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 ...

, Meropis ( grc, Μεροπὶς, Meropis) is a

Koan A (; , ; ko, 화두, ; vi, công án) is a story, dialogue, question, or statement which is used in Zen practice to provoke the "great doubt" and to practice or test a student's progress in Zen. Etymology The Japanese term is the Sino-J ...

woman who refused to honour the deities

Artemis In ancient Greek mythology and Ancient Greek religion, religion, Artemis (; grc-gre, Ἄρτεμις) is the goddess of the hunt, the wilderness, wild animals, nature, vegetation, childbirth, Kourotrophos, care of children, and chastity. ...

Athena Athena or Athene, often given the epithet Pallas, is an ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft who was later syncretized with the Roman goddess Minerva. Athena was regarded as the patron and protectress of ...

and

Hermes Hermes (; grc-gre, Ἑρμῆς) is an Olympian deity in ancient Greek religion and mythology. Hermes is considered the herald of the gods. He is also considered the protector of human heralds, travellers, thieves, merchants, and orato ...

, and was turned into a bird for her impiety. Her tale survives in the works of

Antoninus Liberalis Antoninus Liberalis ( el, Ἀντωνῖνος Λιβεράλις) was an Ancient Greek grammarian who probably flourished between AD 100 and 300. His only surviving work is the ''Metamorphoses'' (Μεταμορφώσεων Συναγωγή, ''Me ...

Family

Meropis was the daughter of

Eumelus Eumelus ( grc, Εὔμηλος ''Eúmēlos'' means "rich in sheep") was the name of: ''Mythology'' *Eumelus ( Gadeirus), the younger twin brother of Atlas in Plato's myth of Atlantis, and the son of Poseidon and Cleito, daughter of the autocht ...

and the sister of Byssa and Agron.

Mythology

Meropis with her family dwelled in Meropis on

Kos Kos or Cos (; el, Κως ) is a Greek island, part of the Dodecanese island chain in the southeastern Aegean Sea. Kos is the third largest island of the Dodecanese by area, after Rhodes and Karpathos; it has a population of 36,986 (2021 census), ...

island, and though they honored the local Koan goddess, they refused to venerate three of the major gods,

and

. Every time the other Koans would invite the family to a feast or sacrifice in honour of those three gods they would refuse, on account of them hating grey eyes, owls, a goddess who was out at night, and thieves. Angered, Artemis, Athena and Hermes paid them a visit one night, disguised as two countryside maidens and a shepherd. Hermes persuaded the men, Agron and Eumelus, to sacrifice to Hermes, Byssa and Meropis to the goddesses. They still denied however, so all four were turned into birds. The moment Meropis heard the word 'Athena', she scoffed, so the goddess turned her into an

owl Owls are birds from the order Strigiformes (), which includes over 200 species of mostly solitary and nocturnal birds of prey typified by an upright stance, a large, broad head, binocular vision, binaural hearing, sharp talons, and feathers a ...

, ''Metamorphoses'
15
/ref>

References

Bibliography

, ''The Metamorphoses of Antoninus Liberalis'' translated by Francis Celoria (Routledge 1992)
Online version at the Topos Text Project.
* {{Authority control Aegean Sea in mythology Deeds of Artemis Deeds of Athena Deeds of Hermes Metamorphoses into birds in Greek mythology

Family

Mythology

See also

References

Bibliography