Talk:Iole

Comments

What does that image have to do with this article?? J. Van Meter 02:16, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

I couldn't find any source that supported some of the information here (like that Iole was Heracles' concubine) so I replaced it with information from Apollodorus. If anyone finds more reputable information that conflicts they can add it of course - as long as it has an ancient source :) Verloren Hoop (talk) 04:20, 13 March 2008 (UTC)

Reading Sophocles' Women of Trachis might help. --Akhilleus (talk) 04:22, 13 March 2008 (UTC)

Problems with this article

This article has been recently expanded, but the content that's been added is not very informative. Iole is a minor figure in Greek mythology, and probably doesn't require this level of detail. But certainly, if the article is going to give detailed accounts of ancient myths, and say that there are different versions of said myths, we need references to ancient primary sources, and it needs to be made clear if the narrative is relying on Sophocles, Apollodorus, or whomever. The vagueness of the current article helps no one--it says things like "According to one late Classical version of the tale, the king of Oichalia, Eurytus, had a young daughter that was quite beautiful, eligible for marriage..." but never tells us which late classical version it's referring to. --Akhilleus (talk) 14:46, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

Some of the inline Classical sources provided are Seneca Tragedies translated by Frank Justus Miller; The Myths of Hyginus, translated by Mary Grant; Apollodorus The Library translated by Sir James George Frazer; Ovid Heroides ix.73-134 /Metamorphoses 9; and Apollodorus Bibliotece. --Doug Coldwell ^talk 13:15, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

Well, I think this is a good illustration of the problem. Which of Seneca's tragedies are we talking about? Why does Apollodorus appear twice, when the Bibliotheke is the same work the Library? And why have these all been synthesized into a single version of the myth, when different authors have different takes on how Iole fits into Heracles' life? And why is all this detail here, anyway, when it appears to belong in Heracles, or possibly Deianeira? --Akhilleus (talk) 13:43, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

Seneca's inline reference # 2 is SENECA, HERCULES OETAEUS. Apollodorus inline reference # 1 gives a brief mytheme of the Iole tale. The other Apollodorus references are for the details. The general mytheme of Iole is the competition for the royal daughter (archer contest), the broken promise of Eurytus (disqualified Heracles), Heracles justification for revenge (won fair and square), the jealousy of Deianira (concubine Iole), and the madness of Heracles (killing his first family, murdering Eurytus plus sons, and razing Oichalia) PLUS Tunic of Nessus of the accidental poisoning of shirt PLUS Heracles dressing like a woman and doing women duties. There are images in the article to illustrate most of these points. This seems to be the general picture with all the ancient sources. There are slightly different takes on this from the various ancient sources, however these are the general ideas. --Doug Coldwell ^talk 17:34, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

That's some progress, Doug, but the current version of the article is completely unclear about which details are coming from which sources. You're trying to synthesize several different authors into a single version of the myth--sadly, this is something that many myth handbooks do, but we shouldn't do it at Wikipedia.

Anyway, why should there be so much detail here, when the major characters in this myth are Heracles and Deianeira? This myth is not really about Iole, at all. --Akhilleus (talk) 17:43, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

There is an inline reference on almost every line which shows what detail is referenced to what source. In some instances some lines are referenced with several references since the same information is at those sources. Some information is a little different and so have different ancient sources. The central character of the article is Iole and what comes to mind here is a Judge Judy line she uses often: ...but for the fact that...

• But for the fact that Heracles fell in love with Iole first we would not have the tales of Tunic of Nessus, Deianira and Lichas
• But for the fact that Eurytus disqualified Heracles in the archer contest to win Iole, we wouldn’t have the tale of Heracles coming back to Oichalia in revenge.
• But for the fact that Deianira was jealous of Iole that we have the Tunic of Nessus tale that kills Heracles.
• But for the fact that Deianira accidently poisoned her husband because of the jealousy of Iole that she kills herself.
• But for the fact that Heracles loved his concubine Iole that he asked that his eldest son, Hyllus, to marry her when he was dying.

The article story centers around Iole with Deianira's jealousy of Iole developing the story of the Tunic of Nessus. Also in Other Versions Ovid shows Iole's ruse making Heracles dress like a woman and she is dressed like Hercules was in Phrygia. She is having her revenge against him for killing her father and brothers. Iole has conquered Heracles. Ovid goes on to say Putting aside the name of concubine, she will be wife. Iole, daughter of Eurytus, and Hercules of Boeotia. Will be joined with disgraceful bonds by an infamous Hymen.--Doug Coldwell ^talk 20:38, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

Sigh. Doug, you have a pattern of what Wikipedia refers to as coatrack articles--you take material that belongs at one article and place it in another. Patres conscripti and birthday of Alpinism come to mind. There's no doubt that there should be an article on Iole, but this story is about Heracles; Iole is a minor (and badly mistreated) character in this drama.

And yes, you've inserted plenty of inline references in this article, but that is not the best way of presenting this information. We need to have clearly separated treatments of how Sophocles, Apollodorus, and Seneca treat her (and whatever other classical authors mention her). Not all mashed together, as they seem to be now. --Akhilleus (talk) 21:43, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

"According to the mytheme of the Classical tale..."

I've tagged this phrase with a "which?" template, because it appears to be a reference to a specific version of the story, but the sentence never tells us which one. There's also a problem with the use of the word "mytheme", which are supposed to be elements from which a mythological story is made up--but this sentence seems to be using it to mean the entire myth. --Akhilleus (talk) 00:44, 30 August 2008 (UTC)

In this sentence by itself one part talks of the beautiful Iole. This is in source # 2. Another part of this sentence of the king of Oichalia having a daughter eligible for marriage is source # 4. Both are inline references at the end of the sentence.

• 2 - For when her captive rival’s beauty was revealed, and Iole shone like the unclouded day or a bright star in the clear night glittering...
• 4 - The king of Oichalia had offered his daughter Iole in marriage...

Structure and Grammar

"Eurytus years earlier had taught Heracles to become an archer.[3]" This sentence appears at the end of the paragraph concerning the archery contest as if someone is telling a joke and forgot to mention a crucial fact until after the punch line. It sounds like a stream of consciousness rather than a well-thought out treatise.

"When the king seen it was Heracles winning,..." Seen it?! Who is writing this?! How can this be a Did You Know article? This is atrocious. Kwyjibear (talk) 01:56, 30 August 2008 (UTC)

I fixed the latter sentence, but I'm sure there are more copyediting issues that remain. As I have indicated above, the substance of the article is a deeper concern. --Akhilleus (talk) 02:18, 30 August 2008 (UTC)

Thanks Akhilleus for the better grammer. I believe ""realized" is better wording than "seen" - which is what I meant to say. In the Random House Thesaurus the word "see" can also mean perceive, apprehend, grasp, "be cognizant of", "be aware of" and realize. Your wording is better however. --Doug Coldwell ^talk 13:39, 30 August 2008 (UTC)

"Eurytus years earlier had taught Heracles to become an archer.[3]" - shows the irony here. Since Eurytus taught Heracles archery one would think that Eurytus would be the better archer, however Heracles scores higher. A great archer, he taught Heracles to use the bow. --Doug Coldwell ^talk 13:52, 30 August 2008 (UTC)

"Other versions"

I'm a bit confused by this section. We have what appears to be a series of quotes from Ovid Heroides 9, and each is said to be from "another version". But they're all from the same work, aren't they? --Akhilleus (talk) 02:48, 30 August 2008 (UTC)

Corrected wording to show it is Ovid Heroides 9. --Doug Coldwell ^talk 12:49, 30 August 2008 (UTC)

Good article

Thanks Akhilleus for making the major edits and contributions to help bring this up to a potential Good article status. If you see any other improvements that can be made to get it to a Wikipedia Good article please give me some additional pointers or edit accordingly to improve the article since you have more knowledge on Greek mythology than I do. Perhaps you know of others that might be interested in improving the quality of the article. In any case, thanks again for your major contributions to improve the article. Do appreciate it.--Doug Coldwell ^talk 22:59, 30 August 2008 (UTC)

Actually, I haven't made many edits to this article yet (certainly no major ones) but I hope to do so when I've had a chance to do a little more research. I would love for this article to become a GA, and I'd be glad to work with you towards that goal. At the moment, though, I don't think it's a GA--maybe we can get it there quickly.

A good place to get some help on classical mythology articles is wikiproject classical Greece and Rome. It's not a very active project, but a message there usually gets one or two people to look at the article. --Akhilleus (talk) 23:02, 30 August 2008 (UTC)