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 ...
, Nannacus (also Annacus; ancient Greek: Νάννακος, Άννακός) was a legendary king of
Phrygia
In classical antiquity, Phrygia ( ; , ''Phrygía'') was a kingdom in the west-central part of Anatolia, in what is now Asian Turkey, centered on the Sangarios River.
Stories of the heroic age of Greek mythology tell of several legendary Ph ...
before the
Flood
A flood is an overflow of water (list of non-water floods, or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are of significant con ...
of
Deucalion
In Greek mythology, Deucalion (; ) was the son of Prometheus; ancient sources name his mother as Clymene (mythology), Clymene, Hesione (Oceanid), Hesione, or Pronoia (mythology), Pronoia.A Scholia, scholium to ''Odyssey'' 10.2 (=''Catalogue of W ...
. His city was
Iconium
Konya is a major city in central Turkey, on the southwestern edge of the Central Anatolian Plateau, and is the capital of Konya Province. During antiquity and into Seljuk times it was known as Iconium. In 19th-century accounts of the city in En ...
in modern
Turkey
Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...
.
Flood prediction
Nannacus himself had predicted the Flood and had organized public prayers to avert this disaster. These prayers were accompanied by lamentations and from this came the proverbial phrase "weep like Nannacus" (ancient Greek: τα Ναννάκου κλαϋσομαι).
The earliest attestation of this proverb is from the third century BC.
According to
Stephanus of Byzantium
Stephanus or Stephen of Byzantium (; , ''Stéphanos Byzántios''; centuryAD) was a Byzantine grammarian and the author of an important geographical dictionary entitled ''Ethnica'' (). Only meagre fragments of the dictionary survive, but the epit ...
, Nannacus lived three hundred years.
"I will cry like Nannacus"
- Suda On Line - www.cs.uky.edu There was an oracle that said that when Nannacus died, all his people would perish. Indeed, shortly after the death of Nannacus (whom his subjects greatly mourned), the Deluge of Deucalion came and thus the oracle was fulfilled.
At the end of the flood, Prometheus
In Greek mythology, Prometheus (; , , possibly meaning "forethought")Smith"Prometheus". is a Titans, Titan. He is best known for defying the Olympian gods by taking theft of fire, fire from them and giving it to humanity in the form of technol ...
, on the orders of Zeus
Zeus (, ) is the chief deity of the List of Greek deities, Greek pantheon. He is a sky father, sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, who rules as king of the gods on Mount Olympus.
Zeus is the child ...
, again created "images" (Greek: εἰκόνες/''eikones'') of people and revived them, from where the name of the place Iconium
Konya is a major city in central Turkey, on the southwestern edge of the Central Anatolian Plateau, and is the capital of Konya Province. During antiquity and into Seljuk times it was known as Iconium. In 19th-century accounts of the city in En ...
(Ἰκόνιον) arose.
Mythological parallels
Also in Asia Minor
Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...
, the city of Apamea (Phrygia)
Apamea Cibotus, Apamea ad Maeandrum (on the Maeander), Apamea or Apameia (, ) was an ancient city in Anatolia founded in the 3rd century BC by Antiochus I Soter, who named it after his mother Apama. It was in Hellenistic Phrygia, but became part ...
(Apamea Cibotus) had boasted of its connection to the Flood. According to James Frazer
Sir James George Frazer (; 1 January 1854 – 7 May 1941) was a Scottish social anthropologist and folkloristJosephson-Storm (2017), Chapter 5. influential in the early stages of the modern studies of mythology and comparative religion.
Per ...
,
: ts name"... Cibotos, which the city assumed, is the Greek word for chest or ark; and on coins of the city, minted in the reigns of Severus, Macrinus
Marcus Opellius Macrinus (; – June 218) was a Roman emperor who reigned from April 217 to June 218, jointly with his young son Diadumenianus. Born in Caesarea (now called Cherchell, in modern Algeria), in the Roman province of Mauretania ...
, and Philip the Elder (ruled in 244-249 AD), we see the ark floating on water with two passengers in it, whose figures appear from the waist upwards; beside the ark two other human figures, one male and the other female, are represented standing; and lastly, on the top of the chest are perched two birds, one of them said to be a raven and the other a dove carrying an olive-branch. ... the name 'Noe', the Greek equivalent of Noah
Noah (; , also Noach) appears as the last of the Antediluvian Patriarchs (Bible), patriarchs in the traditions of Abrahamic religions. His story appears in the Hebrew Bible (Book of Genesis, chapters 5–9), the Quran and Baháʼí literature, ...
, is inscribed on the ark. No doubt, the two human figures represent Noah and his wife twice over, first in the ark, and afterwards outside of it."Enoch
Enoch ( ; ''Henṓkh'') is a biblical figure and Patriarchs (Bible), patriarch prior to Noah's flood, and the son of Jared (biblical figure), Jared and father of Methuselah. He was of the Antediluvian period in the Hebrew Bible.
The text of t ...
who lived before the flood for three hundred and sixty-five years and was then removed from the world in a mysterious fashion.
See also
*Ancient Greek flood myths
Greek mythology describes various great floods throughout ancient history. Differing sources refer to the flood of Ogyges, the flood of Deucalion, and the flood of Dardanus, though often with similar or even contradictory details. Like most flood ...
*Genesis flood narrative
The Genesis flood narrative (chapters 6–9 of the Book of Genesis) is a Hebrew flood myth. It tells of God's decision to return the universe to its pre- creation state of watery chaos and remake it through the microcosm of Noah's ark.
The B ...
*Phrygians
The Phrygians (Greek: Φρύγες, ''Phruges'' or ''Phryges'') were an ancient Indo-European speaking people who inhabited central-western Anatolia (modern-day Turkey) in antiquity.
Ancient Greek authors used "Phrygian" as an umbrella term t ...
Notes
Bibliography
* {{cite journal , last=Frazer , first=James George , title=Ancient Stories of a Great Flood. , journal=The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland , url=https://archive.org/stream/folkloreinoldte00frazgoog/folkloreinoldte00frazgoog_djvu.txt , publisher=JSTOR , volume=46 , year=1916 , pages=231–283 , issn=0307-3114 , doi=10.2307/2843393 , jstor=2843393
* Dillmann August
Die Genesis Erklärt.
Leipzig, 1892. p.115
* Jacob Bryant
A new system: or, An analysis of ancient mythology.
1807. vol. III, рages 12-14
Kings of Phrygia
Flood myths
Greek mythological heroes