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Why is it that among the inhabitants of
Tenedos a flute-player may not enter the; shrine of
Tenes, nor may anyone mention Achilles' name
within the shrine?
Is it that, when Tenes' stepmother1 falsely accused
him of wishing to lie with her, Molpus the flute-player
bore false witness against him, and because of this it
came about that Tenes had to flee to Tenedos with
his sister? But as for Achilles, it is said that his
mother Thetis straitly forbade him to kill Tenes, since
[p. 211]
Tenes was honoured by Apollo; and she commissioned
one of the servants to be on guard, and to remind
Achilles lest he should unwittingly slay Tenes. But
when Achilles was overrunning Tenedos and was
pursuing Tenes' sister, who was a beautiful maiden.
Tenes met him and defended his sister ; and she
escaped, though Tenes was slain. When he had
fallen. Achilles recognized him, and slew the servant because he had, although present, not reminded
him; and he buried Tenes where his shrine now
stands and neither does a flute-player enter it nor is
Achilles mentioned there by name.
1 Cf. Apollodorus, Epitome, iii. 23-26, with Frazer's notes (L.C.L. vol. ii. pp. 193 ff.).
Plutarch. Moralia. with an English Translation by. Frank Cole Babbitt. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. London. William Heinemann Ltd. 1936. 4.
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