Hesione
Hesione ( Greek Ἡσιόνη) is a figure in Greek mythology . According to the Metamorphoses of Ovid (XI 199-217) and in the library of Apollodorus (II 103f., 136) she is the daughter of King Laomedon , for whom the gods Apollon and Poseidon built the walls of the city of Troy . When Laomedon refused to pay them, Poseidon sent a sea monster to wreak terrible havoc. According to Apollo's oracle , the only way to end the plague was through the sacrifice of Hesione. Chained to a rock, she was offered as a sacrifice to the monster, but saved by Heracles , who killed the monster. King Laomedon, who had promised Heracles wonderful horses for the help, refused to pay him too. Heracles then stormed Troy and killed the king and his clan. Hesione asked for mercy for one of her brothers and symbolically bought him free with a veil at Herakles' request. The saved son was named Priam , from the Greek word for buy. Heracles gave Hesione to his comrade Telamon as wife, to whom she bore Teukros as a son.
Allusions to this legend can already be found in the Iliad (V 639–642 and XX 145–148).
literature
- Paul Weizsäcker , Wilhelm Drexler : Hesione 3 . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 1, 2, Leipzig 1890, Sp. 2592-2594 ( digitized version ).
- Gerhard Fink : Who's who in ancient mythology . 2nd Edition. Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-423-30362-X , p. 139 .