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 ...

, Karpos (;

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 ...

: Καρπός : Karpós; la, Carpus, literally "fruit"), was a youth renowned for his beauty. He is the son of

Zephyrus In ancient Greek religion and myth, the Anemoi (Greek: , 'Winds') were wind gods who were each ascribed a cardinal direction from which their respective winds came (see Classical compass winds), and were each associated with various seasons and ...

(Ζέφυρος : Zéphyros), the west wind) and

Chloris In Greek mythology, the name Chloris (; Greek Χλωρίς ''Chlōrís'', from χλωρός ''chlōrós'', meaning "greenish-yellow", "pale green", "pale", "pallid", or "fresh") appears in a variety of contexts. Some clearly refer to different char ...

(Χλωρίς : Chlōrís, spring, or new vegetation), forming a natural metaphor—the west wind heralds the new growth of spring, which then bears fruit. Karpo, one of the

Horae In Greek mythology the Horae () or Horai () or Hours ( grc-gre, Ὧραι, Hōrai, , "Seasons") were the goddesses of the seasons and the natural portions of time. Etymology The term ''horae'' comes from the Proto-Indo-European ("year"). F ...

, is the feminine equivalent of Karpos; her dominion being the fruits of the earth.

Greek mythology

The story, told in

Nonnus Nonnus of Panopolis ( grc-gre, Νόννος ὁ Πανοπολίτης, ''Nónnos ho Panopolítēs'', 5th century CE) was the most notable Greek epic poet of the Imperial Roman era. He was a native of Panopolis (Akhmim) in the Egyptian Thebai ...

's ''

Dionysiaca The ''Dionysiaca'' {{IPAc-en, ˌ, d, aɪ, ., ə, ., n, ᵻ, ˈ, z, aɪ, ., ə, ., k, ə ( grc-gre, Διονυσιακά, ''Dionysiaká'') is an ancient Greek epic poem and the principal work of Nonnus. It is an epic in 48 books, the longest survi ...

'', tells about the love of two youths, Karpos and

Kalamos Kalamos ( grc, Κάλαμος, lit=reed, reed pen; la, Calamus) is a Greek mythological figure. He is son of Maiandros, the god of the Maeander river. Mythology A story in Nonnus's ''Dionysiaca'' tells about the love of two youths, Kalamos and K ...

, son of

Maiandros Meander, Maeander, Mæander or Maiandros (Ancient Greek: Μαίανδρος) was a river god in Greek mythology, patron deity of the Meander river (modern Büyük Menderes River) in Caria, southern Asia Minor (modern Turkey). He was one of the ...

(god of the Maeander river). Karpos drowned in the Meander river while the two were competing in a swimming contest and in his grief, Kalamos allowed himself to also drown. He was then transformed into a water reed, whose rustling in the wind was interpreted as a sigh of lamentation, while Karpos was became 'the fruit of the earth'.

Etymology

The word Karpos derives from the

Proto-Indo-European language Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. Its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. No direct record of Proto-Indo-E ...

root *''kerp-''. R. S. P. Beekes, ''Etymological Dictionary of Greek'', Brill, 2009, p. 149.

Cognates In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language. Because language change can have radical eff ...

can be found in many Indo-European languages including modern English in words such as "harvest" (via Germanic), "carpet", "excerpt" and "scarce" (via Latin).

References

External links

* {{Metamorphoses in Greco-Roman mythology Characters in Greek mythology LGBT themes in Greek mythology Fictional LGBT characters in literature Metamorphoses into plants in Greek mythology