Aithalides
Aithalides ( Greek Αἰθαλίδης , Latin Aethalides ) is a figure in Greek mythology .
myth
Aithalides is the son of Hermes and Eupolemeia , a daughter of Myrmidon , who came from Phthiotis . He takes part in the voyage of the Argonauts , whom he serves as a herald . He is also a skilled archer. When the Argonauts reach Lemnos , Aithalides succeeds in getting permission from the islanders to spend the night there.
Aithalides was endowed with an infallible memory by his father and even possessed the gift of remembering everything even after crossing the Lethe River , which normally makes all people forget their lives when entering the underworld . Therefore, he is allowed to spend half the time in the world of the living.
Reception by the Pythagoreans
The myth of Aithalides played an important role in the soul teaching of the Pythagoreans , who concluded that the immortal soul of Aithalides must also remember its earlier reincarnations . Pythagoras himself is said to have claimed that he was a reincarnation of Aithalides.
literature
- Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher : Aithalides 1) . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 1,1, Leipzig 1886, column 198 ( digitized version ).
Web links
- Aithalides in the Greek Myth Index (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hyginus Mythographus : Fabulae 14.
- ↑ Apollonios of Rhodes : Argonautika 1, 51-55.
- ↑ Valerius Flaccus 1, 437.
- ↑ a b Apollonios of Rhodes: Argonautika 1, 640–645.
- ↑ Herakleides Pontikos in Diogenes Laertios 8, 1, 4; Porphyrios , Vita Pythagorae 45.