Thoas (King of Tauris)

Thoas ( Greek  Θόας , the Fast ), son of Borysthenes was in the Greek mythology of the king Taurer on the peninsula of Crimea , a neighboring nation of the Scythians , in whose country Artemis was worshiped.

Iphigenia , rescued from sacrificial death, was transferred there by Artemis as a priestess. In the kingdom of Thoas there was a cruel custom of sacrificing strangers stranded on the shore to the goddess Artemis. Orestes and Pylades landed on the coast and were to be sacrificed in the temple. However, Iphigenia recognized her brother, freed the two and together the three fled across the sea. Since they had stolen the statue of Artemis, Chryses was to follow them and bring it back. Thoas himself was deterred from the pursuit of the two by Athena . When Chryses caught up with the fugitives, he learned that he was Orestes' half-brother. Therefore he returned to Thoas without having achieved anything and killed him. A temple of Artemis was specially built in Argos for the statue of Artemis .

Thoas, the king of the Taurians, is a main character in Euripides in Iphigenia among the Taurians as well as in Goethe's Iphigenia and Gluck's opera Iphigenie auf Tauris .

swell

• Library of Apollodorus , 9, 27.
• Antoninus Liberalis , Metamorphoses , 27.
• Euripides , Iphigenia in the Taurerland .
• Gaius Valerius Flaccus , Argonautica .
• Hyginus Mythographus , Fabulae , 120; 121.

literature

• Johannes Irmscher , Renate Johne (Hrsgg.): Lexikon der Antike , page 558 Tauris ; Bibliographical Institute Leipzig. ISBN 3-323-00026-9

Web links

• Iphigenie in Tauris from "Legends of Classical Antiquity", at www.sagen.at.
• Iphigenia in Tauris in the Gutenberg project.