Iambe

Iambe ( Greek  Ἰάμβη ) was in Greek mythology a servant in the house of Keleos , the mythical first king of Eleusis . When the goddess Demeter, mourning for her kidnapped daughter Persephone, comes to Keleos in the form of an old woman, she does not want to sit down at first until Iambe brings her a simple chair. But even then she remains serious and full of sorrow until Iambe manages to make the goddess smile through loose jokes. The ritual joke and abuse speeches of the participants during the Mysteries of Eleusis should be traced back to this joke .

According to the Etymologicum magnum , Iambe was of Thracian origin and a daughter of Pan and Echo . An etymological connection with iambus as a meter on the one hand and words with the meaning "revile", "mock" is assumed, but the direction of the dependence is unclear.

The figure of the Iambe is also identified with the similar figure of the Baubo .

swell

• Homeric Hymn to Demeter 192–197, 202–204
• Libraries of Apollodorus 1.5.1
• Diodorus 5.4
• Etymologicum magnum sv Iambe

literature

• N. Richardson: The Homeric Hymn to Demeter. 1974, pp. 213-223
• Paul Weizsäcker : Iambe . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 2.1, Leipzig 1894, Col. 12 f. ( Digitized version ).