Tereus
InGreek mythology,Tereus(⫽ˈtɛriəs,ˈtɪərjuːs⫽;Ancient Greek:Τηρεύς) was aThracianking,[1][2]the son ofAresand the naiadBistonis.He was the brother ofDryas.Tereus was the husband of the Athenian princessProcneand the father ofItys.
Mythology[edit]
When Tereus desired his wife's sister,Philomela,he came to Athens to his father-in-lawPandionto ask for his other daughter in marriage, stating that Procne had died. Pandion granted him the favour, and sent Philomela and guards along with her. But Tereus threw the guards into the sea, and finding Philomela on a mountain, forced himself upon her. He then cut her tongue out and held her captive so she could never tell anyone. After he returned to Thrace, Tereus gave Philomela to KingLynceusand told his wife that her sister had died. Philomela wove letters in atapestrydepicting Tereus's crime and sent it secretly to Procne. Lynceus' wifeLathusawho was a friend of Procne, at once sent the concubine (Philomela) to her.
When Procne recognized her sister and knew the impious deed of Tereus, the two planned to return the favour to the king. Meanwhile, it was revealed to Tereus by prodigies that death by a relative's hand was coming to his son Itys. When he heard this, thinking that his brother Dryas was plotting his son's death, he killed the innocent man. Procne, however, killed her son Itys by Tereus,served his fleshin a meal at his father's table in revenge, and fled with her sister.
When Tereus learned of the crime she had done, he pursued the sisters and tried to kill them but all three were changed by theOlympian Godsinto birds out of pity: Tereus became ahoopoeor a hawk; Procne became theswallowwhose song is a song of mourning for the loss of her child; Philomela became thenightingale.Incidentally, the female nightingale has no song. (Hyginus,Fabulae,45).
A very similar story was told aboutPolytechnus.
Other usage[edit]
Tereus was also a common given name among Thracians.[1]
TheAtticplaywrightsSophoclesandPhiloclesboth wrote plays entitledTereuson the subject of the story of Tereus.[3]
Shakespearerefers to Tereus inTitus Andronicus,after Chiron and Demetrius have raped Lavinia and cut out her tongue and also both her hands. He also makes reference to Tereus inCymbeline,when Iachimo spies upon the sleeping Imogen to gather false evidence so he can persuade Posthumus he has seduced her.
The transformed Tereus is a character inThe BirdsbyAristophanes.
Modern adaptations[edit]
- The Love of the Nightingale,play byTimberlake Wertenbaker
- The Love of the Nightingale,operabyRichard Millsto alibrettofrom the above play
References[edit]
- ^abThucydides:History of the Peloponnesian War2:29
- ^Bibliotheca3.14.8
- ^March, J. (2000). "Vases and Tragic Drama". In Rutter, N.K.; Sparkes, B.A. (eds.).Word and Image in Ancient Greece.University of Edinburgh. pp. 121–123.ISBN978-0-7486-1405-9.
External links[edit]
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