Merope (wife of Creon)
Merope ( Greek Μερόπη ) is in Greek mythology the wife of Creon , the king of Corinth , and mother of Hippotes and Glauke , who is also called Creusa.
Creon's wife appears specifically as Merope only in an inscription on the volute crater of the underworld painter in the Munich Collection of Antiquities (inventory no. 3296), dating from around 330/10 BC. And was found in Canosa di Puglia in 1813 . Merope hurries from the left towards the little temple shown in the center of the image field.
It depicts Medea's revenge on Creon and Creusa. Because when Jason came to Corinth, Creon promised him his daughter to wife, whereupon Jason separated from Medea. In revenge, Medea sent Kreusa or Glauke an enchanted robe or a crown. When Creon helped his daughter put on the dress, the dress caught fire and Glauke and Creon were burned. According to Hyginus, the gift was a crown and the headdress on the Munich vase depicts the fatal gift that her brother is still trying to tear off his head.
In literature, Merope, wife of Creon, appears on the one hand in Medea: Voices by Christa Wolf , on the other hand incorrectly in the film Edipo Re - Bed of Violence by Pier Paolo Pasolini , since the wife of Creon , king of Thebes , is meant here, which is called Eurydice in the tradition .
literature
- Heinrich Wilhelm Stoll : Merope 12 . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 2.2, Leipzig 1897, column 2839 ( digitized version ).