Pierides (mythology)
In Greek mythology, the Pierides (
Names and Family
The Pierides were the daughters of
Mythology
Ovid's Account
In
Calliope sang many stories from myths during the contest with the Pierides. The Muse recounted the abduction of Persephone by god of underworld, Hades and the sorrow of the young girl's mother, the goddess Demeter for the loss of her beloved daughter. Calliope also told the account of the unrequited love of the river god Alpheus to the nymph Arethusa and also the adventure of hero Triptolemus in Scythia where he encountered the envious King Lyncus. The following lines described the punishment of the victorious Muses to their vanquished opponents, the Pierides, being transformed into birds:[9]
"The greatest of our number ended thus her learned songs; and with concordant voice the chosen Nymphs adjudged the Deities, on Helicon who dwell, should be proclaimed the victors. But the vanquished nine began to scatter their abuse; to whom rejoined the goddess; `Since it seems a trifling thing that you should suffer a deserved defeat, and you must add unmerited abuse to heighten your offence, and since by this appears the end of our endurance, we shall certainly proceed to punish you according to the limit of our wrath.’ But these Emathian sisters laughed to scorn our threatening words; and as they tried to speak, and made great clamour, and with shameless hands made threatening gestures, suddenly stiff quills sprouted from out their finger-nails, and plumes spread over their stretched arms; and they could see the mouth of each companion growing out into a rigid beak.—And thus new birds were added to the forest.—While they made complaint, these jays that defile our groves, moving their stretched-out arms, began to float, suspended in the air. And since that time their ancient eloquence, their screaming notes, their tiresome zeal of speech have all remained."
.jpg)
Antoninus' Account
Another retelling of the contest of Pierides and Muses appeared in Antoninus Liberalis' Metamorphoses:[10]
Zeus made love to Mnemosyne in Pieria and became father of the Muses. Around about that time Pierus, was king of Emathia, sprung from its very soil. He had nine daughters. They were the ones who formed a choir in opposition to the Muses. And there was a musical contest in Helicon.
Whenever the daughters of Pierus began to sing, all creation went dark and no one would give an ear to their choral performance. But when the Muses sang, heaven, the stars, the sea and rivers stood still, while Mount Helicon, beguiled by the pleasure of it all, swelled skywards tilI, by the will of Poseidon, Pegasus checked it by striking the summit with his hoof.
Since these mortals had taken upon themselves to strive with goddesses, the Muses changed them into nine birds. To this day people refer to them as the grebe, the wryneck, the ortolan, the jay, the greenfinch, the goldfinch, the duck, the woodpecker and the dracontis pigeon.
Notes
- ^ Quintus Smyrnaeus, Posthomerica 6.76.
- Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, s.v. Pierides
- ^ Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio 9.29.3; Antoninus Liberalis. Metamorphoses 9 s.v. Emathides
- ^ Cicero, De Natura Deorum 3.21
- ^ Ovid, Metamorphoses 5.268
- ^ William Smith. A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. s.v. Emathus
- ^ Arnobius, Adversus Nationes 3.37; Tzetzes on Hesiod, Works and Days 6
- ^ Ovid, Metamorphoses 5.300 ff.
- ^ Ovid, Metamorphoses 5.662
- ^ Antoninus Liberalis, Metamorphoses 9 s.v. Emathides; Nicander tells this tale in his fourth book of his Heteroeumena ("Metamorphoses").
References
- Antoninus Liberalis, The Metamorphoses of Antoninus Liberalis translated by Francis Celoria (Routledge 1992). Online version at the Topos Text Project.
- Marcus Tullius Cicero, Nature of the Gods from the Treatises of M.T. Cicero translated by Charles Duke Yonge (1812-1891), Bohn edition of 1878. Online version at the Topos Text Project.
- Marcus Tullius Cicero, De Natura Deorum. O. Plasberg. Leipzig. Teubner. 1917. Latin text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio. 3 vols. Leipzig, Teubner. 1903. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Publius Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoses translated by Brookes More (1859-1942). Boston, Cornhill Publishing Co. 1922. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Publius Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoses. Hugo Magnus. Gotha (Germany). Friedr. Andr. Perthes. 1892. Latin text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Peck, Harry Thurston, Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. New York. Harper and Brothers. 1898
- Quintus Smyrnaeus, The Fall of Troy translated by Way. A. S. Loeb Classical Library Volume 19. London: William Heinemann, 1913. Online version at theio.com
- Quintus Smyrnaeus, The Fall of Troy. Arthur S. Way. London: William Heinemann; New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. 1913. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
- William Smith. A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. London (1873).
.jpg)
.jpg)
