Rhesos

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rhesos ( Greek  Ῥῆσος Rhḗsos ) is a figure in Greek mythology . As King of the Thracians and an ally of Troy , he was killed during the Trojan War .

The Rhesos story

Rhesus was a Thracian king, son of Eioneus. He was very rich. His chariot was decorated with gold and silver, his armor was made of gold. In the tenth and final year of the Trojan War, he came to the aid of the trapped Trojans with his men. Such a strong and well-rested task force could have shifted the fortunes of war in favor of the Trojans, who were already gaining the upper hand at that time. But there was never any fighting. After the arrival of the Thracians, the Trojans camped outside the city to prevent the Greeks from escaping. However, after the Greeks had intercepted the Trojan spy Dolon and learned from him the solution and the camp structure of the Trojans, they first wanted to kill the leading Trojans that night. But this was not in the sense of the gods, so they brought the Thracian camp into play as a goal. Under the protection and guidance of the goddess Athena , who was on the side of the Greeks, the two Greek heroes Odysseus and Diomedes sneaked into the Thracian camp on the first night after their arrival. Here they shared their tasks:

Odysseus: Do you want to kill the Thracian people, Diomed? Should i? Then you must take care of the horse team.
Diomedes: I want to kill her; you lead the horses away! Because you know how to do fine things, sly one! You put the man where he is best

After the agreement, Diomedes killed many sleeping Thracians and in the end their king Rhesus during a difficult dream. Odysseus meanwhile stole the famous horses, the most beautiful, the fastest and the greatest of the king. Stealing them was particularly important, as an oracle had foretold that the Trojans would have become invincible if the horses had been watered in the Skamandros River .

Written tradition

The Rhesos story has come down to us in two versions. The older tradition contains the tenth book of the Iliad , which the analysts believe is a long, single poem. It was probably not discovered until the sixth century BC. And later added to the complete works. Thus the authorship of Homer or the poet who wrote the Iliad as much as possible is probably excluded. The second tradition took place within the work of Euripides . But this was already controversial in antiquity as a poet of tragedy. Today philologists are certain that the drama was wrongly included in the canon of Euripides dramas. Nevertheless, the wrong assignment was lucky, as works by Euripides, as recognized classics, offered a greater chance for the survival of antiquity. The text is dated to the early fourth century BC. Dated. Stylistically, he is based on the model of Euripides. It is known, however, that Euripides himself wrote a tragedy entitled "Rhesos".

Other poets also studied the subject. So Pindar wrote a choir poem about it, but it was not preserved. From the middle 5th century BC. Another completely lost tragedy followed. It can be assumed that there were other literary adaptations that are no longer known today.

Pictorial representations

Situla in Naples

There are only three representations from antiquity, all of them from the area of Greek vase painting . It is noticeable that Attic vases , which generally show most of the figuratively transmitted myths, are not known to depict the Rhesos myth. This may have unknown reasons, a question of taste or zeitgeist, or simply to do with the chance tradition of the vases. The three representations have all been preserved in Apulian vase painting . All three known vases are dated between 360 and 340 BC. To date. It is possible that the myth was particularly popular at the time.

Rhesos crater

The chronologically earliest vase, a situla , is now in the Naples National Archaeological Museum . The story after the killing is shown here. Diomedes, below left, and Odysseus, below in the middle with the horses, are already on the run. In the upper part of the picture you can see several dead Thracians lying, which are clearly recognizable as dead and not as sleeping people. The night in which the event takes place is not recognizable in this representation. What is striking, however, is the concerned look that Odysseus throws once more into the Thracian camp. The vase is attributed to the Lykurgos painter .

The other two vases are to be added later. Both are volute craters , which are now in the Berlin Collection of Antiquities . They have several things in common with the older vase. In all three cases the image field is divided into two registers. In the upper one you can see the dead or sleeping Thracians. If, in the first case, they have all been killed and the action is over, the craters are only just beginning. On the left you can see dead warriors, while Diomedes is on his way to the others on the right and above all to Rhesos. The middle vase comes from the closest circle of the Iliupersis painter , the third designed with the Darius painter, one of the most important vase painters in southern Italy. The vase of the Darius painter belongs to a group of magnificent grave vases from the Darius underworld workshop .

Namesake

Jean Baptiste Audebert (1759–1800), a French naturalist and painter, named an Indian primate species after this king the rhesus monkey . According to Audebert, this designation has no deeper meaning. The figure indirectly gave its name to the rhesus factor in human blood.

Text editions and translations

  • Dietrich Ebener (Ed.): Rhesos. Tragedy of an unknown poet (= writings and sources of the Old World. Vol. 19). Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1966 (edition with translation)

literature

Web links

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

Remarks

  1. ^ Rhesos 621–626, translation by Wilhelm Binder
  2. ↑ http://www.stefan.cc/books/antike/rhesos.html
  3. ↑ Euripides Scholien 528
  4. ↑ Inventory number H 2910
  5. ↑ Macaca mulatta (rhesus monkey) in the Animal Diversity Web