οὐδὲ μὲν ἀνδρῶν τήνγε τις ἱμερτῇσιν ἐν ἀγκοίνῃσι δάμασσεν.

Continuo autem Assyriam venerunt in terram, quo Sinopam Asopi filiam collocarat, & ei dederat virginitatem ipse Jupiter pollicitis deceptus. Ille enim amorem petebat, annuebatque ei Illud se daturum, in quod ferretur vehementiore desiderio. Haec autem virginitatem rogavit astutia sua. Similiter etiam Apollini fraudem fecit, concumbere volenti; fluvioque post hos Halyi; nec virorum aliquis hanc inter ulnas amatorias fecerat mulierem. Translated into Latin by John Shaw

Apollonius of Rhodes [3rd century BCE, modern Egypt and Greece] Little is known of this Hellenistic poet, but what is clear is that his surviving epic, the Argonautica, was wildly influential to later epic poets. According to the Suda, he was the Director of the Library of Alexandria [modern Egypt] and was a contemporary of the poet Callimachus.