Alectryon (from

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

: , ''Alektruṓn'' , literally meaning "

rooster The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated subspecies of the red junglefowl (''Gallus gallus''), originally native to Southeast Asia. It was first domesticated around 8,000 years ago and is now one of the most common and w ...

") 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 ...

, was a young soldier who was assigned by

Ares Ares (; , ''Árēs'' ) is the List of Greek deities, Greek god of war god, war and courage. He is one of the Twelve Olympians, and the son of Zeus and Hera. The Greeks were ambivalent towards him. He embodies the physical valor necessary for ...

, the god of war, to guard the outside of his bedroom door while the god took part in a love affair with the love goddess

Aphrodite Aphrodite (, ) is an Greek mythology, ancient Greek goddess associated with love, lust, beauty, pleasure, passion, procreation, and as her syncretism, syncretised Roman counterpart , desire, Sexual intercourse, sex, fertility, prosperity, and ...

. Alectryon however failed at his job when he fell asleep, allowing

Helios In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, Helios (; ; Homeric Greek: ) is the god who personification, personifies the Sun. His name is also Latinized as Helius, and he is often given the epithets Hyperion ("the one above") an ...

, the god of the Sun, to see the two lovers and alert

Hephaestus Hephaestus ( , ; wikt:Hephaestus#Alternative forms, eight spellings; ) is the Greek god of artisans, blacksmiths, carpenters, craftsmen, fire, metallurgy, metalworking, sculpture and volcanoes.Walter Burkert, ''Greek Religion'' 1985: III.2. ...

, the husband of Aphrodite, who then caught the two lovers in the act. Enraged with Alectryon's incompetence, Ares changed him into a rooster in anger. In his effort to reconcile, Alectryon never skipped on alarming people of Helios's arrival thereafter. The story is an aetiological myth that attempts to explain both the origin of the roosters and the reason why they crow each morning at dawn, warning of the

Sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as visible light a ...

approaching. The myth is not mentioned by

Homer Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...

, who first related the story of Ares and Aphrodite's infidelity in his ''

Odyssey The ''Odyssey'' (; ) is one of two major epics of ancient Greek literature attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest surviving works of literature and remains popular with modern audiences. Like the ''Iliad'', the ''Odyssey'' is divi ...

'', but rather it was interpolated later by various authors.

Mythology

According to

Lucian Lucian of Samosata (Λουκιανὸς ὁ Σαμοσατεύς, 125 – after 180) was a Hellenized Syrian satirist, rhetorician and pamphleteer who is best known for his characteristic tongue-in-cheek style, with which he frequently ridi ...

, Alectryon was said to have been 'an adolescent boy, beloved of Ares, who kept the god company at drinking parties, overindulged with him, and was his companion in lovemaking'.

, fearing that his affair with

would be found out and then he would be told on by Helios, the sun god, especially because of his suspicions that he would tell

, the god of forgery and the husband of Aphrodite, commanded Alectryon to stand outside his door and watch for

, the god of the sun who saw everything, or anyone else, to bear witness to his affair. So Alectryon stood guard outside of his room as the two made love. But one day he fell asleep during watch duty and Helios discovered them the next morning. The sun-god then informed Hephaestus, to the choices of the two, who then created a net to ensnare and then shame them. Furious, Ares punished Alectryon by transforming him into a

which never forgets to announce the rising of the sun in the morning by its crowing, his own way of apologizing to Ares for falling asleep on the job, but this failed to make amends.

Libanius Libanius (; ) was a teacher of rhetoric of the Sophist school in the Eastern Roman Empire. His prolific writings make him one of the best documented teachers of higher education in the ancient world and a critical source of history of the Greek ...

, '' Progymnasmata'
2.26
/ref> According to Pausanias, the rooster is Helios' sacred animal, always crowing when he is about to rise.

Interpretation

Both the words Alectryon and Halcyon might have been corrupted from Halaka, one of the old Persian appellations of the sun. In the '

Vendidad The Vendidad /ˈvendi'dæd/, also known as Videvdat, Videvdad or Juddēvdād, is a collection of texts within the greater compendium of the Avesta. However, unlike the other texts of the Avesta, the ''Vendidad'' is an ecclesiastical code, not a ...

' it is said that the sacred bird Parodars, called by men ''kahrkatak'', raises its voice at the dawn; and in the

Bundahishn The ''Bundahishn'' (Middle Persian: , "Primal Creation") is an encyclopedic collection of beliefs about Zoroastrian cosmology written in the Book Pahlavi script. The original name of the work is not known. It is one of the most important extant ...

, the sun is spoken of as Halaka, the cock, the enemy of darkness and evil, which flee before his crowing.

Notes

References

, ''The Dream or the Cock'' in ''The Downward Journey or The Tyrant. Zeus Catechized. Zeus Rants. The Dream or The Cock. Prometheus. Icaromenippus or The Sky-man. Timon or The Misanthrope. Charon or The Inspectors. Philosophies for Sale. Translated by A. M. Harmon.'' Loeb Classical Library 54. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1915. * Pausanias, ''Pausanias Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes.'' Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918
Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
* Aken, Dr. A.R.A. van. (1961). ''Elseviers Mythologische Encyclopedie''. Amsterdam: Elsevier. * Bartelink, Dr. G.J.M. (1988). ''Prisma van de mythologie''. Utrecht: Het Spectrum. *

Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology The ''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'' is a biographical dictionary of classical antiquity, edited by William Smith (lexicographer), William Smith and originally published in London by John Taylor (English publisher), Tayl ...

* Vollmer, Wilhelm. (1874). ''Wörterbuch der Mythologie''. Stuttgart, S. 27–28. * ''Pierer's Universal-Lexikon'', Band 1. (1857). Altenburg, p. 284. {{Metamorphoses in Greco-Roman mythology Metamorphoses into birds in Greek mythology Mythological galliforms LGBTQ themes in Greek mythology Deeds of Aphrodite Helios in mythology Deeds of Ares

Mythology

Interpretation

See also

Notes

References