Euphemus

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For other uses, see Euphemus (mythology).

In

Calydonian hunters[1] and the Argonauts, and was connected with the legend of the foundation of Cyrene.[2][3]

Family

Euphemus was a son of Poseidon, granted by his father the power to walk on water.[4] His mother is variously named: (1) Europe, daughter of the giant Tityos;[5] (2) Doris (Oris),[6] (3) Mecionice,[7][8] daughter of either Eurotas or Orion[6] or (4) lastly, Macionassa.[9] In some accounts he is said to have been married to Laonome, sister of Heracles.[8][10]

Mythology

Euphemus birthplace is given as "the banks of the

Taenarum in Laconia.[12][13][14][15] Euphemus joined the voyage of the Argonauts, and served the crew as helmsman.[8][16] He let a dove fly between the Symplegades to see if the ship would be able to pass as well.[17] By a Lemnian woman (Malicha, Malache, or Lamache) he became the father of Leucophanes.[8][18]

Euphemus was mythologically linked to the Greek colonization of

Cyrene.[2][3][19][20]

The Argonautica by Apollonius Rhodius appears to follow a different version of the same myth: in the poem, when the Argonauts arrive near Lake Tritonis, Euphemus accepts the clod of earth from Triton who first introduces himself as Eurypylus but later reveals his true divine identity.[21] Later, Euphemus has a dream of the clod producing drops of milk and then changing into a woman; in his dream, he has sex with the woman, and at the same time cries over her as if she were nursed by him; she then tells him that she is a daughter of Triton and Libya and the nurse of future children of Euphemus, and instructs him to entrust her to the care of the Nereids, promising that she would return in the future to provide a home for Euphemus' children. Euphemus consults Jason about this dream and, following his advice, throws the clod in the sea, whereupon it transforms into the island Calliste (Thera). The island is later colonized by the descendants of Euphemus who had previously been expelled from Lemnos and failed to find refuge in Sparta.[22]

Euphemus was portrayed on the chest of Cypselus as the winner of the chariot race at the funeral games of Pelias.[23]

In popular culture

In the 1963

motion picture Jason and the Argonauts Euphemus is portrayed by British actor/stuntman Doug Robinson. The film relegates him to being only a minor character recognized as being a champion swimmer. In contrast to his mythology, Euphemus is killed by the film's villain Acastus
who betrayed the Argonauts.

Notes

  1. Hyginus
    , Fabulae, 173
  2. ^ a b Emily Kearns, "Euphemus", in Simon Hornblower and Anthony Spawforth (editors), The Oxford Classical Dictionary, Oxford University Press 2009.
  3. ^
    JSTOR 639485
    accessed 23 November 2011.
  4. Hyginus
    , Fabulae 14
  5. ^ Hyginus, Fabulae 14; Pindar, Pythian Ode 4.45
  6. ^
    Tzetzes
    , Chiliades 2.43
  7. ^ a b Hesiod, Megalai Ehoiai fr. 253 Merkelbach & West (1967) in scholia on Pindar, Pythian Ode 4.35
  8. ^ a b c d Tzetzes on Lycophron, Alexandra 886
  9. ^ John Lempière, Argonautae
  10. ^ Scholia on Pindar, Pythian Ode 4. 76
  11. ^ Pindar, Pythia 4.46.
  12. ^ Hyginus, Fabulae 14
  13. Apollonius Rhodius
    , Argonautica, 1. 179
  14. Valerius Flaccus
    , Argonautica, 1. 365
  15. ^ Argonautica Orphica, 205
  16. ^ Pindar, Pythian Ode 4. 22
  17. ^ Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, 2. 536–562
  18. ^ Scholia on Pindar, Pythian Ode 4. 45
  19. ^ Pindar, Pythian Ode 4. 14–56
  20. ^ Herodotus, Histories, 4. 150
  21. Apollonius Rhodius
    , Argonautica, 4. 1551–1562
  22. Apollonius Rhodius
    , Argonautica, 4. 1731–1764
  23. ^ Pausanias, Description of Greece, 5. 17. 9

References

Bibliography
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