Iphis (shepherd)

Iphis and Anaxarete illustrated by Virgil Solis

Iphis (Gr. Ιφίς) is in Greek mythology a shepherd of low descent from Salamis in Cyprus , who fell in love with Anaxarete from the family of Teukros .

After his solicitation was sneeringly rejected, he pleaded in vain to Anaxarete and finally hanged himself in front of her door. Anaxarete remained unmoved and, when she wanted to watch the funeral hard-heartedly, was turned into a stone by the avenging goddess Aphrodite as a punishment . This external transformation reflects the inner being or the "rock-hard" character of the Anaxarete.

literature

• Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher : Iphis . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 2.1, Leipzig 1894, Col. 310 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Georg Knaack : Anaxarete . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume I, 2, Stuttgart 1894, Col. 2081.

Illustrations

• Bernard Picart : The Hanged Iphis, copperplate engraving, 1731

Web links

• Iphis in Vollmer's Mythologie aller Völker, Stuttgart 1874

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ovid, Metamorphoses 14.698-771 ( Translation ).