Like Father, Like Son: Caeneus' son Coronus, Apollonius, Arg. I.57-64

Like Father, Like Son: Caeneus’ Son Coronus

Name:  Apollonius of Rhodes Date:    3rd century BCE Region:     Rhodes [modern Greece] Citation:   Argonautica I.57-64

…Then from opulent Gyrton came Coronus,

The son of Caeneus.  He was strong, but not stronger than his father.

For the bards declare that Caeneus (although still alive)

Was brought down by the Centaurs, 

When he alone fought them off,

Without the aid of other warriors.

They could not rout him or wound him;

But unbowed, unbroken, he went under the earth,

Struck down under the weight of the thick pines thrown atop him. 

ἤλυθε δ᾽ ἀφνειὴν προλιπὼν Γυρτῶνα Κόρωνος Καινεΐδης, ἐσθλὸς μέν, ἑοῦ δ᾽ οὐ πατρὸς ἀμείνων. Καινέα γὰρ ζῶόν περ ἔτι κλείουσιν ἀοιδοὶ Κενταύροισιν ὀλέσθαι, ὅτε σφέας οἶος ἀπ᾽ ἄλλων ἤλασ᾽ ἀριστήων:

Venit autem, opulenta relicta Gyrtone, Coronus Caenei filius: strenuus ille quidem, sed suo non magis strenuus patre. Nam Caeneum, tametsi adhuc viventem, celebrant poetae a Centauris interiisse, cum solus eos & seorsim ab aliis ducibus pepulisset,

οἱ δ᾽ ἔμπαλιν ὁρμηθέντες οὔτε μιν ἐγκλῖναι προτέρω σθένον, οὔτε δαΐξαι: ἀλλ᾽ ἄρρηκτος ἄκαμπτος ἐδύσετο νειόθι γαίης, θεινόμενος στιβαρῇσι καταΐγδην ἐλάτῃσιν.

illi vero e diverso facto impetu, neque eum ulterius incurvare possent, nec sauciare: sed infractus, inflexus, subiit terram percussus densis desuper cum impetu cadentibus abietibus. 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.