Teumessian fox
The Teumessian fox ( ancient Greek ἀλώπηξ Τευμησσία , alōpēx Teumēssīa ) is a figure from Greek mythology . He is described as a man-eating fox sent by the gods to punish Thebes for an iniquity committed by the descendants of Kadmos . Dionysus raised him on Mount Teumessos , which lies between Thebes and Chalkis , near Ypato (Hypatos). From here he devastated the area everywhere, tore up people and animals, and could only be temporarily appeased by accusing him of a boy from the city as a victim every month. The fox was also divinely ordained that a hunter could never catch him.
When Amphitryon , the king of Tiryns , asked for help from Creon , the king of Thebes, in the war against the Teleboer , Creon promised him this if in return he would help in the hunt for the Teumessian fox. But the hunt was unsuccessful. So Amphitryon went to Cephalus and promised a share of the spoils if he used his hunting dog Lailaps on the fox. Finally, Zeus put an end to the endless duel between the fox, which no one could catch, and the dog, which no one could escape , by turning both animals to stone. According to a version handed down by the Boeotian poet Korinna , Oedipus killed the Teumessian fox.
swell
- Antoninus Liberalis , Metamorphoses 41
- Library of Apollodor 2, 4, 6–7
- Ovid , Metamorphoses 7,763-793
- Pausanias , travels in Greece 9,19,1
literature
- Wolfgang Schultz : Teumessischer Fuchs . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 5, Leipzig 1924, Col. 429-435 ( digitized version ).
Remarks
- ↑ Received as a fragment in the Scholion ad Euripides , Phoinissen 26.