Daphnis (son of Hermes)
Daphnis ( Greek Δάφνις , laurel child ) is a shepherd in Sicily in Greek mythology , son of Hermes and a nymph . His mother gave birth to or abandoned him in the laurel grove ( δάφνη ) after which he was named. A breach of loyalty to the nymph Nomia , to whom he had contractually committed himself to loyalty, resulted in his blindness. He had carelessly boasted that he had defeated Eros, but the offended Aphrodite arouses in him the love for the king's daughter Xenea, who reciprocates it. Daphnis' victory over Eros would have consisted in not giving in to his consuming passion for Xenea and remaining true to Nomia. Although he can console himself with his singing and flute skills, he soon falls from a rock and is transformed into a rock himself. Hermes is said to have raptured him; the people made atonement for him every year. In another version ( Ovid , Metamorphoses 4, 276 ff.) He is turned into a stone. In the best known version, that of Theocritus (1, 64-142), he dies of lovesickness. In Virgil's Eclogues , various shepherd figures bear the name Daphnis. Furthermore, Pan fell in love with Daphnis and taught him to play the pan flute .
In Daphnis and Chloe , a romance novel by the late antique rhetor Longos, Daphnis falls in love with Chloe, who, like him, is a foundling raised by shepherds.
literature
- Heinrich Wilhelm Stoll : Daphnis 1) . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 1.1, Leipzig 1886, Col. 955-961 ( digitized version ).
- Günter Wojaczek : Daphnis. Studies on Greek bucolic (= contributions to classical philology , Issue 34, ISSN 0522-6821 ). Hain , Meisenheim (am Glan) 1969, DNB 458692573 (Dissertation University of Cologne, Philosophical Faculty, December 8, 1969, 155 pages, 8 °, DNB 482538279 ).
- Walter Scholl: The Daphnis myth and its development: from the beginnings to Virgil's fourth eclogue (= Spudasmata , volume 157), Olms, Zurich a. a. 2014, ISBN 978-3-487-15140-3 (Dissertation University of Frankfurt am Main 2014, XXIX, 667 pages, box, 22 cm + enclosure. ([2] sheets)).
