Idomeneus

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Idomeneus coming back, Palais Niel, France Le retour d'Idomedee.JPG
Idomeneus coming back, Palais Niel, France

In Greek mythology, Idomeneus ( /aɪˈdɒmɪˌniːəs/ ; [1] Greek : Ἰδομενεύς) was a Cretan commander, father of Orsilochus, Cleisithyra and Iphiclus, son of Deucalion and Cleopatra, [2] grandson of Minos and king of Crete. He led the Cretan armies to the Trojan War [3] and was also one of Helen's suitors as well as a comrade of the Telamonian Ajax. Meriones was his charioteer and brother-in-arms.

Greek mythology body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks

Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks. These stories concern the origin and the nature of the world, the lives and activities of deities, heroes, and mythological creatures, and the origins and significance of the ancient Greeks' own cult and ritual practices. Modern scholars study the myths in an attempt to shed light on the religious and political institutions of ancient Greece and its civilization, and to gain understanding of the nature of myth-making itself.

Greek language language spoken in Greece, Cyprus and Southern Albania

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece, Cyprus and other parts of the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea. It has the longest documented history of any living Indo-European language, spanning more than 3000 years of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the major part of its history; other systems, such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary, were used previously. The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin, Cyrillic, Armenian, Coptic, Gothic, and many other writing systems.

Crete The largest and most populous of the Greek islands

Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, and Corsica. Crete and a number of surrounding islands and islets constitute the region of Crete, one of the 13 top-level administrative units of Greece. The capital and the largest city is Heraklion. As of 2011, the region had a population of 623,065.

Contents

Mythology

In Homer's Iliad , Idomeneus is found among the first rank of the Greek generals, leading his troops and engaging the enemy head-on, and escaping serious injury. Idomeneus was one of Agamemnon's trusted advisors. He was one of the primary defenders when most of the other Achaean heroes were injured, and even fought Hector briefly and repulsed his attack. [4] Like most of the other leaders of the Greeks, he is alive and well as the story comes to a close. He was one of the Achaeans to enter the Trojan Horse. Idomeneus killed twenty men and at least three Amazon women, including Bremusa, [5] at Troy. [6]

Homer name ascribed by the ancient Greeks to the legendary author of the Iliad and the Odyssey

Homer is the legendary author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, two epic poems that are the central works of ancient Greek literature. The Iliad is set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Greek kingdoms. It focuses on a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles lasting a few weeks during the last year of the war. The Odyssey focuses on the ten-year journey home of Odysseus, king of Ithaca, after the fall of Troy. Many accounts of Homer's life circulated in classical antiquity, the most widespread being that he was a blind bard from Ionia, a region of central coastal Anatolia in present-day Turkey. Modern scholars consider these accounts legendary.

<i>Iliad</i> Epic poem attributed to Homer

The Iliad is an ancient Greek epic poem in dactylic hexameter, traditionally attributed to Homer. Set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy (Ilium) by a coalition of Greek states, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles.

Agamemnon figure from Greek mythology

In Greek mythology, Agamemnon was a king of Mycenae, the son of King Atreus and Queen Aerope of Mycenae, the brother of Menelaus, the husband of Clytemnestra and the father of Iphigenia, Electra or Laodike (Λαοδίκη), Orestes and Chrysothemis. Legends make him the king of Mycenae or Argos, thought to be different names for the same area. When Helen, the wife of Menelaus, was taken to Troy by Paris, Agamemnon commanded the united Greek armed forces in the ensuing Trojan War.

A later tradition, preserved by the mythographer Apollodorus of Athens, [7] continues the story as follows: after the war, Idomeneus's ship hit a terrible storm. He promised Poseidon that he would sacrifice the first living thing he saw when he returned home if Poseidon would save his ship and crew. The first living thing was his son, whom Idomeneus duly sacrificed. The gods were angry at the murder of his own son and sent a plague to Crete. The Cretans sent him into exile in Calabria (ancient name of the Salento in Apulia), Italy [8] and then Colophon in Asia Minor where he died. [9] According to Marcus Terrentius Varro, the gens Salentini descended from Idomeneus, who had sailed from Crete to Illyria, and then together with Illyrians and Locrians from Illyria to Salento, see Grecìa Salentina. [10]

Apollodorus of Athens son of Asclepiades, was a Greek scholar, historian and grammarian. He was a pupil of Diogenes of Babylon, Panaetius the Stoic, and the grammarian Aristarchus of Samothrace, under whom he appears to have studied together with his contemporary Dionysius Thrax. He left Alexandria around 146 BC, most likely for Pergamon, and eventually settled in Athens.

Poseidon Ancient Greek god of the seas, earthquakes and horses

Poseidon was one of the Twelve Olympians in ancient Greek religion and myth. He was god of the Sea and other waters; of earthquakes; and of horses. In pre-Olympian Bronze Age Greece, he was venerated as a chief deity at Pylos and Thebes. His Roman equivalent is Neptune.

Salento peninsula

Salento is a geographic region at the southern end of the administrative region of Apulia in Southern Italy. It is a sub-peninsula of the Italian Peninsula, sometimes described as the "heel" of the Italian "boot".

Alternatively, Idomeneus was driven out of Crete by Leucus, his foster son, who had seduced and then killed Idomeneus' wife Meda and usurped the throne of Crete. [11]

In Greek mythology, the name Leucus or Leukos may refer to:

In Greek mythology, the name Meda may refer to:

The tale is also covered by the fourth-century Italian writer Maurus Servius Honoratus, and the French 17th century writer François Fénelon. According to the hypothetical reading of Achterberg et al. (2004), Idomeneus may be mentioned on the Phaistos Disk (spelled i-du-ma-na, word B.IX) as the governor of Mesara.

Maurus Servius Honoratus philologist and grammarian in 4th and 5th century Rome

Maurus Servius Honoratus was a late fourth-century and early fifth-century grammarian, with the contemporary reputation of being the most learned man of his generation in Italy; he was the author of a set of commentaries on the works of Virgil. These works, In tria Virgilii Opera Expositio, constituted the first incunable to be printed at Florence, by Bernardo Cennini, 1471.

François Fénelon Catholic bishop

François de Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon, more commonly known as François Fénelon, was a French Roman Catholic archbishop, theologian, poet and writer. He today is remembered mostly as the author of The Adventures of Telemachus, first published in 1699.

Italian and German title pages of the original libretto of Mozart's opera, Idomeneo Idomeneo frontespizi.JPG
Italian and German title pages of the original libretto of Mozart's opera, Idomeneo

Idomeneo , a 1781 opera seria by Mozart, is based on the story of Idomeneus's return to Crete. In this version, Poseidon (Neptune in the opera) spares Idomeneo's son Idamante, on condition that Idomeneo relinquish his throne to the new generation.

<i>Idomeneo</i> opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Idomeneo, re di Creta ossia Ilia e Idamante is an Italian language opera seria by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The libretto was adapted by Giambattista Varesco from a French text by Antoine Danchet, which had been set to music by André Campra as Idoménée in 1712. Mozart and Varesco were commissioned in 1780 by Karl Theodor, Elector of Bavaria for a court carnival. He probably chose the subject, though it might have been Mozart. The work premiered on 29 January 1781 at the Cuvilliés Theatre in Munich, Germany.

<i>Opera seria</i> opera genre

Opera seria is an Italian musical term which refers to the noble and "serious" style of Italian opera that predominated in Europe from the 1710s to about 1770. The term itself was rarely used at the time and only attained common usage once opera seria was becoming unfashionable and beginning to be viewed as a historical genre. The popular rival to opera seria was opera buffa, the 'comic' opera that took its cue from the improvisatory commedia dell'arte.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Austrian composer of the Classical period

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, baptised as Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the classical era.

Related Research Articles

Trojan War Mythological war

In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans (Greeks) after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, king of Sparta. The war is one of the most important events in Greek mythology and has been narrated through many works of Greek literature, most notably Homer's Iliad. The core of the Iliad describes a period of four days and two nights in the tenth year of the decade-long siege of Troy; the Odyssey describes the journey home of Odysseus, one of the war's heroes. Other parts of the war are described in a cycle of epic poems, which have survived through fragments. Episodes from the war provided material for Greek tragedy and other works of Greek literature, and for Roman poets including Virgil and Ovid.

Calchas mythical character

In Greek mythology, Calchas, was an Argive seer, with a gift for interpreting the flight of birds that he received of Apollo: "as an augur, Calchas had no rival in the camp". He also interpreted the entrails of the enemy during the tide of battle.

Diomedes Hero in Greek mythology

Diomedes or Diomede is a hero in Greek mythology, known for his participation in the Trojan War.

In Greek mythology, there were eleven people named Melanippus :

Euphorbus mythical character

In Greek mythology, Euphorbus was a Trojan hero during the Trojan War.

In Greek mythology, there were at least three people named Thymoetes.

Returns from Troy

The Returns from Troy are the stories of how the Greek leaders returned after their victory in the Trojan War. Many Achaean heroes did not return to their homes, but died or founded colonies outside the Greek mainland. The most famous returns are those of Odysseus, whose wanderings are narrated in the Odyssey, and Agamemnon, whose murder at the hands of his wife Clytemnestra was portrayed in Greek tragedy.

In Greek mythology, Asius refers to two people who fought during the Trojan War:

Meriones (mythology) mythical character

In Greek mythology, Meriones was a son of Molus and Melphis or Euippe. Molus was a half-brother of Idomeneus. Like other heroes of mythology, Meriones was said to be a descendant of gods. As a grandson of Deucalion, Meriones's ancestors include Zeus, Europa, Helios, and Pasiphae, the sister of Circe. Meriones possessed the helmet of Amyntor, which Autolycus had stolen. He inherited the helmet from his father Molus and later gave it to Odysseus. Meriones killed seven men at Troy.

Idoménée is an opera by the French composer André Campra. It takes the form of a tragédie en musique in a prologue and five acts. Idoménée was first performed on 12 January 1712 by the Académie royale de musique at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal in Paris. The libretto, by Antoine Danchet, is based on a stage play by Crébillon père. It later formed the basis of Giambattista Varesco's libretto for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera Idomeneo.

In Greek mythology, Orsilochus, Ortilochus (Ὁρτἰλοχος) or Orsilocus is a name that may refer to:

In Greek mythology, Deucalion or Deukalion, was a king of Crete. He was counted among the Argonauts and the Calydonian Hunters.

In Greek mythology, Leitus was a leader of the Boeotians and admiral of 12 ships which sailed against Troy.

In Greek mythology, Nireus, was king of the island Syme and one of the Achaean leaders in the Trojan War.

In Greek mythology, the name Molus was the illegitimate son of Deucalion, son of Minos, king of Crete or of Minos instead. He was the father, by Melphis or Euippe, of Meriones, the charioteer of Idomeneus in the Trojan War.

In Greek mythology, Eurypylus was a Thessalian king.

In Greek mythology, Cleopatra was the name of the following women:

References

  1. ↑ John Walker & William Trollope, 1830, A key to the classical pronunciation of Greek, Latin, and scripture proper names, p 68;
    Robert Palfrey Utter, 1918, Every-day pronunciation, p 127
  2. ↑ Tzetzes, Homeric Allegories, Prologue, 587; Tzetzes on Lycophron, 431
  3. ↑ Iliad 2.645
  4. ↑ Iliad, repeated appearances
  5. ↑ Quintus Smyrnaeus, The Fall of Troy, Book I.
  6. ↑ Hyginus, Fabulae 114.
  7. ↑ Encyclopædia Britannica
  8. ↑ Virgil. Aeneid . Book III, 400.
  9. ↑ Scholiast on Homer Odyssey ν 259
  10. ↑ Operum quae exstant, p. 174, Marcus Terentius Varro, printed by Christophorus Raphelengius, 1601.
  11. ↑ Bibliotheca , Epitome of Book 4, 6. 10

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