Greek mythology Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories conc ...

, Tenes or Tennes (

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

: Τέννης) was the

eponym An eponym is a noun after which or for which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. Adjectives derived from the word ''eponym'' include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Eponyms are commonly used for time periods, places, innovati ...

ous hero of the island of

Tenedos Tenedos (, ''Tenedhos''; ), or Bozcaada in Turkish language, Turkish, is an island of Turkey in the northeastern part of the Aegean Sea. Administratively, the island constitutes the Bozcaada, Çanakkale, Bozcaada district of Çanakkale Provinc ...

Family

Tenes was the son either of

Apollo Apollo is one of the Twelve Olympians, Olympian deities in Ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek and Ancient Roman religion, Roman religion and Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology. Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, mu ...

or of King Cycnus of Colonae by Proclia, daughter or granddaughter of

Laomedon In Greek mythology, Laomedon (; , ''Lāomédōn'', "ruler of the people") was a Troy, Trojan king, son of Ilus (son of Tros), Ilus and thus nephew of Ganymede (mythology), Ganymede and Assaracus. Laomedon was variously identified with differe ...

Mythology

Cycnus's second wife Philonome, daughter of Tragasus or Cragasus, falsely accused Tenes of

rape Rape is a type of sexual assault involving sexual intercourse, or other forms of sexual penetration, carried out against a person without consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or against a person ...

, bringing in a flutist named Eumolpus as witness. Cycnus believed the accusations and tried to kill Tenes and his sister Hemithea by placing them both in a chest, which was set into the ocean. However, the chest landed at the island of Leucophrye, which was later renamed Tenedos, and the two survived. The natives of the island pronounced Tenes their king. Cycnus later learned the truth, killed Eumolpus, buried Philonome alive and tried to reconcile with his children, but Tenes rejected his overture: when Cycnus's ship landed at Tenedos, Tenes took an axe and cut the moorings. Tenes fought with Achilles when Achilles had tried to assault his sister. Though his sister escaped, Tenes died when Achilles plunged a sword into his heart. Even though

Thetis Thetis ( , or ; ) is a figure from Greek mythology with varying mythological roles. She mainly appears as a sea nymph, a goddess of water, and one of the 50 Nereids, daughters of the ancient sea god Nereus. When described as a Nereid in Cl ...

had previously warned her son against doing so, for Tenes's death would be avenged by Apollo, Achilles was heedless and sealed his death by Apollo's hands. Shortly after the end of the Trojan War,

Agamemnon In Greek mythology, Agamemnon (; ''Agamémnōn'') was a king of Mycenae who commanded the Achaeans (Homer), Achaeans during the Trojan War. He was the son (or grandson) of King Atreus and Queen Aerope, the brother of Menelaus, the husband of C ...

permitted the Trojan prisoners of war to build a city north of

Mycenae Mycenae ( ; ; or , ''Mykē̂nai'' or ''Mykḗnē'') is an archaeological site near Mykines, Greece, Mykines in Argolis, north-eastern Peloponnese, Greece. It is located about south-west of Athens; north of Argos, Peloponnese, Argos; and sou ...

. The city was called

Tenea Tenea () is a municipal unit within the municipality of Corinth (municipality), Corinth, Corinthia, Peloponnese (region), Peloponnese, Greece. The municipal unit has an area of . Until 2011, its municipal seat was in Chiliomodi. The modern city ...

after Tenes. A description on the history of Tenea was also given by Pausanias.

Diodorus Siculus Diodorus Siculus or Diodorus of Sicily (; 1st century BC) was an ancient Greece, ancient Greek historian from Sicily. He is known for writing the monumental Universal history (genre), universal history ''Bibliotheca historica'', in forty ...

relates that the Tenedians founded a sanctuary of Tenes to commemorate his virtues. No flute player was allowed to enter the sacred precinct, and the name of Achilles was not to be uttered in it. Sacrifices were offered to Tenes until recent times. Greeks used the proverb "Tenedian human" () in reference to those with frightening appearance, because when Tenes laid down laws in Tenedos he stipulated that a man with an axe should stand behind the judge and strike the man being convicted after he had spoken in vain.

Suida The ''Suda'' or ''Souda'' (; ; ) is a large 10th-century Byzantine Empire, Byzantine encyclopedia of the History of the Mediterranean region, ancient Mediterranean world, formerly attributed to an author called Soudas () or Souidas (). It is an ...

, s.v.
Τενέδιος ἄνθρωπος
'

Notes

References

* Conon'', Fifty Narrations, surviving as one-paragraph summaries in the Bibliotheca (Library) of Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople'' translated from the Greek by Brady Kiesling
Online version at the Topos Text Project.
*

, ''The Library of History'' translated by

Charles Henry Oldfather Charles Henry Oldfather (13 June 1887 – 20 August 1954) was an American professor of Greek and Ancient History at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He was born in Tabriz, Qajar dynasty, Persia. Parentage Oldfather's parents, Jeremiah and Feli ...

. Twelve volumes.

Loeb Classical Library The Loeb Classical Library (LCL; named after James Loeb; , ) is a monographic series of books originally published by Heinemann and since 1934 by Harvard University Press. It has bilingual editions of ancient Greek and Latin literature, ...

. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1989. Vol. 3. Books 4.59–8
Online version at Bill Thayer's Web Site
* Diodorus Siculus, ''Bibliotheca Historica. Vol 1-2''. Immanel Bekker. Ludwig Dindorf. Friedrich Vogel. in aedibus B. G. Teubneri. Leipzig. 1888-1890
Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library
* 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.
Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
* Pausanias, ''Graeciae Descriptio.'' ''3 vols''. Leipzig, Teubner. 1903.
Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library
*

Pseudo-Apollodorus The ''Bibliotheca'' (Ancient Greek: ), is a compendium of Greek myths and heroic legends, genealogical tables and histories arranged in three books, generally dated to the first or second century AD. The work is commonly described as having been ...

, ''The Library'' with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. {{ISBN, 0-674-99135-4
Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.Greek text available from the same website
*

Stephanus of Byzantium Stephanus or Stephen of Byzantium (; , ''Stéphanos Byzántios''; centuryAD) was a Byzantine grammarian and the author of an important geographical dictionary entitled ''Ethnica'' (). Only meagre fragments of the dictionary survive, but the epit ...

, ''Stephani Byzantii Ethnicorum quae supersunt,'' edited by August Meineike (1790-1870), published 1849. A few entries from this important ancient handbook of place names have been translated by Brady Kiesling
Online version at the Topos Text Project.
*

Strabo Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called "Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo, Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-si ...

, ''The Geography of Strabo.'' Edition by H.L. Jones. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924
Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
* Strabo, ''Geographica'' edited by A. Meineke. Leipzig: Teubner. 1877
Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
*

, ''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.
Tenea People from Tenedos Children of Apollo Mythological people from Anatolia