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 ...

, Linus (

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 ...

: Λῖνος ''Linos'' "flax"), son 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= ...

and Psamathe, daughter of King

Crotopus Crotopus or Krotopos ( grc, Κρότωπος), in Greek mythology, was the eighth king of Argos.Eusebius''. Praeparatio evangelica10.9.8; 10.11.2, 10.12.1-3 Chronography66' Family Crotopus was the son of Agenor and father of Psamathe and St ...

of Argos.

Mythology

When Psamathe had given birth to Linus, fearing her father she thus exposed the child. Linus was found by shepherds, who brought him up but the child after reaching adulthood was torn to pieces by the shepherd's dogs. Psamathe's grief at the occurrence betrayed her misfortune to her father, who would not believe that she had had intercourse with a god rather than a mortal, and thus condemned her to death. Apollo, in his indignation at the father's cruelty, visited Argos with a child-killing plague and when his oracle was consulted about the means of averting the plague, he answered that the Argives must propitiate Psamathe and Linus. This was attempted by means of sacrifices, and matrons and virgins sang

dirge A dirge ( la, dirige, naenia) is a somber song or lament expressing mourning or grief, such as would be appropriate for performance at a funeral. Often taking the form of a brief hymn, dirges are typically shorter and less meditative than el ...

s which were called ''linoi'', and the month in which this solemnity was celebrated was called ''arneios'', and the festival itself arnis, because Linus had grown up among lambs. The pestilence, however, did not cease until Crotopus quitted Argos and settled at Tripodisium, in Megaris. In an alternate version, the baby Linus was torn apart by the king's sheepdogs upon being exposed and Apollo sent Poene, the personification of punishment, upon the city. Poene would steal children from their mothers until

Coroebus In Greek mythology, Coroebus (Ancient Greek: Κόροιβος) may refer to two distinct characters: * Coroebus, son of King Mygdon of Phrygia is a character of Greek legend. He came to the aid of Troy during the Trojan War out of love for Princ ...

killed her.Pausanias, 1.43.7 This caused a second punishment to fall upon the city that was devastated by plague.

Notes

References

Conon Conon ( el, Κόνων) (before 443 BC – c. 389 BC) was an Athenian general at the end of the Peloponnesian War, who led the Athenian naval forces when they were defeated by a Peloponnesian fleet in the crucial Battle of Aegospotami; later he ...

'', Fifty Narrations, surviving as one-paragraph summaries in the Bibliotheca (Library) of Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople'' translated from the Greek by Brady Kiesling
Online version at the Topos Text Project.
*

Pausanias Pausanias ( el, Παυσανίας) may refer to: * Pausanias of Athens, lover of the poet Agathon and a character in Plato's ''Symposium'' *Pausanias the Regent, Spartan general and regent of the 5th century BC * Pausanias of Sicily, physician of ...

, ''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
*

Publius Papinius Statius Publius Papinius Statius (Greek: Πόπλιος Παπίνιος Στάτιος; ; ) was a Greco-Roman poet of the 1st century CE. His surviving Latin poetry includes an epic in twelve books, the ''Thebaid''; a collection of occasional poetry, ...

'', The Thebaid'' translated by John Henry Mozley. Loeb Classical Library Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1928
Online version at the Topos Text Project.
*Publius Papinius Statius, ''The Thebaid. Vol I-II''. John Henry Mozley. London: William Heinemann; New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. 1928
Latin text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
* Smith, William; ''

Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology The ''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'' (1849, originally published 1844 under a slightly different title) is an encyclopedia/biographical dictionary. Edited by William Smith, the dictionary spans three volumes and 3,700 p ...

'', London (1873).
Linus
' Children of Apollo Demigods in classical mythology Mythology of Argos {{Greek-myth-stub