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 ...

, Menestratus (; ) is a

Thespian Thespian may refer to: * A citizen of the Ancient Greek city of Thespiae * An actor or actress ** Thespis, the first credited actor * A member of the International Thespian Society The International Thespian Society (ITS) is an honor society ...

man who dies trying to slay a dragon in an attempt to save his lover from the monster. His story is recounted in ''Description of Greece'', a second-century work by Greek traveller and geographer Pausanias.

Mythology

Menestratus lived in

Thespiae Thespiae ( ; ) was an ancient Greek city (''polis'') in Boeotia. It sits at the foot of Mount Helicon and near right bank of the Thespius River (modern name Kanavari River). Thespiae was a Boeotian state sporadically involved in the military fe ...

, where he met and became lovers with a man named Cleostratus. Soon, a great dragon started ravaging their city, and the citizens looked to

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 ...

for help. The god commanded them to sacrifice a teenage boy each year to the monster, which they did for an undisclosed number of years. When the lot fell to Cleostratus, Menestratus devised a trick in order to save his lover from such fate. He made a bronze breastplate with a fish-hook on each plate, point turned upwards. Clad in the breastplate he willingly offered himself to the dragon, convinced it would kill it. The dragon devoured him, and like Menestratus had predicted, it died indeed, though at the cost of Menestratus' own life. Afterwards, the Thespians erected a bronze cult statue to honour Zeus the Saviour. Pausaniasbr>9.26.8
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Culture

The story bears a lot of similarities to the myth of

Alcyoneus In Greek mythology, Alcyoneus or Alkyoneus (; ) was a traditional opponent of the hero Heracles. He was usually considered to be one of the Gigantes (Giants (Greek mythology), Giants), the offspring of Gaia (mythology), Gaia born from the blood o ...

and Eurybarus. In both cases a horrifying beast terrorises a place, and a man chooses to confront it in the stead of their love interests, who are the intended sacrificial victims. Unlike Eurybarus however, Menestratus does not survive the ordeal. The lovers being of the same sex is noted to be a rare variant among the many versions of the dragon-slaying fairytale trope.

Notes

References

* * * {{cite book , last = March , first = Jennifer R. , title = Dictionary of Classical Mythology , publisher = Oxbow Books , isbn = 978-1-78297-635-6 , date = May 31, 2014 , url = https://books.google.com/books?id=nZnwAwAAQBAJ * Pausanias, ''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

External links

Mythological Boeotians Dragonslayers Deeds of Zeus Human sacrifice in folklore and mythology Greek mythological heroes LGBTQ themes in Greek mythology

Mythology

Culture

See also

Notes

References

External links