Thamyris: Difference between revisions
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Importing Wikidata short description: "Mythical poet/musician" |
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{{Short description|Mythical poet/musician}} |
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{{about|the mythological Thracian singer|the ancient Greek female painter also called Thamyris| Timarete|}} |
{{about|the mythological Thracian singer|the ancient Greek female painter also called Thamyris| Timarete|}} |
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In [[Greek mythology]], '''Thamyris''' ([[Ancient Greek]]: Θάμυρις, ''Thámuris'') was a [[Thrace|Thracian]] singer. He is notable in Greek mythology for reportedly being a lover of [[Hyacinth (mythology)|Hyacinth]] and thus to have been the first male to have loved another male,<ref>Pseudo-Apollodorus, |
In [[Greek mythology]], '''Thamyris''' ([[Ancient Greek]]: Θάμυρις, ''Thámuris'') was a [[Thrace|Thracian]] singer. He is notable in Greek mythology for reportedly being a lover of [[Hyacinth (mythology)|Hyacinth]] and thus to have been the first male to have loved another male,<ref name="ReferenceA">[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], 1.3.3</ref> but when his songs failed to win his love from the god [[Apollo]], he challenged the Nine [[Muses]] to a competition and lost.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Thamyris|title=Thamyris | Greek mythology}}</ref> |
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== Family == |
== Family == |
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Thamyris was the son of [[Philammon]] and the [[nymph]] [[Argiope (mythology)|Argiope]] from [[Mount Parnassus]]. One account makes him the father of [[Menippe (mythology)|Menippe]] who became the mother of Orpheus by [[Oeagrus]].<ref>[[John Tzetzes|Tzetzes]], ''Chiliades'' [http://www.theoi.com/Text/TzetzesChiliades1.html#12 1.12 line 306]</ref> |
Thamyris was the son of [[Philammon]] and the [[nymph]] [[Argiope (mythology)|Argiope]] from [[Mount Parnassus]]. One account makes him the father of [[Menippe (mythology)|Menippe]], who became the mother of [[Orpheus]] by [[Oeagrus]].<ref>[[John Tzetzes|Tzetzes]], ''Chiliades'' [http://www.theoi.com/Text/TzetzesChiliades1.html#12 1.12 line 306]</ref> |
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== Mythology == |
== Mythology == |
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=== Early years === |
=== Early years === |
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When Philammon refused to take Argiope into his house as his wife, the girl left [[Peloponnese]] and went to the country of the [[Odrysian kingdom|Odrysians]] in [[Thrace]] where she gave birth to a son, Thamyris. When the boy reached puberty, he became so accomplished in singing to the cithara that the [[Scythians]] made him their king even though he was an interloper.<ref |
When Philammon refused to take Argiope into his house as his wife, the girl left [[Peloponnese]] and went to the country of the [[Odrysian kingdom|Odrysians]] in [[Thrace]] where she gave birth to a son, Thamyris. When the boy reached puberty, he became so accomplished in singing to the cithara that the [[Scythians]] made him their king even though he was an interloper.<ref>[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], 4.33.3; [[Conon (mythographer)|Conon]], [https://topostext.org/work/489#7 7]</ref> |
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| ⚫ | According to [[Diodorus]] the mythical singer [[Linus (mythology)|Linus]] took three pupils: [[Heracles]], Thamyris, and [[Orpheus]], which neatly settles Thamyris' legendary chronology.<ref>[[Diodorus Siculus]], [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/3E*.html#67.1 3.67.1]</ref> When [[Pliny the Elder]] briefly sketches the origins of music, he credits Thamyris with inventing the [[Dorian mode]] and with being the first to play the [[cithara]] as a solo instrument with no vocal accompaniment.<ref>[[Pliny the Elder]], ''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Naturalis Historia]]'' 7.204</ref> |
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| ⚫ | Thamyris |
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| ⚫ | This allusion is taken up in [[Euripides]]' ''Rhesus'' |
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| ⚫ | According to [[Diodorus]] the mythical singer [[Linus (mythology)|Linus]] took three pupils: [[Heracles]], Thamyris, and [[Orpheus]], which neatly settles Thamyris' legendary chronology.<ref>[[Diodorus Siculus]], |
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| ⚫ | While returning from [[Oechalia (Thessaly)|Oechalia]], Thamyris paused at the ford of the river [[Alpheus (deity)|Alpheus]] and boasted that he could surpass the [[Muses]] – the daughters of Zeus – in singing. But they were angry and stilled his singing forever, robbing him of the divine powers of song and playing the lyre anymore. The story is mentioned briefly in the ''[[Iliad]]''.<ref>[[Homer]], ''[[Iliad]]'' 2.594-600</ref> According to Apollodorus in the ''[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Library]]'', the Muses instead punished him by gouging out his eyes.<ref>[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], 1.3.3</ref> |
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| ⚫ | This allusion is taken up in [[Euripides]]' ''Rhesus'', and in the [[scholia]] on the ''Iliad''. These later sources add the details that Thamyris had demanded as his prize for winning the contest either the privilege of having sex with all the Muses or of marrying one of them;<ref name=":0">Conon, [https://topostext.org/work/489#7 7]</ref> and that after his death he was further punished in [[Hades]]. Ancient scholia emphasized that the episode was meant to illustrate that poetic inspiration was a gift of the gods, and could be taken away by them.<ref>Apollodorus, 1.3.3</ref><ref>Scholia on Homer, ''Iliad'' 2.595. See {{Citation|title=[[Rediscovering Homer]]|year=2006|place=New York, London|publisher=Norton|author-link=Andrew Dalby|surname=Dalby|given=Andrew|isbn=0-393-05788-7}}, p. 96.</ref> |
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==Other== |
==Other== |
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* [[Conon (mythographer)|Conon]]'', Fifty Narrations, surviving as one-paragraph summaries in the Bibliotheca (Library) of Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople'' translated from the Greek by Brady Kiesling. [https://topostext.org/work/489 Online version at the Topos Text Project.] |
* [[Conon (mythographer)|Conon]]'', Fifty Narrations, surviving as one-paragraph summaries in the Bibliotheca (Library) of Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople'' translated from the Greek by Brady Kiesling. [https://topostext.org/work/489 Online version at the Topos Text Project.] |
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* [[Diodorus Siculus]], ''The Library of History'' translated by [[Charles Henry Oldfather]]. Twelve volumes. [[Loeb Classical Library]]. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1989. Vol. 3. Books 4.59–8. [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/home.html Online version at Bill Thayer's Web Site] |
* [[Diodorus Siculus]], ''The Library of History'' translated by [[Charles Henry Oldfather]]. Twelve volumes. [[Loeb Classical Library]]. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1989. Vol. 3. Books 4.59–8. [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/home.html Online version at Bill Thayer's Web Site] |
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* Diodorus Siculus, ''Bibliotheca Historica. Vol 1-2''. Immanel Bekker. Ludwig Dindorf. Friedrich Vogel. in aedibus B. G. Teubneri. Leipzig. |
* Diodorus Siculus, ''Bibliotheca Historica. Vol 1-2''. Immanel Bekker. Ludwig Dindorf. Friedrich Vogel. in aedibus B. G. Teubneri. Leipzig. 1888–1890. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:2008.01.0540 Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library]. |
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* [[Homer]], [[Iliad|''The Iliad'']] with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, Ph.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924. {{ISBN|978-0674995796|}}. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0134 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.] |
* [[Homer]], [[Iliad|''The Iliad'']] with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, Ph.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924. {{ISBN|978-0674995796|}}. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0134 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.] |
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* Homer, ''Homeri Opera'' in five volumes. Oxford, Oxford University Press. 1920. {{ISBN|978-0198145318|}}. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0133 Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library]. |
* Homer, ''Homeri Opera'' in five volumes. Oxford, Oxford University Press. 1920. {{ISBN|978-0198145318|}}. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0133 Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library]. |
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* [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Pseudo-Apollodorus]], ''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}}. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0022 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.] [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0021 Greek text available from the same website]. |
* [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Pseudo-Apollodorus]], ''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}}. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0022 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.] [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0021 Greek text available from the same website]. |
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==External links== |
== External links == |
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*[https://web.archive.org/web/20041114040957/http://www.muspe.unibo.it/period/MA/index/number2/restani/thamyris.html Donatella Restani, "Music and myth in ancient Greece"] with literary references to Thamyris |
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20041114040957/http://www.muspe.unibo.it/period/MA/index/number2/restani/thamyris.html Donatella Restani, "Music and myth in ancient Greece"] with literary references to Thamyris |
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{{Authority control}} |
{{Authority control}} |
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[[Category:Oral poets]] |
[[Category:Oral poets]] |
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[[Category:Musicians in Greek mythology]] |
[[Category:Musicians in Greek mythology]] |
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[[Category:Characters in Greek mythology]] |
[[Category:Characters in Greek mythology]] |
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[[Category:Greek mythology of Thrace]] |
[[Category:Greek mythology of Thrace]] |
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[[Category: |
[[Category:LGBTQ themes in Greek mythology]] |
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[[Category:Mythological blind people]] |
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Latest revision as of 22:50, 27 November 2024
In Greek mythology, Thamyris (Ancient Greek: Θάμυρις, Thámuris) was a Thracian singer. He is notable in Greek mythology for reportedly being a lover of Hyacinth and thus to have been the first male to have loved another male,[1] but when his songs failed to win his love from the god Apollo, he challenged the Nine Muses to a competition and lost.[2]
Family
[edit]Thamyris was the son of Philammon and the nymph Argiope from Mount Parnassus. One account makes him the father of Menippe, who became the mother of Orpheus by Oeagrus.[3]
Mythology
[edit]Early years
[edit]When Philammon refused to take Argiope into his house as his wife, the girl left Peloponnese and went to the country of the Odrysians in Thrace where she gave birth to a son, Thamyris. When the boy reached puberty, he became so accomplished in singing to the cithara that the Scythians made him their king even though he was an interloper.[4]
According to Diodorus the mythical singer Linus took three pupils: Heracles, Thamyris, and Orpheus, which neatly settles Thamyris' legendary chronology.[5] When Pliny the Elder briefly sketches the origins of music, he credits Thamyris with inventing the Dorian mode and with being the first to play the cithara as a solo instrument with no vocal accompaniment.[6]
Thamyris is said to have been enamored of Hyacinth (who however spurned him for the god Apollo), and thus to have been the first man to have loved another male.[1]
Contest with Muses
[edit]While returning from Oechalia, Thamyris paused at the ford of the river Alpheus and boasted that he could surpass the Muses – the daughters of Zeus – in singing. But they were angry and stilled his singing forever, robbing him of the divine powers of song and playing the lyre anymore. The story is mentioned briefly in the Iliad.[7] According to Apollodorus in the Library, the Muses instead punished him by gouging out his eyes.[8]
This allusion is taken up in Euripides' Rhesus, and in the scholia on the Iliad. These later sources add the details that Thamyris had demanded as his prize for winning the contest either the privilege of having sex with all the Muses or of marrying one of them;[9] and that after his death he was further punished in Hades. Ancient scholia emphasized that the episode was meant to illustrate that poetic inspiration was a gift of the gods, and could be taken away by them.[10][11]
Other
[edit]Thamyris is also the name of a Theban who was killed by Actor.
Legacy
[edit]Thamyris Glacier on Anvers Island in Antarctica is named after Thamyris.[12]
Notes
[edit]- ^ a b Apollodorus, 1.3.3
- ^ "Thamyris | Greek mythology".
- ^ Tzetzes, Chiliades 1.12 line 306
- ^ Pausanias, 4.33.3; Conon, 7
- ^ Diodorus Siculus, 3.67.1
- ^ Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 7.204
- ^ Homer, Iliad 2.594-600
- ^ Apollodorus, 1.3.3
- ^ Conon, 7
- ^ Apollodorus, 1.3.3
- ^ Scholia on Homer, Iliad 2.595. See Dalby, Andrew (2006), Rediscovering Homer, New York, London: Norton, ISBN 0-393-05788-7, p. 96.
- ^ Composite Gazetteer of Antarctica: Thamyris Glacier.
References
[edit]- 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.
- Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History translated by Charles Henry Oldfather. Twelve volumes. Loeb Classical Library. 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.
- Homer, The Iliad with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, Ph.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924. ISBN 978-0674995796. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Homer, Homeri Opera in five volumes. Oxford, Oxford University Press. 1920. ISBN 978-0198145318. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
- John Tzetzes, Book of Histories, Book I translated by Ana Untila from the original Greek of T. Kiessling's edition of 1826. Online version at theoi.com
- 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. ISBN 0-674-99328-4. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
- Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio. 3 vols. Leipzig, Teubner. 1903. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Pliny the Elder, The Natural History. John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A. London. Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 1855. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia. Karl Friedrich Theodor Mayhoff. Lipsiae. Teubner. 1906. Latin text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Pseudo-Apollodorus, 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.
External links
[edit]- Donatella Restani, "Music and myth in ancient Greece" with literary references to Thamyris
