Leucone
In
Mythology
Nothing is known about Leucone's family or homeland, though she might had been from Thessaly, like her husband Cyanippus.
According to the myth, Cyanippus begged Leucone's parents for her hand in marriage, and they agreed. They married, but Cyanippus loved to hunt lions and bears in the woods more than anything, and often he would return home at night too tired to even talk to Leucone or he would spend the night at the forest.[2] Leucone began suspecting that he husband was being unfaithful to her, so one day she dressed up in hunting gear and followed him in secret as he went out to hunt. Cyanippus's extremely savage hunting hounds scented Leucone while he was not around, thought her for some wild animal, and in the absence of their master, attacked and tore her in pieces.[3] Cyanippus then found her torn body and lit up her funeral pyre with the help of his hunting companions. As he set her up in the pyre, he slew the hounds, and after much weeping for his dead wife he took his own life as well.[4]
See also
Mythology portal
- Actaeon, another man who was devoured by his own hunting dogs
- Procris, another woman who followed her husband in fears of infidelity and ended up dead
References
- . Retrieved February 28, 2024.
- ^ Pseudo-Plutarch, Greek and Roman Parallel Stories 21: Cyanippus and Aemilius
- ^ Paradoxographers, p. 223
- ^ Parthenius of Nicaea, Love Romances 10
Bibliography
- Parthenius of Nicaea, Love Romances, translated by Sir Stephen Gaselee (1882–1943), Loeb Classical Library, 1916. Online version at topos text.
- Plutarch, Moralia, Volume IV: Roman Questions. Greek Questions. Greek and Roman Parallel Stories. On the Fortune of the Romans. On the Fortune or the Virtue of Alexander. Were the Athenians More Famous in War or in Wisdom?, translated by Frank Cole Babbitt. Loeb Classical Library 305. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1936.
- Westermann, Anton (1839). Paradoxographoe. London: Harvard College Library.