Dorus (son of Hellen)

For other uses, seeDorus (mythology).

InGreek mythology,Dorus(Ancient Greek:Δῶροςprobably derived fromdoron"gift" ) was theeponymous founderof theDorians.

Family

Each ofHellen'ssons founded a primary tribe of Greece:AeolustheAeolians,Dorus theDoriansandXuthustheAchaeans(from Xuthus's sonAchaeus) andIonians(from Xuthus's adopted sonIon,in truth a son of the godApollo), aside from his sisterPandora's sons with Zeus. In the account ofHellanicus,Xenopatrawas additionally counted as one of the children of Hellen and theoreadOrseis(Othreis) and thus, technically the sister of Dorus.Another possible sibling of Dorus wasNeonuswho was called the son of Hellen and father ofDotus.In one version of the myth, Dorus was said to be born from Hellen and thenymphPhthia(maybe another for Orseis).

According to other writers, Dorus was the son ofProtogeniaandZeus,thus probably the brother ofAethlius,AetolusandOpus.Meanwhile, in the playIon,he was counted as one of the legitimate sons (the other being Achaeus) of Xuthus and theAthenianprincessCreusa,daughter of KingErechtheus.Lastly, in a rare account,Poseidonwas said to have fathered Dorus.

Dorus was the father ofTectamus,AegimiusandIphthime.The latter became the mother of theSatyrsLycus,PherespondusandPronomusbyHermes.

Mythology

In theBibliotheke,"Dorus received the country over againstPeloponneseand called the settlers Dorians after himself. "He was said to have founded the small Dorian cities ofErineon,Boion,KytinionandPindos.According toKarl Kerenyi,the Dorians recalled that three timesHeracleshad aided their "oldest king",Aigimios,"under whom they had not yet emigrated to the Peleponnesos."Kerenyi's source is theBibliotheca(II.7.7), who though he is late, was working with ancient materials lost to us.

Centuries later, the figure of Dorus was invoked byDiodorus Siculusin the common way to explain the presence inCreteduring the historical period of Dorian cities of mixed population:

The third peopleto cross over to the island, we are told, were Dorians, under the leadership ofTectamusthe son of Dorus; and the account states that the larger number of these Dorians was gathered from theregions about Olympus,but that a part of them consisted of Achaeans fromLaconia,since Dorus had fixed the base of his expedition in the region aboutCape Malea.And a fourth people to come to Crete and to become intermixed with the Cretans, we are told, was a heterogeneous collection of barbarians who in the course of time adopted the language of the native Greeks.

An important descendance of aristocratic clans, some of which survived intoClassical times,was fromHeracles.Diodorus invokes a son of Dorus in accounting for the mythic theme of the "return" of theHeracleidae:

The rest of the Heracleidae, they say, came to Aegimius, the son of Dorus, and demanding back the land which their father had entrusted to him, made their home among the Dorians.

Interpretation

The eponymous figure of "Dorus" is aback-formation:all tribal groups have myths of an "original', whose name is theeponymof the tribe, even tribal eponyms inGenesis.The oldest are essentially eponyms of extended families, who were worshipped in archaic cults into Roman times.A man's name, Dōrieus, occurs in theLinear Btablets atPylos,one of the regions invaded and subjected by the Dorians. Whether it had the ethnic meaning of "the Dorian" is unknown. Modern derivations of "Dorians" do not depend on a figure ofDorus:seeName of the Dorians.

Genealogy of Hellenes

Genealogy
Iapetus Clymene Prometheus Epimetheus Pandora Deucalion Pyrrha Hellen Orseis DORUS Xuthus Aeolus Achaeus Ion Cretheus Sisyphus Athamas Salmoneus Deion Magnes Perieres Canace Alcyone Pisidice Calyce Perimede

References

• Apollodorus,The Librarywith 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.
• Clement of Alexandria,RecognitionsfromAnte-NiceneLibrary Volume 8,translated by Smith, Rev. Thomas. T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh. 1867.Online version at theio
• Grimal, Pierre,The Dictionary of Classical Mythology,Wiley-Blackwell, 1996.ISBN978-0-631-20102-1.Internet Archive.
• Hard, Robin,The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology",Psychology Press, 2004.ISBN978-0-415-18636-0.Google Books.
• Hesiod,Catalogue of WomenfromHomeric Hymns, Epic Cycle, Homericatranslated by Evelyn-White, H G. Loeb Classical Library Volume 57. London: William Heinemann, 1914.Online version at theio
• Nonnus of Panopolis,Dionysiacatranslated by William Henry Denham Rouse (1863-1950), from the Loeb Classical Library, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 1940.Online version at the Topos Text Project.
• Nonnus of Panopolis,Dionysiaca. 3 Vols.W.H.D. Rouse. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1940-1942.Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.