Battus (means "tongue-tied") was a figure in
Greek mythology
Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories conc ...
who witnessed
Hermes stealing
Apollo
Apollo is one of the Twelve Olympians, Olympian deities in Ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek and Ancient Roman religion, Roman religion and Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology. Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, mu ...
's cattle in
Maenalus in
Arcadia.
Hermes gave him a
heifer on condition Battus kept the theft secret. On returning in disguise, Hermes offered to reward Battus if he would tell him the location of the cattle; Battus did so, and for his greed was punished by being
turned into stone.
Notes
References
*
Graves, Robert, ''The Greek Myths'', Harmondsworth, London, England, Penguin Books, 1960.
*Graves, Robert, ''The Greek Myths: The Complete and Definitive Edition.'' Penguin Books Limited. 2017.
*
Grimal, Pierre, ''The Dictionary of Classical Mythology'', Wiley-Blackwell, 1996.
Externasl links
*
Deeds of Hermes
Metamorphoses characters
Metamorphoses into inanimate objects in Greek mythology
People in Greek mythology
{{Greek-myth-stub