In
Greek mythology, Celeus ( ; grc, Κελεός, Keleós) is a
Cretan man who attempted to steal from
Zeus, the king of gods, and was punished for it. He was transformed into an woodpecker for attempting to steal from him.
Mythology
The Cretan Celeus and three other men,
Cerberus,
Aegolius
''Aegolius'' is a genus of small true owls. The genus name is from Latin, ''aegolius'', is a type of screech owl that was thought to be a bird of ill omen.
Taxonomy
The genus ''Aegolius'' was introduced in 1829 by the German naturalist Johann J ...
and
Laius
In Greek mythology, King Laius (pronounced ), or Laios ( el, Λάϊος) of Thebes was a key personage in the Theban founding myth.
Family
Laius was the son of Labdacus. He was the father, by Jocasta, of Oedipus, who killed him.
Mytholog ...
entered the sacred cave of
Zeus in Crete where the young god had been born and brought up with the aim to steal some of the sacred honey produced by Zeus's bee nurses. Zeus thundered and stripped them of their brazen armors. He meant to kill them all, but
Themis and the
Fates advised Zeus against doing that, saying the cave as a holy place should not have anyone be killed inside it. So Zeus turned them all into birds instead; Celeus became an woodpecker.
[ Smith, s.v]
CeleusLaius 2
/ref> Celeus shares a name with a mythical king of Eleusis
Elefsina ( el, Ελευσίνα ''Elefsina''), or Eleusis (; Ancient Greek: ''Eleusis'') is a suburban city and Communities and Municipalities of Greece, municipality in the West Attica regional unit of Greece. It is situated about northwest ...
.
Legacy
A woodpecker species native to the Americas
The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World.
Along with th ...
is named Celeus.
See also
* Pandareus
* Tantalus
* Pyrrhus
References
Bibliography
* Antoninus Liberalis
Antoninus Liberalis ( el, Ἀντωνῖνος Λιβεράλις) was an Ancient Greek grammarian who probably flourished between AD 100 and 300.
His only surviving work is the ''Metamorphoses'' (Μεταμορφώσεων Συναγωγή, ''Me ...
, ''The Metamorphoses of Antoninus Liberalis'' translated by Francis Celoria (Routledge 1992)
Online version at the Topos Text Project.
*
*
* William Smith, ''A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'', London. John Murray: printed by Spottiswoode and Co., New-Street Square and Parliament Street, 1873.
Cretan characters in Greek mythology
Deeds of Zeus
Metamorphoses into birds in Greek mythology
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