Taras (mythology) on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
In
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 ...
, Taras () was the eponym
An eponym is a noun after which or for which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. Adjectives derived from the word ''eponym'' include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''.
Eponyms are commonly used for time periods, places, innovati ...
ous founder of the Greek
Greek may refer to:
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
colony of Taras (Tarentum, modern Taranto
Taranto (; ; previously called Tarent in English) is a coastal city in Apulia, Southern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Taranto, serving as an important commercial port as well as the main Italian naval base.
Founded by Spartans ...
), in Magna Graecia
Magna Graecia refers to the Greek-speaking areas of southern Italy, encompassing the modern Regions of Italy, Italian regions of Calabria, Apulia, Basilicata, Campania, and Sicily. These regions were Greek colonisation, extensively settled by G ...
(today Southern Italy
Southern Italy (, , or , ; ; ), also known as () or (; ; ; ), is a macroregion of Italy consisting of its southern Regions of Italy, regions.
The term "" today mostly refers to the regions that are associated with the people, lands or cultu ...
).
Family
Taras was the son ofPoseidon
Poseidon (; ) is one of the twelve Olympians in ancient Greek religion and mythology, presiding over the sea, storms, earthquakes and horses.Burkert 1985pp. 136–139 He was the protector of seafarers and the guardian of many Hellenic cit ...
and Satyrion, either a Tarentine nymph
A nymph (; ; sometimes spelled nymphe) is a minor female nature deity in ancient Greek folklore. Distinct from other Greek goddesses, nymphs are generally regarded as personifications of nature; they are typically tied to a specific place, land ...
or a daughter of Minos
Main injector neutrino oscillation search (MINOS) was a particle physics experiment designed to study the phenomena of neutrino oscillations, first discovered by a Super-Kamiokande (Super-K) experiment in 1998. Neutrinos produced by the NuMI ...
.
Mythology
When Taras was shipwrecked, his father rescued him by sending adolphin
A dolphin is an aquatic mammal in the cetacean clade Odontoceti (toothed whale). Dolphins belong to the families Delphinidae (the oceanic dolphins), Platanistidae (the Indian river dolphins), Iniidae (the New World river dolphins), Pontopori ...
which he rode to traverse the sea from the promontory of Taenarum to the south of Italy. Brought ashore, Taras founded Tarentum which was named in his honour. According to Pausanias, he was worshiped as a hero who named both the city and the river, Taras after himself.
Taranto
Note that a harbour close by Taranto is still called Torre Saturo (derived from Satyrion). It was in Torre Saturo, almost south of Taranto, thatSparta
Sparta was a prominent city-state in Laconia in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (), while the name Sparta referred to its main settlement in the Evrotas Valley, valley of Evrotas (river), Evrotas rive ...
n colonists settled their first colony in Taranto zone. Later, around 706 BC, they conquered the Iapygian city of Taranto. On the coinage of the ancient city of Taras, the son of Poseidon is depicted on a dolphin, sometimes with his father's trident
A trident (), () is a three- pronged spear. It is used for spear fishing and historically as a polearm. As compared to an ordinary spear, the three tines increase the chance that a fish will be struck and decrease the chance that a fish will b ...
in one hand; the same image is depicted on the modern city emblem.
See also
* Arion – another dolphin-riding young man. Saved by dolphins after being captured by pirates whilst returning from Taranto, Taras's city. *Melicertes
In Greek mythology, Melicertes (, sometimes Melecertes), later called Palaemon or Palaimon (), was a Boeotian prince as the son of King Athamas and Ino, daughter of King Cadmus of Thebes. He was the brother of Learchus.
Mythology
Ino, purs ...
– the son of Ino and king Athamas of Boeotia
Boeotia ( ), sometimes Latinisation of names, Latinized as Boiotia or Beotia (; modern Greek, modern: ; ancient Greek, ancient: ), is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the modern regions of Greece, region of Central Greece (adm ...
. Ino and Melicertes threw themselves off of a large rock at the Isthmus of Corinth
The Isthmus of Corinth ( Greek: Ισθμός της Κορίνθου) is the narrow land bridge which connects the Peloponnese peninsula with the rest of the mainland of Greece, near the city of Corinth. The wide Isthmus was known in the a ...
. They were then deified as Palaemon (Melicertes) and Leucothea
In Greek mythology, Leucothea (; ), sometimes also called Leucothoe (), was a Water deity, sea goddess. Myths surrounding Leucothea typically concern her original identity, either as Ino (Greek mythology), Ino or Halia of Rhodes, Halia, and her t ...
(Ino). As Palaemon, Melicertes is often depicted mounted on a dolphin.
* Amphitrite – the queen of the sea, carried to Poseidon, her future husband, by Delphinus, after hiding from the god at the Atlas mountains.
* Dionysus
In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, myth, Dionysus (; ) is the god of wine-making, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, festivity, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre. He was also known as Bacchus ( or ; ...
– a similar story to Arion's ends with Dionysus turning a crew of pirate kidnappers into dolphins, save for one helmsman, who had tried to help Dionysus.
* Apollo
Apollo is one of the Twelve Olympians, Olympian deities in Ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek and Ancient Roman religion, Roman religion and Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology. Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, mu ...
– the god came to the site of Delphi
Delphi (; ), in legend previously called Pytho (Πυθώ), was an ancient sacred precinct and the seat of Pythia, the major oracle who was consulted about important decisions throughout the ancient Classical antiquity, classical world. The A ...
, then known as Krisa or Pytho (due to the Python who lived there), shaped like a dolphin, carrying Cretan
Crete ( ; , Modern Greek, Modern: , Ancient Greek, Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the List of islands by area, 88th largest island in the world and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fifth la ...
priests, whom he rescued from a shipwreck, on his back. The site would be named ''Delphi'' to commemorate this event and Apollo would bear the epithet ''Delphinios''.
Notes
References
* * {{cite book , author=Pausanias , year=1903 , title=Graeciae Descriptio , url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0159 , location=Leipzig , publisher=Teubner Children of Poseidon Kings in Greek mythology Laconian mythology Magna Graecia