Hyrieus
In Greek mythology, Hyrieus (Ancient Greek: Ὑριεύς) was the son of Alcyone and Poseidon, brother of Hyperenor and Aethusa. By the nymph Clonia, he became the father of Nycteus and Lycus.[1]. One source calls him father of Crinacus[2]. Most accounts speak of him as a king, although Ovid and Nonnus portray him as a poor peasant[3][4].
Hyrieus was the eponym of Hyria in Boeotia, where he dwelt and where Orion (see below) was born.[5]; some sources though place him either in Thrace or on Chios[6]. He was said to have expelled Euonymus from the temple of Apollo[7].
Hyrieus hired Trophonius and Agamedes to build a treasure chamber for him but they also built a secret entrance to it. Using the secret entrance, they stole Hyrieus' fortune. He was aware but did not know who the thief was; he laid a snare. Agamedes was trapped in it; Trophonius cut off his head so that Hyrieus would not know who the body in the snare was.[8]
According to later sources, Hyrieus was also the father of Orion. Some speak of him as Orion's natural father[9]; others relate that he was childless and a widower and became (technically) adoptive father of Orion via the following circumstances. He was visited by Zeus and Hermes (some add Poseidon), who, to express gratitude for his hospitality, promised him to fulfill a wish of his; he said that he wanted children. The gods filled a sacrificial bull's hide with their urine (or sperm), then told Hyrieus to bury it. Nine months later, Hyrieus found a newborn baby boy inside and named him Orion; Roman authors thought of the Latin word urina "urine" as an etymon for Orion's name (though actually his name is obviously not of Latin origin).[6][10]
References
- ^ Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheke 3.10.1; cf. 3.5.5, which calls the father of Lycus and Nycteus Chthonius ("earthman", one of the Spartoi)
- ^ Scholia on Homer, Iliad, 24. 544
- ^ Ovid, Fasti, 499
- ^ Nonnus, Dionysiaca, 13. 97
- ^ Strabo, Geography, 9. 2. 12
- ^ a b Hyginus, Fabulae, 195; Poetical Astronomy 2.34
- ^ Corinna, fragment 1 (ed. Page)
- ^ Pausanias, Description of Greece, 9. 37. 5 - 6
- ^ Antoninus Liberalis, Metamorphoses, 25
- ^ Ovid, Fasti, 493 - 536
- For modern authors, see Orion (mythology) and the references therein
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