Cephalus

Cephalus and Prokris , painting by Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1755)

Cephalos ( Greek Κέφαλος , head ; means: the one with the beautiful head ), ruler of Thorikos , was a son of Hermes and the Herse and consort of Prokris . As the lover of Eos , he is said to have been the father of Phaethon .

Myths

When Kephalus caught his wife Prokris infidelity with Pteleon , he stayed away from her camp for eight years afterwards. But it was also said that he himself had approached in the form of the stranger in order to test her loyalty; the gift of being able to transform at will was given to him by Eos , who was in love with him.

In any case, Prokris fled to Crete offended . From there she returned with an impeccable hunting spear and a dog that no game could escape. Be it that she had received these gifts from King Minos - for the healing of his curse - or from the hunting goddess Artemis : She reconciled with her husband, who was equally enthusiastic about hunting, and gave him the two wonderful things as a present. However, she is said to have shamed Kephalus herself beforehand by seducing him in the form of a beautiful stranger. Later, Cephalus loaned the indefatigable dog to Amphitryon to provide the Teumessian fox .

Nicolas Poussin : Cephalus and Aurora (Roman for Eos) , around 1630, National Gallery , London

In another version, Prokris died by that spear: Cephalos had thought it - which was hiding in the bushes - for game. Subsequently condemned to eternal exile by the Areopagus , he took part in the procession of the Thebans against the Teleboer , donated a sanctuary to Apollo on the foothills of Lefkada and threw himself off the rock to atone for that murder. The reason for his separation from Prokris, however, is usually said to be that Eos kidnapped him: the goddess of the dawn robbed the handsome man, as she had done with so many others before.

On the island of Kephalonia named after him, there was talk of a cephalus who united with a she-bear - one of the manifestations of Artemis. Sometimes Krëusa is also mentioned as the mother of Cephalos. According to a more original genealogy , he is said to have been the son of Deion and Diomede as an Attic hero .

literature

Tobias Leuker: Cephalos and Prokris. In: Maria Moog-Grünewald (Ed.): Mythenrezeption. The ancient mythology in literature, music and art from the beginnings to the present (= Der Neue Pauly . Supplements. Volume 5). Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2008, ISBN 978-3-476-02032-1 , pp. 391-395.
Christine Walde: Kephalos 1. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 6, Metzler, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-476-01476-2 , column 421.

Web links

Commons : Kephalos - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

^ Karl Kerényi, The Mythology of the Greeks , Vol. II, p. 229. ISBN 3-423-01346-X
^ Karl Kerényi, The Mythology of the Greeks , Vol. II, p. 108. ISBN 3-423-01346-X
^ Karl Kerényi, The Mythology of the Greeks , Vol. II, p. 230. ISBN 3-423-01346-X
^ ^A ^b Karl Kerényi, The Mythology of the Greeks , Vol. I, p. 158f. ISBN 3-423-01345-1
↑ Otto Höfer : Kreusa 2) . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 2.1, Leipzig 1894, Col. 1425 f. ( Digitized version ).

[1] Karl Kerényi, The Mythology of the Greeks , Vol. II, p. 229. ISBN 3-423-01346-X

[2] Karl Kerényi, The Mythology of the Greeks , Vol. II, p. 108. ISBN 3-423-01346-X

[3] Karl Kerényi, The Mythology of the Greeks , Vol. II, p. 230. ISBN 3-423-01346-X

[Ker_I_158-4] A ^b Karl Kerényi, The Mythology of the Greeks , Vol. I, p. 158f. ISBN 3-423-01345-1

[5] Otto Höfer : Kreusa 2) . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 2.1, Leipzig 1894, Col. 1425 f. ( Digitized version ).