Askalaphos (underworld demon)
Askalaphos ( Greek Ἀσκάλαφος , Latin Ascalaphus ) is an underworld demon from Greek mythology .
myth
Askalaphos is the son of Acheron , a river god of the underworld. His mother, however differently indicated in the literature: While in the Metamorphoses of Ovid from the nymph Orphne is mentioned, are Apollodor the Gorgyra as mother.
He once watched Persephone strolling in the gardens of Hades and was the only one to see how she ate from the seeds of a pomegranate , with which she lost her only chance of returning from Hades to the upper world, as this was due to a saying of the Moiren (goddesses of fate ) was only possible if one had not eaten any food in the underworld. He betrayed her to Hades, who wanted to keep Persephone as a woman in the underworld. As punishment, her mother Demeter rolled a large stone on Askalaphos, which was later rolled aside by Heracles , whereupon Askalaphos was transformed into an owl.
This form of myth seems to be related to the legend of Ascalabus , who mocked the thirsty Demeter and was transformed by her into a lizard hiding under stones.
In Ovid , the penalty is a slightly differently: After he had betrayed Persephone, this Askalaphos transformed into an owl (hence the taxonomic name Bubo bubo ascalaphus for the Pharaoh Eagle-Owl in modern zoology ) by presenting it with the "water" of the Phlegethons sprinkled.
See also: Rape of Persephone
swell
- Library of Apollodorus 1. 33; 2. 124-126
- Ovid Metamorphoses 5, 534-550
- Servius commentarius in Vergilii Aeneida 4. 462 and commentarius in Vergilii georgica 1. 39
literature
- K. Sara Myers: The Lizard and the Owl: An Etymological Pair in Ovid, Metamorphoses Book 5. In: The American Journal of Philology , Vol. 113, No. 1 (1992), pp. 63-68
- Michele Valerie Ronnick: Stellio non lacerta et bubo non strix: Ovid Metamorphoses 5.446-61 and 534-50. In: The American Journal of Philology , Vol. 114, No. 3 (1993), pp. 419-420
- Adolf Schirmer : Askalaphos 2 . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 1,1, Leipzig 1886, column 611 ( digitized version ).
Web links
- Greek text with German translation from the library of Apollodor 1, 25-44
- Greek text with German translation from the Library of Apollodor 2, 113-180
- German translation of the 5th book of Metamorphoses by Ovid