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 ...

, Chelidon () is a minor figure, a noblewoman from either the city of

Miletus Miletus (Ancient Greek: Μίλητος, Mílētos) was an influential ancient Greek city on the western coast of Anatolia, near the mouth of the Maeander River in present day Turkey. Renowned in antiquity for its wealth, maritime power, and ex ...

or Colophon in an

Anatolia 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 ...

n variant of the story of

Philomela Philomela () or Philomel (; , ; ) is a minor figure in Greek mythology who is frequently invoked as a direct and figurative symbol in literary and artistic works in the Western canon. Family Philomela was the younger of two daughters of P ...

, though she might have had an independent origin in

Attica Attica (, ''Attikḗ'' (Ancient Greek) or , or ), or the Attic Peninsula, is a historical region that encompasses the entire Athens metropolitan area, which consists of the city of Athens, the capital city, capital of Greece and the core cit ...

Family

According to

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 ...

, Chelidon was the daughter of

Pandareus In Greek mythology, Pandareus () is the son of Merops and a nymph. His residence is usually given as either EphesusAntoninus Liberalis11as cited in Boeus' ''Ornithogonia'' or Miletus. Pausanias10.30.2/ref> Pandareus married Harmothoë and had s ...

by his (unnamed) wife and sister to

Aëdon Aëdon () was in Greek mythology, the daughter of Pandareus of Ephesus. According to Homer, she was the wife of Amphion and Zethus, Zethus, and the mother of Itylus.Homer, ''Odyssey'19.517/ref> Aëdon features in two different stories, one set i ...

and an unnamed brother.

Eustathius of Thessalonica Eustathius of Thessalonica (or Eustathios of Thessalonike; ; ) was a Byzantine Greek scholar and Archbishop of Thessalonica and is a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church. He is most noted for his stand against the sack of Thessalonica by the No ...

wrote that the name of Pandareus's wife was Harmothoë, although he does not list Chelidon among their daughters (Aëdon, Cleothera and Merope) and mentions no brother. According to Pausanias, the two other sisters were called Cameiro and

Clytia In Greek mythology, the name Clytie (Ancient Greek: Κλυτίη, Ionic) or Clytia (, Attic and other dialects) may refer to: *Clytie (Oceanid), known for her unrequited love for Helios. Out of jealousy, Clytie arranged the death of Leucothoe, ...

. Both

Hesiod Hesiod ( or ; ''Hēsíodos''; ) was an ancient Greece, Greek poet generally thought to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer.M. L. West, ''Hesiod: Theogony'', Oxford University Press (1966), p. 40.Jasper Gr ...

and

Sappho Sappho (; ''Sapphṓ'' ; Aeolic Greek ''Psápphō''; ) was an Ancient Greek poet from Eresos or Mytilene on the island of Lesbos. Sappho is known for her lyric poetry, written to be sung while accompanied by music. In ancient times, Sapph ...

wrote that the swallow (Chelidon) is the daughter of the Athenian king

Pandion I In Greek mythology, Pandion I (; Ancient Greek: Πανδίων) was a legendary King of Athens, the son and heir to Erichthonius of Athens and his wife, the naiad Praxithea. Through his father, he was the grandson of the god Hephaestus. Family ...

, the father of Philomela.

Mythology

After her sister Aëdon won a bet against her husband

Polytechnus In Greek mythology, Polytechnus () is a carpenter from Colophon, in an Anatolian variant of the story of Tereus. He is the husband of Aëdon and brother-in-law of Chelidon. Mythology Polytechnus was a carpenter, and at some point he was given ...

, Polytechnus was forced to find his wife a female slave as promised. He went to his wife's father Pandareus, claiming that Aëdon wanted to see her sister. Chelidon thus left with Polytechnus to visit Aëdon, but on the way there he forced himself on the maiden while she cried and prayed to

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 ...

for help. He then cut her hair short, dressed her up as a slave, and terrorized her against telling anyone what had happened. He then gave her to Aëdon as a slave. Aëdon did not suspect anything and for a time Chelidon suffered in silence, until one day she overheard Chelidon lamenting her cruel fate. Enraged at the treatment of her sister, Aëdon decided to avenge her. The two sisters then killed

Itys In Greek mythology, Itys () is a minor mythological character, the son of Tereus, a king of Thrace, by his Athenian wife Procne. Itys was murdered by his own mother and served to be consumed during dinner by his father, as part of a revenge pl ...

, Aëdon's son by Polytechnus, and fed him to his unwitting father while they ran back to their own. Polytechnus was not slow in figuring out what had happened and was soon hunting them down, but Pandareus protected his daughters and had Polytechnus tied up, smeared with honey and left to the mercy of flocks of flies. But Aëdon, feeling sorry for her husband, kept the flies off of him. Angered over what they perceived as her betrayal, Pandareus, his unnamed wife and son attacked her, so

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 ...

decided to turn them all into birds. Chelidon, like Philomela, became a swallow, a singing bird. Artemis bid that Chelidon would always dwell near humans in her new avian life.

11
/ref>

Origin

The story of Chelidon seems to be an Anatolian variety of the myth of Procne and Philomela, in which Chelidon supplants Philomela, the unmarried sister abused by her brother-in-law. Unlike Chelidon, Philomela had her tongue cut by

Tereus In Greek mythology, Tereus (; Ancient Greek: Τηρεύς) was a Thracian king,Thucydides: ''History of the Peloponnesian War'' 2:29 the son of Ares and the naiad Bistonis. He was the brother of Dryas. Tereus was the husband of the Athenian pr ...

(Polytechnus) so she had to weave a tapestry in order to inform her sister. When Tereus chased the two sisters down following the murder of Itys, all three were changed into birds. However, both Chelidon and Aëdon appear to individually predate the myth of Procne and Philomela, which seems to have been shaped to its current form by the Athenian playwright

Sophocles Sophocles ( 497/496 – winter 406/405 BC)Sommerstein (2002), p. 41. was an ancient Greek tragedian known as one of three from whom at least two plays have survived in full. His first plays were written later than, or contemporary with, those ...

in his lost play ''

''. Chelidon is said by both earlier writers Hesiod and Sappho to be the daughter of Pandion (Procne and Philomela's father) instead of Pandareus, while earlier mentions of Aëdon have her kill her son unknowingly rather than wittingly in a doomed effort to hurt her rival

Niobe Niobe (; : Nióbē) was in Greek mythology a daughter of Tantalus and of either Dione or of Eurythemista or Euryanassa. She was the wife of Amphion and the sister of Pelops and Broteas. Niobe is mentioned by Achilles in Homer's ''Iliad ...

. Those stories concerning Aëdon however do not include a sister or swallows, which must have joined the myth of the nightingale later. It has been suggested the story crossed the Aegean from Asia Minor, Pandareus was mixed up with Pandion, and thus the myths of the nightingale and the swallow were combined and joined the Athenian mythos. The figure of the sister who is sexually linked to the husband might have evolved from the original Aëdon's rival.

Iconography

A sixth-century BC metope from Apollo's temple at

Thermos A vacuum flask (also known as a Dewar flask, Dewar bottle or thermos) is an thermal insulation, insulating storage vessel that slows the speed at which its contents change in temperature. It greatly lengthens the time over which its contents r ...

depicts Chelidon and Aëdon plotting together over something that has been broken off. Some vases, although with much less certainty, also seem to depict the scene of Itys's murder by Aëdon-Procne and Philomela-Chelidon.

References

Bibliography

, ''The Metamorphoses of Antoninus Liberalis'' translated by Francis Celoria (Routledge 1992)
Online version at the Topos Text Project.
* Bell, Robert E., ''Women of Classical Mythology: A Biographical Dictionary''. ABC-Clio. 1991. . * * * * * * *

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 ...

, ''The Odyssey'' with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, PH.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1919.
Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.Greek text available from the same website
* Homer. ''The Odyssey,'' Book XIX, in ''The Iliad & The Odyssey''. Trans. Samuel Butler. pp. 676–7. * 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
* Pausanias, ''Graeciae Descriptio.'' ''3 vols''. Leipzig, Teubner. 1903.
Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library
* {{Authority control Mythological people from Anatolia Metamorphoses into birds in Greek mythology Deeds of Zeus Mythological rape victims Women in Greek mythology Deeds of Artemis Greek mythological slaves

Family

Mythology

Origin

Iconography

See also

References

Bibliography