:''This article discusses the legendary tribe of the Curetes. For the dancing attendants of Rhea, see
Korybantes.''
In
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 ...
and
epic literature
An epic poem, or simply an epic, is a lengthy narrative poem typically about the extraordinary deeds of extraordinary characters who, in dealings with gods or other superhuman forces, gave shape to the mortal universe for their descendants.
...
, the Curetes ( grc, Κουρῆτες) were legendary people who took part in the quarrel over the
Calydonian boar
The Calydonian boar hunt is one of the great heroic adventures in Greek legend. It occurred in the generation prior to that of the Trojan War, and stands alongside the other great heroic adventure of that generation, the voyage of the Argonauts, ...
. Strabo mentioned that the Curetes were assigned multiple identities and places of origin (i.e. either
Acarnanians,
Aetolians, from
Crete
Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, and ...
, or from
Euboea
Evia (, ; el, Εύβοια ; grc, Εὔβοια ) or Euboia (, ) is the second-largest Greek island in area and population, after Crete. It is separated from Boeotia in mainland Greece by the narrow Euripus Strait (only at its narrowest poin ...
). However, he clarified the identity of the Curetes and regarded them solely as
Aetolians.
Dionysius of Halicarnassus
Dionysius of Halicarnassus ( grc, Διονύσιος Ἀλεξάνδρου Ἁλικαρνασσεύς,
; – after 7 BC) was a Greek historian and teacher of rhetoric, who flourished during the reign of Emperor Augustus. His literary sty ...
mentioned the Curetes as the old name of the Aetolians.
[Dionysius of Halicarnassus. ''Roman Antiquities'']
1.17
References
Sources
*{{Cite EB1911, wstitle=Curetes, volume=7, page=637, first=Grant, last=Showerman, author-link=Grant Showerman
Ancient Greeks
Iliad
Legendary tribes in Greco-Roman historiography