In the time of Pandiôn, who succeeded to Erichthonius, Dionysus and
Dêmêtêr both came into Attica: the latter was received by Keleos at
Eleusis.[467] Pandiôn married the nymph Zeuxippê, and had twin sons,
Erechtheus and Butês, and two daughters, Proknê and Philomêla. The two
latter are the subjects of a memorable and well-known legend. Pandiôn
having received aid in repelling the Thêbans from Têreus, king of
Thrace, gave him his daughter Proknê in marriage, by whom he had a son,
Itys. The beautiful Philomêla, going to visit her sister, inspired
the barbarous Thracian with an irresistible passion: he violated her
person, confined her in a distant pastoral hut, and pretended that she
was dead, cutting out her tongue to prevent her from revealing the
truth. After a long interval, Philomêla found means to acquaint her
sister of the cruel deed which had been perpetrated; she wove into a
garment words describing her melancholy condition, and despatched it
by a trusty messenger. Proknê, overwhelmed with sorrow and anger, took
advantage of the free egress enjoyed by women during the Bacchanalian
festival to go and release her sister: the two sisters then revenged
themselves upon Têreus by killing the boy Itys, and serving him up
for his father to eat: after the meal had been finished, the horrid
truth was revealed to him. Têreus snatched a hatchet to put Proknê to
death: she fled, along with Philomêla, and all the three were changed
into birds—Proknê became a swallow, Philomêla a nightingale, and
Têreus an hoopoe.[468] This tale, so popular with the poets, and so
illustrative of the general character of Grecian legend, is not less
remarkable in another point of view—that the great historian Thucydidês
seems to allude to it as an historical fact,[469] not however directly
mentioning the final metamorphosis.
[467] The mythe of the visit of Dêmêtêr to Eleusis, on which
occasion she vouchsafed to teach her holy rites to the leading
Eleusinians, is more fully touched upon in a previous chapter
(see _ante_, p. 50).
[468] Apollod. iii. 14, 8; Æsch. Supplic. 61; Soph. Elektr. 107;
Ovid, Metamorph. vi. 425-670. Hyginus gives the fable with some
additional circumstances, fab. 45. Antoninus Liberalis (Narr.
11), or Bœus, from whom he copies, has composed a new narrative
by combining together the names of Pandareos and Aêdôn, as given
in the Odyssey, xix. 523, and the adventures of the old Attic
fable. The hoopoe still continued the habit of chasing the
nightingale; it was to the Athenians a present fact. See Schol.
Aristoph. Aves, 212.
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