Erysichthon (Thessaly)
Erysichthon ( Greek Ἐρυσίχθων = dividing the earth ) is a figure in Greek mythology . He was the son of Triopas or Myrmidon and King of Thessaly . One day he cold-heartedly causes a holy Demeter oak to be felled , ignoring the pleading and pleading of the dryad , who had to die with the tree.
He received the cruel punishment for this act immediately from Demeter, who made a hunger goddess breath insatiable greed for food into the sleeping Erysichthon. Thereupon the king first consumed all his possessions in order to then have to devour himself. This is also the reason for his nickname Aithon ( old Gr . Αἴθων = burning ).
Erysichthon had the daughter Mestra . Since she was Poseidon's lover , she had the gift of transforming herself into any form. To satisfy his irrepressible hunger, he gave his daughter to well-paying suitors. During the night, however, she turned into an animal, fled and returned to her father. Glaukos , the son of Sisyphus, was one of the cheated suitors .
The Erysichthon legend is presented in Callimachos (Demeterhymnos VI, 24-117), Lycophron and most extensively in Ovid , Metamorphosen 8, 738-878.
swell
literature
- Gerhard Fink : Who's who in the ancient mythology , dtv non-fiction book, 1993, ISBN 3-423-30362-X
- Max Denzler: Erysichthon , in: Reallexikon zur Deutschen Kunstgeschichte , Vol. 5, Sp. 1391–1405
Web links
- Ovid, Metamorphoses (German translation by Johann Heinrich Voss )
- Ovid, Erysichthon (modern translation, read out)