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 ...

, Meropis () is a

Koan A ( ; ; zh, c=公案, p=gōng'àn ; ; ) is a story, dialogue, question, or statement from Chinese Chan Buddhist lore, supplemented with commentaries, that is used in Zen Buddhist practice in different ways. The main goal of practice in Z ...

woman who refused to honour the deities

Artemis In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, Artemis (; ) is the goddess of the hunting, hunt, the wilderness, wild animals, transitions, nature, vegetation, childbirth, Kourotrophos, care of children, and chastity. In later tim ...

Athena Athena or Athene, often given the epithet Pallas, is an ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft who was later syncretism, syncretized with the Roman goddess Minerva. Athena was regarde ...

and

Hermes Hermes (; ) is an Olympian deity in ancient Greek religion and mythology considered the herald of the gods. He is also widely considered the protector of human heralds, travelers, thieves, merchants, and orators. He is able to move quic ...

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

Antoninus Liberalis Antoninus Liberalis () was an Ancient Greek grammarian who probably flourished between the second and third centuries AD. He is known as the author of ''The Metamorphoses'', a collection of tales that offers new variants of already familiar myths ...

Family

Meropis was the daughter of

Eumelus Eumelus ( ''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 autochthon Evenor and Leucippe. ...

and the sister of Byssa and Agron.

Mythology

Meropis with her family dwelled in Meropis on

Kos Kos or Cos (; ) is a Greek island, which is part of the Dodecanese island chain in the southeastern Aegean Sea. Kos is the third largest island of the Dodecanese, after Rhodes and Karpathos; it has a population of 37,089 (2021 census), making ...

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 ...

15
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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 Owls in culture

Family

Mythology

See also

References

Bibliography