Iobates
Iobates ( ancient Greek Ἰοβάτης ) is a Lycian king in Greek mythology .
When Proitos was defeated by his brother Akrisios in the dispute over the paternal inheritance , he fled to Lycia, where he was hospitable by Iobates and his daughter - sometimes called Anteia , sometimes called Stheneboia - as his wife. With the help of his father-in-law, he managed to return and defeat his brother. The brothers eventually shared the inheritance and Proitus became the first king of Tiryns . But Anteia fell in love unrequitedly with Bellerophon , who was staying at the court of Proitus to allow himself to be purged of murder. Thereupon she slandered the Bellerophon with her husband. He then sent Bellerophon to Iobates and gave him a letter to Iobates, which contained the request to kill Bellerophon. Letters with this content were therefore also called " Bellerophontus letter ".
Iobates welcomed Bellerophon without reading the letter and organized a nine-day feast in his honor, during which nine bulls were sacrificed. Only on the tenth day did he read the letter. Since he did not want to let Bellerophon kill himself, he entrusted Bellerophon as an order and in the hope that he would find his death to kill the Chimaira . After Bellerophon had mastered this task and had also escaped further attacks, Iobates recognized the protective divine hand over Bellerophon, married him to his daughter, whose name was either Philonoe, Kasandra, Antikleia or Alkimene, and gave him half of his kingdom. Only Plutarch has reported that even after all the failed attempts to bring Bellerophon to death, Iobates would have remained irreconcilable and unjust to him. Bellerophon therefore prayed to Poseidon by the sea for punishment for Iobates and sterility for the land, whereupon a mighty wave flooded the land.
If the Lycian king is still nameless in Homer , he is called Iobates in both Euripides and Sophocles and played the central role in the tragedy of the same name by Sophocles.
literature
- Richard Engelmann : Iobates . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 2.1, Leipzig 1894, Col. 281 f. ( Digitized version ).
- Erich Bethe : Iobates . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume IX, 2, Stuttgart 1916, Col. 1837 f.
Remarks
- ^ Libraries of Apollodorus 2, 2, 2.
- ↑ Homer , Iliad 6:169.
- ↑ Homer, Iliad 6, 179-183; see. also Hyginus , Fabulae 57.
- ↑ Homer, Iliad 6:192.
- ^ Libraries of Apollodorus 2, 33.
- ↑ Scholion AB to Homer Iliad 6, 155.
- ↑ Scholion zu Pindar , Olympic Oden 13, 61.
- ↑ Scholion to Statius , Thebais 4, 683.
- ↑ Plutarch, de mulierum virtutibus 248 A – B.
- ↑ Homer, Iliad 6: 155-193.
- ↑ Euripides, Stheneboia.
- ^ Sophocles, Iobates.