Peisidike (daughter of Lepethymnos)

Peisidike (ancient Greek Πεισιδίκη) is a daughter of King Lepethymnos of Methymna on Lesbos in Greek mythology .

Peisidike plays the main role in one of the 36 stories of the Erotika Pathemata ( Eng . Love afflictions ) by the Hellenistic poet Parthenios of Nicaea , who draws on a poem about the founding history of Lesbos (the unnamed author of the poem was perhaps Apollonios of Rhodes ). According to this representation, Achilles sailed to the island of Lesbos and devastated its cities; only Methymna opposed it bitterly, so that it could not be conquered so quickly. The daughter of the king of this city, Peisidice, saw Achilles from the wall and fell in love with him. Through her wet nurse she let him know that she would hand over her hometown to him in return for a marriage vow. The courted agreed to their condition and was able to seize the place with their help. But instead of taking her as his wife, he ordered his soldiers to stone her for treason.

In an older version, reported among others by Hesiod and preserved in the scholias of Homer's Iliad (VI, 35), the same story took place in another city, namely in Monenia. Later the name of this city was changed to Pedasos. In a slight modification of Parthenios' description, according to the Homer scholias, a maiden of Monenia was in love with Achilles besieging the city and tossed him an apple into which she had carved her message, whereupon he held out until the conquest. According to Scholion B (to Iliad VI, 35), the original name of this virgin was not Peisidike, but Pedasa , and the legend should explain the renaming of the city from Monenia to Pedasos after the name of the virgin. (In the other scholia (A and TL) there is no trace of the virgin's original name being Pedasa .) The story was later transferred to Methymna, which involved a change of name for the female protagonist to Peisidike.

literature

Hans Oppermann : Peisidike 1). In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume XIX, 1, Stuttgart 1937, Col. 148 f.

Remarks

↑ Parthenios of Nicaea , Erotika Pathemata 21.
↑ Hesiod , Fragment 85 ed. Rzach.
^ Hans Oppermann: Peisidike 1). In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume XIX, 1, Stuttgart 1937, Col. 148 f.

[1] Parthenios of Nicaea , Erotika Pathemata 21.

[2] Hesiod , Fragment 85 ed. Rzach.

[3] Hans Oppermann: Peisidike 1). In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume XIX, 1, Stuttgart 1937, Col. 148 f.