Krëusa (daughter of Erechtheus)

Krëusa ( Greek Κρέουσα ) is a figure in Greek mythology . Her parents were Erechtheus and Praxithea . Kekrops , Orneus , Thespios , Metion , Sikyon , Pandoros , Alkon , Eupalamos , Prokris , Oreithyia , Chthonia , Protogeneia , Pandora and Merope are named as their siblings .

Myths

The victim

When the Thracian Eumolpos was besieging Athens with a large army , King Erechtheus consulted the oracle of Delphi . The prophecy was that he would have to sacrifice a daughter for victory. Krëusa was spared because she was still in the tenderest childhood.

Another version of this story only mentions three daughters who had secretly agreed that if one of them were to die, they would all die; so after the death of the chosen sister the others committed suicide. The three were raised into the sky as the constellation of the Hyades .

Krëusa and the gods

After the drama Ion des Euripides , Krëusa was overpowered by Apollo in a cave on the north side of the Acropolis . She bore him the Hypothesis and the Ion . The child, Ion, left them in the same place in a basket; Hermes brought it to Delphi on Apollon's orders , where it was brought up by the priestess. Ion became the progenitor of the Ionians . Mostly, however, it is said that he was the son of Krëusa's consort Xuthos .

Hermes turn it is to the Kephalos have given birth; other sources name Herse as the mother of Cephalus.

Krëusa and Xuthos

As ruler of Iolkos , Xuthos was driven out by his brothers Aeolus and Doros ; Erechtheus granted him asylum and gave him his daughter Krëusa to wife.

The marriage initially remained childless. Only after a pilgrimage to Delphi were the couple Doros and Achaios born, the ancestors of the Dorians and the Achaeans . (However, there is a contradiction here to the above genealogy, according to which Doros is said to have been a brother of Xuthos.) Diomede and Ion are named as further descendants .

literature

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 ).
Richard Engelmann : Erechtheus . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 1.1, Leipzig 1886, Col. 1296-1300 ( digitized version ).

Individual evidence

↑ Karl Kerényi : The mythology of the Greeks . Vol. II: The Heroes Stories . dtv, Munich 1984, p. 174, ISBN 3-423-01346-X .
^ Heinrich Wilhelm Stoll : Ion 1) . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 2.1, Leipzig 1894, Col. 290-292 ( digitized version ).
↑ Pausanias 7, 1, 2 ( original Greek text , English translation ).

[1] Karl Kerényi : The mythology of the Greeks . Vol. II: The Heroes Stories . dtv, Munich 1984, p. 174, ISBN 3-423-01346-X .

[2] Heinrich Wilhelm Stoll : Ion 1) . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 2.1, Leipzig 1894, Col. 290-292 ( digitized version ).

[3] Pausanias 7, 1, 2 ( original Greek text , English translation ).