Note 302 — Chapter V · EURIPIDES AND VASE PAINTING (continued 2)

Mention should be made here of the Parian inscription, which gives us the curious information that there was a society of hetairai established under the patronage of the goddess Οἰστρώ; cf. Pernice, Athen. Mitth. 1893, p. 16. 2, and Maass, ibid. p. 25 f. There is, of course, a wide distinction between the personification and the cult use of οἶστρος, but it is worth while to point out that Eur. Hipp. vs. 1300 ff., gives the same notion that Maass suggests and supports by a quotation from Paullus Silentiarius (Anth. Plan. v. 234), where οἰστροφόρου Παφίης occurs. Artemis, speaking to Theseus of Hippolytos’ death and its cause, says, ἀλλ’ ἐς τόδ’ ἦλθον, παιδὸς ἐκδεῖξαι φρένα | τοῦ σοῦ δικαίαν, ὁς ὑπ’ εὐκλείας θάνῃ | καὶ σῦς γυναικὸς οἶστρον, ἢ τρόπον τινὰ | γενναιότητα, where we may suppose Euripides to have thought of Phaidra as possessed with οἶστρος, which means τῆς ἐχθίστης θεῶν (v. 1301), i.e. τῆς Κύπριδος (v. 1304).