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 ...

, Byssa () is a

Koan A ( ; ; zh, c=公案, p=gōng'àn ; ; ) is a story, dialogue, question, or statement from Chinese Chan Buddhist lore, supplemented with commentaries, that is used in Zen Buddhist practice in different ways. The main goal of practice in Z ...

woman who refused to honour the deities

Artemis In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, Artemis (; ) is the goddess of the hunting, hunt, the wilderness, wild animals, transitions, nature, vegetation, childbirth, Kourotrophos, care of children, and chastity. In later tim ...

Athena Athena or Athene, often given the epithet Pallas, is an ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft who was later syncretism, syncretized with the Roman goddess Minerva. Athena was regarde ...

and

Hermes Hermes (; ) is an Olympian deity in ancient Greek religion and mythology considered the herald of the gods. He is also widely considered the protector of human heralds, travelers, thieves, merchants, and orators. He is able to move quic ...

, and was turned into a bird for her impiety. Her tale survives in the works of

Antoninus Liberalis Antoninus Liberalis () was an Ancient Greek grammarian who probably flourished between the second and third centuries AD. He is known as the author of ''The Metamorphoses'', a collection of tales that offers new variants of already familiar myths ...

Family

Byssa was the daughter of

Eumelus Eumelus ( ''Eúmēlos'' means "rich in sheep") was the name of: Mythology *Eumelus ( Gadeirus), the younger twin brother of Atlas in Plato's myth of Atlantis, and the son of Poseidon and Cleito, daughter of the autochthon Evenor and Leucippe. ...

and the sister of Meropis and Agron.

Mythology

Byssa with her family dwelled with Meropis on

Kos Kos or Cos (; ) is a Greek island, which is part of the Dodecanese island chain in the southeastern Aegean Sea. Kos is the third largest island of the Dodecanese, after Rhodes and Karpathos; it has a population of 37,089 (2021 census), making ...

island, and though they honored the local Koan goddess, they refused to venerate

and

. Every time the other islanders would invite them to a feast or sacrifice in honour of those gods they would refuse, on account of them hating grey eyes, owls, a goddess who was out at night, and thieves. Artemis, Athena and Hermes paid them a visit one night, disguised as two countryside maidens and a shepherd. Hermes persuaded Agron and Eumelus to sacrifice to Hermes, Byssa and Meropis to the goddesses. They still denied however, so all four were turned into birds. Byssa became a ''byssa'' bird, sacred to the goddess

Leucothea In Greek mythology, Leucothea (; ), sometimes also called Leucothoe (), was a Water deity, sea goddess. Myths surrounding Leucothea typically concern her original identity, either as Ino (Greek mythology), Ino or Halia of Rhodes, Halia, and her t ...

15
/ref> It has been suggested to be some sort of horned owl, given its resemblance to the words ''buza'', ''buxa'' and ''buas'', but Francis Celoria noted that a bird sacred to Leucothea would surely have to be some sort of seabird, a

shearwater Shearwaters are medium-sized long-winged seabirds in the petrel family Procellariidae. They have a global marine distribution, but are most common in temperate and cold waters, and are pelagic outside the breeding season. Description These tube ...

or a

gull Gulls, or colloquially seagulls, are seabirds of the subfamily Larinae. They are most closely related to terns and skimmers, distantly related to auks, and even more distantly related to waders. Until the 21st century, most gulls were placed ...

References

Bibliography

, ''The Metamorphoses of Antoninus Liberalis'' translated by Francis Celoria (Routledge 1992)
Online version at the Topos Text Project.
* {{Authority control Aegean Sea in mythology Deeds of Artemis Deeds of Athena Deeds of Hermes Metamorphoses into birds in Greek mythology

Family

Mythology

See also

References

Bibliography