Greek mythology A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the Cosmogony, origin and Cosmology#Metaphysical co ...

, Autonous (

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

: Αὐτόνοος (Auto - Nuss) means 'man with a mind of his own') was an owner of a large herd of horses which were pastured by his wife and children

Family

Autonous was the son of

Melaneus In Greek mythology, Melaneus (; Ancient Greek: Μελανεύς) was the founder of Oechalia (Oikhalia), variously located in Thessaly, Messenia or Euboea and also king of the Dryopes.Antoninus Liberalis4as cited in Nicander's ''Metamorphoses'' ...

and husband of

Hippodamia Hippodamia (, ; also Hippodamea and Hippodameia; Ancient Greek: Ἱπποδάμεια "she who masters horses" derived from ''hippos'' "horse" and ''damazein'' "to tame") was a Greek mythological figure. She was the queen of Pisa as the wife ...

. He was father to

Anthus The pipits are a cosmopolitan genus, ''Anthus'', of small passerine birds with medium to long tails. Along with the wagtails and longclaws, the pipits make up the family Motacillidae. The genus is widespread, occurring across most of the world, e ...

Erodius In Greek mythology, Erodius ( grc, Ἐροδιός, Erodios, heron) is the son of Autonous (son of Melaneus) and Hippodamia. He was the brother of Acanthis, Acanthus, Anthus and Schoeneus.Antoninus Liberalis7as cited in Boeus' ''Ornithogonia' ...

, Schoenous, Acanthus and Acanthis.

Mythology

Because Autonous neglected husbandry, the land they lived in produced no crops but only rushes and thistles, that's why all the children of Autonous were named after such plants. Erodius, who loved his father's horses the most, pastured them on grassy meadows, but one day, Anthus drove them out of their familiar pastures. Out of hunger, the horses attacked Anthus and ate him. Autonous, stricken by panic, could not help his son, and neither could Anthus' servant, while Hippodamia was trying to drive the horses off but failed due to her physical weakness.

Zeus Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label=Genitive case, genitive Aeolic Greek, Boeotian Aeolic and Doric Greek#Laconian, Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label=Genitive case, genitive el, Δίας, ''D� ...

and

Apollo Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...

, out of pity for the grieving family, transformed the members into birds. Autonous became a

stone curlew The stone-curlews, also known as dikkops or thick-knees, consist of 10 species within the family Burhinidae, and are found throughout the tropical and temperate parts of the world, with two or more species occurring in some areas of Africa, Asia, ...

(Greek όκνος, because he "was not in time", όκνησε in Greek, to save Anthus), Hippodamia became a

lark Larks are passerine birds of the family Alaudidae. Larks have a cosmopolitan distribution with the largest number of species occurring in Africa. Only a single species, the horned lark, occurs in North America, and only Horsfield's bush lark occu ...

(the bird has a crest which symbolizes her courage) and Acanthis became a thistle finch; others became birds whose Greek names are the same as their personal names were when they were humans. Erodius and Anthus' servant were transformed into black and white heron respectively; birds of these two species are never seen together.

Antoninus Liberalis Antoninus Liberalis ( el, Ἀντωνῖνος Λιβεράλις) was an Ancient Greek grammarian who probably flourished between AD 100 and 300. His only surviving work is the ''Metamorphoses'' (Μεταμορφώσεων Συναγωγή, ''Me ...

, ''Metamorphoses'' 7

Note

Metamorphoses into birds in Greek mythology

Reference

, ''The Metamorphoses of Antoninus Liberalis'' translated by Francis Celoria (Routledge 1992)
Online version at the Topos Text Project.
Characters in Greek mythology Deeds of Zeus {{Greek-myth-stub