Karpos (mythology)

Karpos ( ancient Greek Καρπός Karpós , German '(field) fruit' ) was the son of Zephyros with one of the Horen in Greek mythology .

Kalamos , son of the river god Maiandros, fell in love with the beautiful youth . One day when the two lovers were swimming in competition in the river Meander , Karpos drowned. Kalamos now asked Zeus to be allowed to die too in order to share the fate of his beloved. While Kalamos was then transformed into a reed, whose rustling sound in the wind was interpreted as Kalamos' lamentation over the death of his lover, Karpos became a field crop. The myth explains the origin of the Greek name "Karpos" for the fruit in general, that of the field in particular.

swell

• Nonnos , Dionysiaka 11, 370-481

literature

• Otto Höfer : Karpos . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 2.1, Leipzig 1894, column 968 ( digitized version ).
• Hans von Geisau : Karpos 1. In: The Little Pauly (KlP). Volume 3, Stuttgart 1969, Col. 129.