Sybaris (mythology)

Last updated

Sybaris or Lamia of Mount Cirphis, Greece, was a legendary cave-dwelling giant beast that devoured both livestock and humans. It was hurled from an overhanging rock and killed by the hero Eurybatus. Though precise physical description is given in the primary source, it has been hypothesized by modern commentators that she must have been a dragon or an anguiped.

Contents

Mythology

According to the Greek myth, recorded by Antoninus Liberalis, Sybaris or Lamia was a giant beast (Greek : θηρίον μέγα και υπερφυές [1] ) that dwelled on Mount Cirphis and terrorized the countryside of Krisa, situated a little southwest of Delphi (although the Homeric Hymn to Pythian Apollo suggests that Krisa was the ancient name for Delphi [2] ), devouring livestock and people.

The people of the region asked the Oracle of Delphi how to end the depredations. The god Apollo answered that a young man should be offered to the beast to achieve peace from it. The young and handsome Alcyoneus, son of Diomos and Meganeira, was selected to be the victim, but the young hero Eurybatus (Eurybarus), son of Euphemos and a descendant of the river god Axios, and who by divine inspiration was passing through the region, was overcome with love for Alcyoneus and became determined to save him. He took his place as the victim and hurled the dragon from the mountainside, striking it against the rocks where a fountain sprung up.

This spring was later named "Sybaris" by the locals, and was the namesake of the city of Sybaris (in what is now Italy), founded by the Locrians. [3]

Interpretations

Although the primary text only refers to the Lamia-Sybaris as a giant beast, [1] and gives no particulars on her physical description regarding any serpentine features, [4] modern commentators have given circumstantial evidence suggesting she was a dragoness, due to paralleling stories of the male dragon Python, that also despoiled the Delphi region. [1] [5]

Antoninus Liberalis gave "Lamia" as an alternate name for the creature, perhaps conflating Sybaris with the better known Lamia.[ citation needed ]

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 Fontenrose (1959), pp. 44–45.
  2. Hymn to Pythian Apollo, l. 254–74: Telphousa recommends to Apollo to build his oracle temple at the site of "Krisa below the glades of Parnassus".
  3. Antoninus Liberalis, 8 as cited in Boeus' Ornithogonia, quoted by Ogden (2013) , p. 105
  4. Ogden (2013), p. 105.
  5. Ogden (2013) , p. 105 gives the parallel with the dragon at Thespiae.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apollo</span> Greek god of music, prophecy and healing

Apollo is one of the Olympian deities in classical Greek and Roman religion and Greek and Roman mythology. Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, music and dance, truth and prophecy, healing and diseases, the Sun and light, poetry, and more. One of the most important and complex of the Greek gods, he is the son of Zeus and Leto, and the twin brother of Artemis, goddess of the hunt. He is considered to be the most beautiful god and is represented as the ideal of the kouros. Apollo is known in Greek-influenced Etruscan mythology as Apulu.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Delphi</span> Archaeological site and town in Greece

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 world. The ancient Greeks considered the centre of the world to be in Delphi, marked by the stone monument known as the Omphalos of Delphi (navel).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leto</span> Greek goddess and mother of Apollo and Artemis

In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Leto is a goddess and the mother of Apollo and Artemis. She is the daughter of the Titans Coeus and Phoebe, and the sister of Asteria.

In Greek mythology, Ischys was the son of Elatus and Hippea.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pythian Games</span> One of the Panhellenic Games of Ancient Greece

The Pythian Games were one of the four Panhellenic Games of Ancient Greece. They were held in honour of Apollo at his sanctuary in Delphi every four years, two years after the Olympic Games, and between each Nemean and Isthmian Games. The Pythian Games were founded sometime in the 6th century BC. In legend they were started by Apollo after he killed Python and set up the Oracle at Delphi. They continued until the 4th century AD.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Typhon</span> Deadly monster of Greek mythology

Typhon, also Typhoeus, Typhaon or Typhos, was a monstrous serpentine giant and one of the deadliest creatures in Greek mythology. According to Hesiod, Typhon was the son of Gaia and Tartarus. However, one source has Typhon as the son of Hera alone, while another makes Typhon the offspring of Cronus. Typhon and his mate Echidna were the progenitors of many famous monsters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Python (mythology)</span> Serpent in Greek mythology

In Greek mythology, Python was the serpent, sometimes represented as a medieval-style dragon, living at the center of the Earth, believed by the ancient Greeks to be at Delphi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antoninus Liberalis</span> Greek grammarian who lived between the 1st and 3rd centuries

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 as well as stories that are not attested in other ancient sources.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lamia</span> Figure in Greek mythology

Lamia, in ancient Greek mythology, was a child-eating monster and, in later tradition, was regarded as a type of night-haunting spirit or "daimon".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dragons in Greek mythology</span> Snake-like monsters from Greek mythology

Dragons play a significant role in Greek mythology. Though the Greek drakōn often differs from the modern Western conception of a dragon, it is both the etymological origin of the modern term and the source of many surviving Indo-European myths and legends about dragons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gerana</span> Pygmy Queen in Greek mythology

Gerana, sometimes also called Oenoe, is a queen of the Pygmy folk in Greek mythology, who incurred the wrath of the goddess Hera and was subsequently turned into a bird bearing her name, the crane. This aetiological tale explains the ancient rivalry between the Pygmies and the cranes, and also serves as a cautionary tale against the people who hubristically claimed to be better than even the gods themselves. Gerana's story bears some resemblance to that of Lamia, who was also a beautiful woman cursed by Hera and transformed into something unappealing.

In Greek mythology, Delphyne is the name given, by some accounts, to the monstrous serpent killed by Apollo at Delphi. Although, in Hellenistic and later accounts, the Delphic monster slain by Apollo is usually said to be the male serpent Python, in the earliest known account of this story, the Homeric Hymn to Apollo, the god kills a nameless she-serpent (drakaina), subsequently called Delphyne. According to the Suda, Delphi was named after Delphyne.

In Greek mythology, a drakaina is a female serpent or dragon, sometimes with humanlike features.

Meganeira or Meganira is a name that may refer to one of the following figures in Greek mythology:

Eurybarus or Eurybaros, Eurybatos (Εὐρύβατος) or Eurybates (Εὐρυβάτης) was a Greek mythological hero, son of Euphemus and a descendant of the river god Axios.

In Greek mythology, Alcyoneus is a young and handsome man from Crissa, the only son of Diomos and Meganeira. He features in a short myth where he is chosen to be the sacrificial victim for a beast called Sybaris that terrorised Delphi and the surrounding area, a prototypical example of the hero slays a monster and saves a princess tale. His tale survives in the writings of second-century author Antoninus Liberalis, and might originate from an older work by Nicander of Colophon.

In Greek mythology, Carmanor or Karmanor was a Cretan priest who purified Apollo after he killed the Delphic dragon Python. He was the father of two children Euboulus and Chrysothemis. According to Walter Burkert the name Carmanor "does not appear to be Greek".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coronis (lover of Apollo)</span> Ancient Greek princess of Thessaly

In Greek mythology, Coronis is a Thessalian princess and a lover of the god Apollo. She was the daughter of Phlegyas, king of the Lapiths, and Cleophema. By Apollo she became the mother of Asclepius, the Greek god of medicine. While she was still pregnant, she slept with a mortal man named Ischys and was subsequently killed by either the god or his sister Artemis for her betrayal. After failing to heal her, Apollo rescued their unborn child by performing a caesarean section. She was turned into a constellation after her death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lycius (son of Clinis)</span> Greek mythological character

Lycius is a minor Babylonian figure in Greek mythology, who features in two minor myths concerning the god Apollo. He was originally a man born to a wealthy family who disobeyed the orders of Apollo, thus becoming a white raven. Later the god made him his watchman.

In Greek mythology, Cleostratus is a teenage boy from Thespiae, a town in Boeotia, who is chosen to be offered to a dragon in a yearly sacrifice to the monster, until he is saved by his lover Menestratus. His and Menestratus's myth is known thanks to Description of Greece, a second-century work by Greek traveller and geographer Pausanias. Cleostratus' myth is an early example of the hero-tale where the hero saves a damsel or princess from a vicious dragon.

References