Halios geron

Halios geron fighting with Heracles. Argivian bronze plate, around 550 BC Chr.

Halios geron ( Greek  ἅλιος γέρων , sea old man) is an ancient sea ​​deity in Greek mythology .

Originally the old sea man did not have a proper name, but was identified early with Nereus , Proteus , Phorkys or Glaukos , because like them he is an old man and has the arts of prophecy and the ability to change. In Homer he is as old father of Thetis and the Nereids mentioned, but also appears as an epithet of Proteus and Phorkys. Hesiod equates him for the first time with Nereus, later literary evidence of this identification can be found in a Scholion on Pindar and Cornutus . With Dionysios Byzantios he is the father of the Byzantine nymph Semistra , the nurse of Ios daughter Keroessa .

According to Dionysios Byzantios, there was a sanctuary of Halios geron on a hill in Byzantium, who was identified with Nereus, Phorkys or Proteus. A state cult was associated with the sanctuary, which was established on the basis of a dream apparition. The Iberians revered Glaucus under the name γέρων and Pausanias reports of a cult in Gythion , where he was identified with Nereus.

Only two representations are preserved, which can be clearly assigned to him on the basis of inscriptions. On an Argive bronze relief found in Olympia he is shown in the flesh in a fight with Heracles , that is, in an appearance that is iconographically attributed to Triton. Above his head, as attributes of the art of metamorphosis, there are flames and a snake, which are otherwise only to be found in depictions of the human figure Nereus. On an Attic wine jug made by the potter Kolkhos , he appears as a human spectator at the battle of Heracles with Cyknos .

Bernhard Schmidt reports on the afterlife of Halios geron in the Greek folk belief of the 19th century.

literature

• Wilhelm Drexler : Halios 3 . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 1,2, Leipzig 1890, Col. 1821 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Paul Friedländer : Halios 3rd In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume VII, 2, Stuttgart 1912, Col. 2267 f.
• Albin Lesky : Thalatta . Rohrer, Vienna 1947. pp. 112-113.
• Ruth Glynn:  Halios geron . In: Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC). Volume IV, Zurich / Munich 1988, pp. 409-410.

Remarks

1. ↑ Martin Persson Nilsson : History of the Greek Religion , Volume 1: The religion of Greece up to the Greek world domination . Volume 5,2,2,1 of HdA 1967. pp. 240-244.
2. ↑ Homer Iliad 1, 358; 1,538; 1,556; 20, 107.
3. ↑ Homer Iliad 18:14; Odyssey 24:58.
4. ↑ Homer Odyssey 4, 365.
5. ↑ Homer Odyssey 13:96.
6. ↑ Hesiod Theogony 234; 1003
7. ↑ Scholion to Pindar Pythien 9, 164.
8. ↑ Lucius Annaeus Cornutus De natura deorum 23.
9. ↑ Dionysius Byzantios de Bosporum navigatio . In: Karl Müller : Geographi Graeci Minores . Vol. 2, Firmin-Didot, Paris 1861, p. 12.
10. ↑ Dionysius Byzantios: de Bosporum navigatio . P. 29.
11. ↑ Scholion to Apollonios of Rhodes 2, 767; Avienus Ora maritima 263.
12. ^ Pausanias 3:21 , 9.
13. ^ Bernhard Schmidt : The folk life of the modern Greeks and the Hellenic antiquity Leipzig 1871. P. 135-136.