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 ...
, Cydippe (
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 ...
: Κυδίππη, ''Kudíppē''), was the mother of
Cleobis and Biton and a
priestess of Hera at Argos.
Mythology
Cydippe was on her way to a festival in the goddess' honor. The oxen which were to pull her cart were overdue and her sons, Biton and Cleobis pulled the cart the entire way (45 stadia; 8 km). Cydippe was impressed with their devotion to her and asked Hera to give her children the best gift a god could give a person. Hera had the two brothers drop dead instantaneously as the best thing she could give them was for them to die at their moment of highest devotion. This is
Herodotus
Herodotus (; BC) was a Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus (now Bodrum, Turkey), under Persian control in the 5th century BC, and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria, Italy. He wrote the '' Histori ...
's account (''Histories'' 1.31) of the story and it comes couched as advice from
Solon
Solon (; ; BC) was an Archaic Greece#Athens, archaic History of Athens, Athenian statesman, lawmaker, political philosopher, and poet. He is one of the Seven Sages of Greece and credited with laying the foundations for Athenian democracy. ...
the Athenian to
Croesus
Croesus ( ; ; Latin: ; reigned:
)
was the Monarch, king of Lydia, who reigned from 585 BC until his Siege of Sardis (547 BC), defeat by the Persian king Cyrus the Great in 547 or 546 BC. According to Herodotus, he reigned 14 years. Croesus was ...
as to who the most blessed people in history are. The most often used quotation from this episode is (roughly translated) "call no man blessed until he is dead."
Herodotus, the original source for this story, does not state the name of the mother of Cleobis and Biton. The first mention of their mother's actual name can be found in
Plutarch
Plutarch (; , ''Ploútarchos'', ; – 120s) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo (Delphi), Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for his ''Parallel Lives'', ...
, Frag. 133 (=
Stobaeus
Joannes Stobaeus (; ; 5th-century AD), from Stobi in Macedonia (Roman province), Macedonia, was the compiler of a valuable series of extracts from Greek authors. The work was originally divided into two volumes containing two books each. The tw ...
4.52.43) " ..." Plutarch (first century CE) is the earliest source for her name that is now available to us. Surely much intervening literature regarding Cydippe the priestess of Hera has been lost, since Plutarch was writing about 500 years after Herodotus first told the story.
Greek Anthology, 3.18
/ref>
Notes
Greek mythological priestesses
References
* Herodotus
Herodotus (; BC) was a Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus (now Bodrum, Turkey), under Persian control in the 5th century BC, and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria, Italy. He wrote the '' Histori ...
, '' The Histories'' with an English translation by A. D. Godley. Cambridge. Harvard University Press. 1920.
Online version at the Topos Text Project.Greek text available at Perseus Digital Library
{{Greek-myth-stub
Characters in Greek mythology