In
Greek mythology
A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities of ...
, the name Cyanippus (
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...
: Κυάνιππος) may refer to:
*Cyanippus, son of
Aegialeus and
Comaetho In Greek mythology, Comaetho (; Ancient Greek: Κομαιθώ ''Komaithṓ'' means "bright-haired"') is a name that may refer to:
*Comaetho, a nymph of a spring who incessantly mingles her waters with those of the river god Cydnus, who in one passa ...
, or else son of
Adrastus
In Greek mythology, Adrastus or Adrestus (Ancient Greek: Ἄδραστος or Ἄδρηστος), (perhaps meaning "the inescapable"), was a king of Argos, and leader of the Seven against Thebes. He was the son of the Argive king Talaus, but wa ...
and
Amphithea Amphithea ( grc, Ἀμφιθέα) is the name of several women in Greek mythology:
* Amphithea, who was, according to some, the wife of Lycurgus, king of Nemea, and mother of Opheltes (later called Archemorus).
* Amphithea, daughter of Pronax, son ...
and brother of Aegialeus. He fought in the
Trojan War
In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans (Greeks) after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, king of Sparta. The war is one of the most important events in Greek mythology and ha ...
and was one of the men who entered the
Trojan Horse
The Trojan Horse was a wooden horse said to have been used by the Greeks during the Trojan War to enter the city of Troy and win the war. The Trojan Horse is not mentioned in Homer's ''Iliad'', with the poem ending before the war is concluded, ...
. For a while, he ruled over
Argos. He died childless and was succeeded by
Cylarabes, son of
Sthenelus In Greek mythology, Sthenelus (; Ancient Greek: Σθένελος ''Sthénelos,'' "strong one" or "forcer", derived from "strength, might, force") was a name attributed to several different individuals:
* Sthenelus, father of Cycnus and King of Li ...
.
*Cyanippus, son of
Pharax
Pharax was a town in the borderlands of ancient Isauria and Cilicia, inhabited in Roman and Byzantine
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in ...
, from
Thessaly
Thessaly ( el, Θεσσαλία, translit=Thessalía, ; ancient Thessalian: , ) is a traditional geographic and modern administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient region of the same name. Before the Greek Dark Ages, The ...
. He fell in love with the beautiful
Leucone and married her, but he was so fond of hunting that he would not spend any time with his young wife. Leucone, suspecting her husband of infidelity, followed him to the woods to spy on him. Cyanippus' hounds scented her hiding in the thicket and, taking her for a wild animal, rushed at the woman and tore her to pieces. Cyanippus himself came up too late; he set up a funeral pyre for his wife, slew his dogs upon it and then killed himself. The story is similar to that of
Cephalus and
Procris
In Greek mythology, Procris ( grc, Πρόκρις, ''gen''.: Πρόκριδος) was an Athenian princess as the third daughter of Erechtheus, king of Athens and his wife, Praxithea, daughter of Phrasimus and Diogeneia. Homer mentions her ...
.
*Cyanippus, a
Syracusan who did not venerate
Dionysus
In ancient Greek religion and myth, Dionysus (; grc, Διόνυσος ) is the god of the grape-harvest, winemaking, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, festivity, and theatre. The Romans ...
. The god punished him by making him drunk, in which state Cyanippus raped his own daughter Cyane. She managed to take a ring off the rapist's finger, so that she could recognize him later, and gave the ring to her nurse. Soon after that, the city was affected with plague, and the oracle of
Apollo
Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...
pronounced that there was an impious man in the city who was to be sacrificed in order to put an end to the calamity. Cyane was the only one to understand the prophecy. She grabbed her father by the hair, cut his throat and then killed herself in the same manner.
[Pseudo-Plutarch, ''Greek and Roman Parallel Stories'' 19]
Notes
References
*
Apollodorus, ''The Library'' with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. ISBN 0-674-99135-4
Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.Greek text available from the same website
* Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus, ''Moralia'' with an English Translation by Frank Cole Babbitt. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. London. William Heinemann Ltd. 1936
Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.Greek text available from the same website
* Parthenius, ''Love Romances'' translated by Sir Stephen Gaselee (1882-1943), S. Loeb Classical Library Volume 69. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. 1916.
Online version at the Topos Text Project.
* Parthenius, ''Erotici Scriptores Graeci, Vol. 1''. Rudolf Hercher. in aedibus B. G. Teubneri. Leipzig. 1858
Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library
* 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
* Tryphiodorus Tryphiodorus ( grc, Τρυφιόδωρος, Tryphiodoros; 3rd or 4th century AD) was an epic poet from Panopolis (today Akhmim), Egypt. His only surviving work is ''The Sack of Troy'', an epic poem in 691 verses. Other recorded titles include ''Ma ...
, ''Capture of Troy'' translated by Mair, A. W. Loeb Classical Library Volume 219. London: William Heinemann Ltd, 1928
Online version at theoi.com
* Tryphiodorus, ''Capture of Troy'' with an English Translation by A.W. Mair. London, William Heinemann, Ltd.; New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. 1928
Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library
{{Greek myth index
Kings of Argos
Kings in Greek mythology
People of the Trojan War
Argive characters in Greek mythology
Sicilian characters in Greek mythology
Thessalian mythology