Pandareus: Difference between revisions
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{{Short description|Petty thief in Greek mythology}} | {{Short description|Petty thief in Greek mythology}} | ||
[[File:Johann Heinrich Füssli 032.jpg|thumb|270px|''The daughters of Pandareus'' by Henry Fuseli, {{circa|1795}}.]] | |||
In [[Greek mythology]], '''Pandareus''' ({{Langx|grc|Πανδάρεος|Pandáreos}}) is the son of [[Merops (mythology)|Merops]] and a [[nymph]]. His residence is usually given as either [[Ephesus]] | In [[Greek mythology]], '''Pandareus''' ({{Langx|grc|Πανδάρεος|Pandáreos}} or {{Lang|grc|Πανδάρεως}}, ''Pandáreōs'') is the son of [[Merops (mythology)|Merops]] and a [[nymph]]. His residence is usually given as either [[Ephesus]] or [[Miletus]], though he is also associated with the island of [[Crete]]. Pandareus married [[Harmothoë]] and had several daughters by her before perishing for stealing a sacred dog that belonged to [[Zeus]], king of the gods. | ||
== Family == | |||
Pandareus was the son of a man named [[Merops (mythology)|Merops]] and a [[nymph]], and a descendant of the god [[Hermes]]. He was from a city called [[Miletus]], which is sometimes identified with a city in [[Crete]], and not the more known one on the western coast of [[Asia Minor]].{{sfn|Scherf|2006|loc=para. 1}}<ref name=":0">[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.+10.30.2&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160 10.30.2]</ref> [[Antoninus Liberalis]] associated Pandareus with [[Ephesus]], also on the Anatolian coast.{{sfn|Smith|1873|loc=s.v. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0104%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DP%3Aentry+group%3D5%3Aentry%3Dpandareos-bio-1 Pandareos]}} | |||
By his wife [[Harmothoë]] Pandareus was the father of three girls; [[Aëdon]] (the wife of [[Amphion and Zethus|Zethus]]), [[Cleothera]] and [[Merope (mythology)|Merope]].<ref>[[Homer]], ''[[Odyssey]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0136%3Abook%3D19%3Acard%3D499 19.518]</ref> According to [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], the last two were called [[Cameiro]] and [[Clytia]].<ref name=":0"/> In another version, Cleothera and Merope are omitted in favour of [[Chelidon (sister of Aëdon)|Chelidon]] and an unnamed son, born to a wife whose name is not confirmed to be Harmothoë.<ref name="ant1"/> | |||
== Mythology == | == Mythology == | ||
Pandareus was said to have been favored by the goddess [[Demeter]], who conferred upon him the benefit of never suffering from indigestion, however much food he should eat.{{sfn|Smith|1873|loc=s.v. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0104%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DP%3Aentry+group%3D5%3Aentry%3Dpandareos-bio-1 Pandareos]}}<ref name="ant1" /> | |||
Pandareus was said to have been favored by the goddess [[Demeter]], who conferred upon him the benefit of never suffering from indigestion, however much food he should eat.<ref name=" | |||
=== Pandareus' theft === | |||
At the request of his impious friend, [[Tantalus]], Pandareus stole a golden dog from a sacred place to [[Zeus]] on Crete; that dog had guarded Zeus during his infancy by the will of [[Rhea (mythology)|Rhea]], Zeus' mother.<ref name="ant"/> Pandareus carried off the dog and gave it to Tantalus for safekeeping, but when he later asked for the dog, Tantalus insisted he had never received it, swearing an oath on it. Zeus punished Pandareus for the theft by turning him into stone right as he stood.<ref name="ant">Antoninus Liberalis, [https://topostext.org/work/216#36 36]</ref> | |||
Several variations also exist; several scholiasts, such as Byzantine scholar [[Eustathius of Thessalonica]], write that both Pandareus and Tantalus attempted to steal the dog, which was a mechanic dog that had been crafted by [[Hephaestus]] himself, and placed in a temple of Zeus in Crete. Zeus then sent his son [[Hermes]] to deal with the two thieves.<ref>Eustathius ad Homer, ''[[Odyssey]]'' [https://books.google.com/books?id=ZP4NAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA216 19.710]</ref><ref>Scholia on Pindar's ''Olympian Odes'' [https://archive.org/details/scholiaveterainp01drac/page/36/mode/2up? 1.91a]</ref> It was to Hermes that Tantalus lied about not having the dog, but Hermes found and seized the robot anyway, and brought it back to Zeus who buried Tantalus beneath Mount Sipylus.{{sfn|Gantz|1996|page=535}} After Tantalus' demise Pandareus fled to [[Athens]] and then to the island of [[Sicily]], where he perished together with his wife [[Harmothoë]], leaving behind their orphaned daughters.<ref>[[Eustathius of Thessalonica|Eustathius]] ad [[Homer]], p. 1875</ref>{{sfn|Hard|2004|page=[https://archive.org/details/routledgehandboo0000hard/page/502/mode/2up? 502]}} | |||
After the deaths of Pandareus and Harmothoë, [[Aphrodite]] took care of their daughters [[Cleothera]] and Merope. [[Hera]] taught them to be proper women, and [[Athena]] made them accomplished; but when Aphrodite went to see [[Zeus]] to get them married to proper husbands, storm winds carried them away to the Underworld to become handmaidens of the [[Erinyes|Furies]], never to be seen again.<ref>[[Homer]], ''Odyssey'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0136%3Abook%3D20%3Acard%3D44 20.66]</ref> | |||
=== Anatolia === | === Anatolia === | ||
Pandareus was the | In another myth, Pandareus was alive during at least one of his daughters' marriage. Aëdon married the carpenter [[Polytechnus]], and for some time they were happy until Hera sent [[Eris (mythology)|Eris]] to sow strife between them. One day Polytechnus came to him under the excuse that Aëdon wanted her sister [[Chelidon (sister of Aëdon)|Chelidon]] to come visit her, when in fact he owed his wife a female slave after she won a bet. Pandareus, not suspecting a thing, let Polytechnus take Chelidon, but then he proceeded to rape her and force her to serve as a slave for Aëdon.{{sfn|Bell|1991|pages=[https://archive.org/details/womenofclassical00bell/page/4/mode/2up? 5–6]}} The two sisters soon escaped after killing Polytechnus' son [[Itys]] and ran back to Pandareus, who had Polytechnus tied, smeared with honey and left to the mercy of flies. Aëdon however in pity kept the flies off of Polytechnus, angering Pandareus, his wife and his son, who saw her actions as betrayal. They were about to attack Aëdon, but Zeus interfered, and transformed them all into birds. Pandareus was changed into a [[sea eagle]], his wife into a kingfisher, his son into a hoopoe.<ref name="ant1">Antoninus Liberalis [https://topostext.org/work/216#11 11], citing the ''Ornithogonia'' of [[Boios]].</ref> | ||
This narrative is not present in the ''[[Odyssey]]'', unlike the tale of Cleothera and Merope's fates. In the Homeric version, Aëdon was married to [[Amphion and Zethus|Zethus]] and accidentally killed her own son [[Itylus]] in an attempt to murder her nephew [[Amaleus]],{{sfn|Bell|1991|pages=[https://archive.org/details/womenofclassical00bell/page/4/mode/2up? 5–6]}} for she was jealous of the large number of children born to her sister-in-law [[Niobe]] (the daughter of Tantalus).{{sfn|Smith|1873|loc=s.v. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0104%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DP%3Aentry+group%3D5%3Aentry%3Dpandareos-bio-1 Pandareos]}} | |||
== Interpretation == | |||
Pandareus' descend from Hermes is probably a motif fit for a story about theft.{{sfn|Scherf|2006|loc=para. 1}} Francis Celoria thinks that the thief of the dog (whose name is spelled with an omicron) and the father of Aëdon and Chelidon (whose name is spelled with an omega) were supposed to be separate figures.{{sfn|Celoria|1992|page=139}} Robin Hard speculates the part of Antoninus Liberalis' account where Tantalus lies to ''Pandareus'' about the dog to be a mistake, since it is Zeus who punishes him for the perjury.{{sfn|Hard|2004|page=[https://archive.org/details/routledgehandboo0000hard/page/502/mode/2up? 502]}} | |||
Pandareus is possibly the doublet of one [[Pandion (mythology)|Pandion]], who is the father of Chelidon (but not Aëdon) in some early but poorly attested traditions,{{sfn|Forbes Irving|1990|page=248}} otherwise identified with [[Pandion I]], the king of Athens and father of Chelidon's doublet [[Philomela]].{{sfn|Coo|2013|page=354, n. 12}}{{sfn|March|2000|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=q28xEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA127 127]}} According to [[Joseph Fontenrose]], the similarity of the names ‘Pandion’ and ‘Pandareus’ possibly caused confusion between the two and this is what caused Aëdon to join the Athenian mythos, under a new name, [[Procne]].{{sfn|Fontenrose|1948|pages=152–153}} | |||
== See also == | == See also == | ||
| Line 26: | Line 43: | ||
== References == | == References == | ||
{{refbegin|30em}} | |||
* [[Antoninus Liberalis]], ''The Metamorphoses of Antoninus Liberalis'' translated by Francis Celoria (Routledge 1992). [https://topostext.org/work/216 Online version at the Topos Text Project.] | * [[Antoninus Liberalis]], ''The Metamorphoses of Antoninus Liberalis'' translated by Francis Celoria (Routledge 1992). [https://topostext.org/work/216 Online version at the Topos Text Project.] | ||
* [[ | * {{cite book | last = Bell | first = Robert E. | title = Women of Classical Mythology: A Biographical Dictionary | publisher = [[ABC-Clio]] | date = 1991 | isbn = 9780874365818 | url = https://archive.org/details/womenofclassical00bell/mode/2up?view=theater}} | ||
* | * {{cite book | last = Celoria | first = Francis | title = The Metamorphoses of Antoninus Liberalis: A Translation with a Commentary | publisher = [[Routledge]] | date = 1992 | ISBN = 0-415-06896-7 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=9_Eolzuv0eQC}} | ||
* [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], ''Description of Greece'' with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. {{ISBN|0-674-99328-4}}. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0160 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library] | * {{cite journal | last = Coo | first = Lyndsay | title = A Tale of Two Sisters: Studies in Sophocles’ ''Tereus'' | journal = Transactions of the American Philological Association | volume = 143 | number = 2 | date = 2013 | jstor = 43830266 | url = http://www.jstor.org/stable/43830266}} | ||
* | * {{cite journal | title = The Sorrows of Ino and Procne | journal = Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association | volume = 79 | date = 1948 | pages = 125–167 | publisher = Johns Hopkins University Press | doi = 10.2307/283358 | jstor = 283358 | url = | first = Joseph Eddy | last = Fontenrose | author-link = Joseph Fontenrose}} | ||
* | * {{cite book | title = Metamorphosis in Greek Myths | first = Paul M. C. | last = Forbes Irving | publisher = [[Clarendon Press]] | date = 1990 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=URvXAAAAMAAJ | isbn = 0-19-814730-9}} | ||
* {{cite book | author-link = Timothy Gantz | volume = II | last = Gantz | first = Timothy | title = Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources | publisher = Johns Hopkins University Press | date = 1996 | isbn = 978-0-8018-5362-3}} | |||
* {{cite book | last = Hard | first = Robin | title = The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H. J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology" | publisher = Routledge | date = 2004 | isbn = 9780415186360 | url = https://archive.org/details/routledgehandboo0000hard/}} | |||
* [[Homer]], ''[[The Odyssey]]'' with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, PH.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1919. {{ISBN|978-0674995611|}}. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0136 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.] [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0135 Greek text available from the same website]. | |||
* {{cite book | last = March | first = Jenny | date = 2000 | chapter = Vases and Tragic Drama | editor-last1 = Rutter | editor-first1 = Keith | editor-last2 = Sparkes | editor-first2 = Brian A. | title = Word and Image in Ancient Greece | location = Edinburgh, UK | publisher = University of Edinburgh | isbn = 9780748679850 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=q28xEAAAQBAJ}} | |||
* [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], ''[[Description of Greece]]'' with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. {{ISBN|0-674-99328-4}}. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0160 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library] | |||
* {{cite encyclopedia | encyclopedia = [[Brill's New Pauly]] | publisher = Brill Reference Online | url = https://referenceworks.brill.com/display/entries/NPOE/e905510.xml | last = Scherf | first = Johannes | location = Tübingen | title = Pandareus | date = October 1, 2006 | editor-first1 = Hubert | translator = Christine F. Salazar | issn = 1574-9347 | editor-last1 = Cancik | editor-first2 = Helmuth | editor-last2 = Schneider | access-date = | url-access = subscription}} | |||
* ''Scholia vetera in Pindari carmina'', volume 1, edited by Drachmann, Anders Bjorn, 1903, Lipsiae In aedibus B.G. Teubneri. [https://archive.org/details/scholiaveterainp01drac/ Internet Archive.] | |||
* {{cite book | author-link = William Smith (lexicographer) | last = Smith | first = William | title = [[Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology|A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology]] | location = London, UK | date = 1873 | publisher = John Murray, printed by Spottiswoode and Co.}} [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0104%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DA Online version at the Perseus.tufts library.] | |||
{{refend}} | |||
{{Metamorphoses in Greco-Roman mythology}} | {{Metamorphoses in Greco-Roman mythology}} | ||
[[Category:Mythological people from Anatolia]] | [[Category:Mythological people from Anatolia]] | ||
[[Category: | [[Category:Mythological Cretans]] | ||
[[Category:Deeds of Zeus]] | [[Category:Deeds of Zeus]] | ||
[[Category:Metamorphoses into inanimate objects in Greek mythology]] | [[Category:Metamorphoses into inanimate objects in Greek mythology]] | ||
Latest revision as of 08:16, 10 November 2025
In Greek mythology, Pandareus (Template:Langx or Script error: No such module "Lang"., Pandáreōs) is the son of Merops and a nymph. His residence is usually given as either Ephesus or Miletus, though he is also associated with the island of Crete. Pandareus married Harmothoë and had several daughters by her before perishing for stealing a sacred dog that belonged to Zeus, king of the gods.
Family
Pandareus was the son of a man named Merops and a nymph, and a descendant of the god Hermes. He was from a city called Miletus, which is sometimes identified with a city in Crete, and not the more known one on the western coast of Asia Minor.Template:Sfn[1] Antoninus Liberalis associated Pandareus with Ephesus, also on the Anatolian coast.Template:Sfn
By his wife Harmothoë Pandareus was the father of three girls; Aëdon (the wife of Zethus), Cleothera and Merope.[2] According to Pausanias, the last two were called Cameiro and Clytia.[1] In another version, Cleothera and Merope are omitted in favour of Chelidon and an unnamed son, born to a wife whose name is not confirmed to be Harmothoë.[3]
Mythology
Pandareus was said to have been favored by the goddess Demeter, who conferred upon him the benefit of never suffering from indigestion, however much food he should eat.Template:Sfn[3]
Pandareus' theft
At the request of his impious friend, Tantalus, Pandareus stole a golden dog from a sacred place to Zeus on Crete; that dog had guarded Zeus during his infancy by the will of Rhea, Zeus' mother.[4] Pandareus carried off the dog and gave it to Tantalus for safekeeping, but when he later asked for the dog, Tantalus insisted he had never received it, swearing an oath on it. Zeus punished Pandareus for the theft by turning him into stone right as he stood.[4]
Several variations also exist; several scholiasts, such as Byzantine scholar Eustathius of Thessalonica, write that both Pandareus and Tantalus attempted to steal the dog, which was a mechanic dog that had been crafted by Hephaestus himself, and placed in a temple of Zeus in Crete. Zeus then sent his son Hermes to deal with the two thieves.[5][6] It was to Hermes that Tantalus lied about not having the dog, but Hermes found and seized the robot anyway, and brought it back to Zeus who buried Tantalus beneath Mount Sipylus.Template:Sfn After Tantalus' demise Pandareus fled to Athens and then to the island of Sicily, where he perished together with his wife Harmothoë, leaving behind their orphaned daughters.[7]Template:Sfn
After the deaths of Pandareus and Harmothoë, Aphrodite took care of their daughters Cleothera and Merope. Hera taught them to be proper women, and Athena made them accomplished; but when Aphrodite went to see Zeus to get them married to proper husbands, storm winds carried them away to the Underworld to become handmaidens of the Furies, never to be seen again.[8]
Anatolia
In another myth, Pandareus was alive during at least one of his daughters' marriage. Aëdon married the carpenter Polytechnus, and for some time they were happy until Hera sent Eris to sow strife between them. One day Polytechnus came to him under the excuse that Aëdon wanted her sister Chelidon to come visit her, when in fact he owed his wife a female slave after she won a bet. Pandareus, not suspecting a thing, let Polytechnus take Chelidon, but then he proceeded to rape her and force her to serve as a slave for Aëdon.Template:Sfn The two sisters soon escaped after killing Polytechnus' son Itys and ran back to Pandareus, who had Polytechnus tied, smeared with honey and left to the mercy of flies. Aëdon however in pity kept the flies off of Polytechnus, angering Pandareus, his wife and his son, who saw her actions as betrayal. They were about to attack Aëdon, but Zeus interfered, and transformed them all into birds. Pandareus was changed into a sea eagle, his wife into a kingfisher, his son into a hoopoe.[3]
This narrative is not present in the Odyssey, unlike the tale of Cleothera and Merope's fates. In the Homeric version, Aëdon was married to Zethus and accidentally killed her own son Itylus in an attempt to murder her nephew Amaleus,Template:Sfn for she was jealous of the large number of children born to her sister-in-law Niobe (the daughter of Tantalus).Template:Sfn
Interpretation
Pandareus' descend from Hermes is probably a motif fit for a story about theft.Template:Sfn Francis Celoria thinks that the thief of the dog (whose name is spelled with an omicron) and the father of Aëdon and Chelidon (whose name is spelled with an omega) were supposed to be separate figures.Template:Sfn Robin Hard speculates the part of Antoninus Liberalis' account where Tantalus lies to Pandareus about the dog to be a mistake, since it is Zeus who punishes him for the perjury.Template:Sfn
Pandareus is possibly the doublet of one Pandion, who is the father of Chelidon (but not Aëdon) in some early but poorly attested traditions,Template:Sfn otherwise identified with Pandion I, the king of Athens and father of Chelidon's doublet Philomela.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn According to Joseph Fontenrose, the similarity of the names ‘Pandion’ and ‘Pandareus’ possibly caused confusion between the two and this is what caused Aëdon to join the Athenian mythos, under a new name, Procne.Template:Sfn
See also
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Other notable punishments in Greek mythology:
Notes
References
- Antoninus Liberalis, The Metamorphoses of Antoninus Liberalis translated by Francis Celoria (Routledge 1992). Online version at the Topos Text Project.
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- Homer, The Odyssey with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, PH.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1919. Template:ISBN. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website.
- Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- Pausanias, Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. Template:ISBN. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
- Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- Scholia vetera in Pindari carmina, volume 1, edited by Drachmann, Anders Bjorn, 1903, Lipsiae In aedibus B.G. Teubneri. Internet Archive.
- Script error: No such module "citation/CS1". Online version at the Perseus.tufts library.