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 ...
, Methone (
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 ...
: Μεθώνη) was the name shared by the three women:
* Methone, one of the
Alcyonides The Alcyonides (, ''Alkyonides'') were, in Greek mythology, the seven daughters of the giant Alcyoneus.
Names
These sisters were identified individually as, Alkippe, Anthe, Asteria, Drimo, Methone, Pallene and Phthonia ( Phosthonia or Cht ...
, daughters of the
giant
In folklore, giants (from Ancient Greek: '' gigas'', cognate giga-) are beings of human-like appearance, but are at times prodigious in size and strength or bear an otherwise notable appearance. The word ''giant'' is first attested in 1297 fr ...
Alcyoneus. She was the sister of
Alkippe,
Anthe,
Asteria,
Drimo,
Pallene and
Phthonia (
Phosthonia or
Chthonia In Greek mythology, the name Chthonia (Ancient Greek: Χθωνία means 'of the earth') may refer to:
*Chthonia, an Athenian princess and the youngest daughter of King Erechtheus and Praxithea, daughter of Phrasimus and Diogeneia. She was sacrific ...
). When their father Alcyoneus was slain by
Heracles
Heracles ( ; grc-gre, Ἡρακλῆς, , glory/fame of Hera), born Alcaeus (, ''Alkaios'') or Alcides (, ''Alkeidēs''), was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, and the foster son of Amphitryon.By his adoptive ...
, these girls threw themselves into the sea from Kanastraion, which is the peak of
Pellene
Pellene (; grc, Πελλήνη; grc-x-doric, Πελλάνα or Πελλίνα) was a city and polis (city-state) of ancient Achaea, the most easterly of the twelve Achaean cities (the Achaean League). Its territory bordered upon that of Sicyon o ...
. They were then transformed into
halcyons (
kingfishers
Kingfishers are a family, the Alcedinidae, of small to medium-sized, brightly colored birds in the order Coraciiformes. They have a cosmopolitan distribution, with most species found in the tropical regions of Africa, Asia, and Oceania, ...
) by the goddess
Amphitrite
In ancient Greek mythology, Amphitrite (; grc-gre, Ἀμφιτρίτη, Amphitrítē) was the goddess of the sea, the queen of the sea, and the wife of Poseidon. She was a daughter of Nereus and Doris (or Oceanus and Tethys).Roman, L., & Rom ...
.
* Methone, the
nymph
A nymph ( grc, νύμφη, nýmphē, el, script=Latn, nímfi, label=Modern Greek; , ) in ancient Greek folklore is a minor female nature deity. Different from Greek goddesses, nymphs are generally regarded as personifications of nature, are ty ...
-consort of
Pierus
Pierus (; grc, Πίερος), in Greek mythology, is a name attributed to two individuals:
* Pierus, the eponym of Pieria, son of Makednos and father of the Pierides.Antoninus Liberalis, 9
* Pierus, son of Thessalian Magnes and father of Hyac ...
, king of
Pieria, and by the latter, became the mother of
Oeagrus In Greek mythology, Oeagrus ( grc-gre, Οἴαγρος, Oíagros, of the wild sorb-apple) was a king of Thrace.
Biography
Kingdom
There are various versions as to where Oeagrus' domain was actually situated. In one version, he ruled over the E ...
, father of
Orpheus
Orpheus (; Ancient Greek: Ὀρφεύς, classical pronunciation: ; french: Orphée) is a Thracian bard, legendary musician and prophet in ancient Greek religion. He was also a renowned poet and, according to the legend, travelled with Jaso ...
. In some accounts rather, she was called the sister of Pierus.
* Methone or Mothone (Μοθώνη), a bastard daughter of King
Oeneus
In Greek mythology, Oeneus (; grc , Οἰνεύς , Oineús , Wine-man) was a Calydonian king. He introduced wine-making to Aetolia, which he learned from Dionysus and the first who received a vine-plant from the same god.Apollodorus1.8.1/ref>
...
of
Calydon
Calydon (; grc, Καλυδών, ) was a Greek city in ancient Aetolia, situated on the west bank of the river Evenus, 7.5 Roman miles (approx. 11 km) from the sea.
Its name is most famous today for the Calydonian boar that had to be ov ...
by a concubine. She was the eponymous heroine who gave her name to
Methone in
Messenia
Messenia or Messinia ( ; el, Μεσσηνία ) is a regional unit (''perifereiaki enotita'') in the southwestern part of the Peloponnese region, in Greece. Until the implementation of the Kallikratis plan on 1 January 2011, Messenia was a ...
.
*Methone, wife of King
Poeas
In Greek mythology, Poeas, or Poias (Ancient Greek: Ποίας) was a king of Meliboea or Malis (Maleae) and one of the Argonauts.
Family
Poeas was the son of King Thaumacus of Thaumacia and the father of the hero Philoctetes by Methone.
M ...
of
Meliboea
In Greek mythology, Meliboea or Meliboia ( grc, Μελίβοια) was a name attributed to the following individuals:
*Meliboea, daughter of the Titan Oceanus possibly by his sister-wife Tethys. She was the Oceanid who became the mother of King ...
and mother of
Philoctetes
Philoctetes ( grc, Φιλοκτήτης ''Philoktētēs''; English pronunciation: , stress (linguistics), stressed on the third syllable, ''-tet-''), or Philocthetes, according to Greek mythology, was the son of Poeas, king of Meliboea (Magnes ...
. Otherwise, the latter's mother was called
Demonassa
In Greek mythology, Demonassa or Demonassae (Ancient Greek: Δημώνασσα) was a name attributed to five women.
*Demonassa, mother of Eurydamas and Eurytion, king of Phthia, by Irus. Otherwise, Eurydamas parentage was given as Ctimenus fr ...
.
Hyginus
Gaius Julius Hyginus (; 64 BC – AD 17) was a Latin author, a pupil of the scholar Alexander Polyhistor, and a freedman of Caesar Augustus. He was elected superintendent of the Palatine library by Augustus according to Suetonius' ''De Grammatic ...
, ''Fabulae'
102
/ref> This Methone may be the same as the above character.
Notes
References
* John Tzetzes
John Tzetzes ( grc-gre, Ἰωάννης Τζέτζης, Iōánnēs Tzétzēs; c. 1110, Constantinople – 1180, Constantinople) was a Byzantine poet and grammarian who is known to have lived at Constantinople in the 12th century.
He was able to p ...
, ''Book of Histories,'' Book V-VI translated by Konstantinos Ramiotis from the original Greek of T. Kiessling's edition of 1826.
Online version at theio.com.
* Pausanias Pausanias ( el, Παυσανίας) may refer to:
*Pausanias of Athens, lover of the poet Agathon and a character in Plato's ''Symposium''
*Pausanias the Regent, Spartan general and regent of the 5th century BC
*Pausanias of Sicily, physician of th ...
, ''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.
Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
* Pausanias, ''Graeciae Descriptio.'' ''3 vols''. Leipzig, Teubner. 1903.
Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library
* Suida, ''Suda Encyclopedia'' translated by Ross Scaife, David Whitehead, William Hutton, Catharine Roth, Jennifer Benedict, Gregory Hays, Malcolm Heath Sean M. Redmond, Nicholas Fincher, Patrick Rourke, Elizabeth Vandiver, Raphael Finkel, Frederick Williams, Carl Widstrand, Robert Dyer, Joseph L. Rife, Oliver Phillips and many others
Online version at the Topos Text Project.
{{Greek myth index
Nymphs
Mythological Thracian women
Greek mythology of Thrace