TEREUS, a son of Ares, ruled over the Thracians then occupying Phocian Daulis- though some say that he was King of Pagae in Megaris-and, having acted as mediator in a boundary dispute for Pandion, King of Athens and father of twins Butes and Erechtcheus; married their sister Procne, who bore him a son, Itys.
b. Unfortunately Tereus, enchanted by the voice of Pandion’s younger sister Philomela, had fallen in love with her; and, a year later concealing Procne in a rustic cabin near his palace at Daulis, he reported her death to Pandion. Pandion, condoling with Tereus, generously offered him Philomela in Procne’s place, and provided Athenian guards as her escort when she went to Daulis for the wedding. The guards Tereus murdered and, when Philomela reached the palace had already forced her to lie with him. Procne soon heard the news, but, as a measure of precaution, Tereus cut out her tongue and confined to the slaves’ quarters, where she could communicate with Philomela only by weaving a secret message into the pattern of a bridal robe intended for her. This ran simply: ‘Procne is among the slaves.’
c. Meanwhile, an oracle had warned Tereus that Itys would die the hand of a blood relative and, suspecting his brother Dryas of murderous plot to seize the throne, struck him down unexpectedly with an axe. The same day, Philomela read the message woven into robe. She hurried to the slaves’ quarters, found one of the rooms, broke down the door, and released Procne, who was chattering unintelligibly and running around in circles.
‘Oh, to be revenged on Tereus, who pretended that you were dead and seduced me!’ wafted Philomela, aghast.
Procne, being tongueless, could not reply, but flew out and, seized her son Itys, killed him, gutted him, and then boiled him in a cauldron for Tereus to eat on his return.
d. When Tereus realized what flesh he had been tasting, he grasped the axe with which he had killed Dryas and pursued the sisters as they fled from the palace. He soon overtook them and was on the point of committing a double murder when the gods changed all three into birds; Procne became a swallow; Philomela-a nightingale; Tereus-a hoopoe. And the Phocians say that no swallow dares nest in Daulis and its environs, and no nightingale sings, for fear of Tereus. But swallow, having no tongue, screams and flies around in circles; and the hoopoe flutters in pursuit of her, crying ‘Pou? Pou?’ (where? where?). Meanwhile, the nightingale retreats to Athens, where mourns without cease for Itys, whose death she inadvertently caused singing ‘Itu! Itu!’
e. But some say that Tereus was turned into a hawk.
1. This extravagant romance seems to have been invented to account for a series of Thraco-Pelasgian wall-paintings, found by Phocian invaders in a temple at Daulis (‘shaggy’), which illustrated different methods of prophecy in local use.
2. The cutting-out of Procne’s tongue misrepresents a scene showing a prophetess in a trance, induced by the chewing of laurel-leaves; her face is contorted with ecstasy, not pain, and the tongue which seems to have been cut out is in fact a laurel-leave handed her by the priest who interprets her wild babblings. The weaving of the letters into the bridal robe misrepresents another scene: a priestess has cast a handful of oracular sticks on a white cloth, in the Celtic Fashion described by Tacitus (Germania), or the Scythian fashion described by Herodotus; they take the shape of letters, which she is about to read. In the so-called eating of Itys by Tereus, a willow-priestess is taking omens from the entrails of a child sacrificed for the benefit of a king. The scene of Tereus and the oracle probably showed him asleep on a sheep-skin in a temple, receiving a dream revelation; the Greeks would not have mistaken this. That of Dryas’s murder probably showed an oak-tree and priests taking omens beneath it, in Druidic fashion, by the way a man fell when he died. Procne’s transformation into a swallow will have been deduced from a scene that showed a priestess in a feathered robe, taking auguries from the flight of a swallow; Philomela’s transformation into a nightingale, and Tereus’s into a hoopoe, seem to result from similar misreadings. Tereus’s name, which means ‘watcher’, suggests that a male augur figured in the hoopoe picture.
3. Two further scenes may be presumed: a serpent-tailed oracular hero, being offered blood-sacrifices; and a young man consulting a bee-oracle. These are, respectively, Erechtheus and Butes who was the most famous bee-keeper of antiquity, the brothers of Procne and Philomela. Their mother was Zeuxippe, ‘she who yokes horses’, doubtless a Mare-headed Demeter.
4. All mythographers but Hyginus make Procne a nightingale, and Philomela a swallow. This must be a clumsy attempt to rectify a slip made by some earlier poet: that Tereus cut out Philomela’s tongue, not Procne’s. The hoopoe is a royal bird, because it has a crest of feathers, and is particularly appropriate to the story of Tereus, because it is notorious for their stench. According to the Koran, the Solomon prophetic secrets.
5. Daulis, afterwards called Phocis, seems to have been the centre of bird cult. Phocus, the eponymous founder of the new state, was the son of Ornytion (‘moon bird’), and a later king was named Xuthus (‘sparrow’). Hyginus reports that Tereus became hawk, a royal bird of Egypt, Thrace, and North-western Europe.
b. Unfortunately Tereus, enchanted by the voice of Pandion’s younger sister Philomela, had fallen in love with her; and, a year later concealing Procne in a rustic cabin near his palace at Daulis, he reported her death to Pandion. Pandion, condoling with Tereus, generously offered him Philomela in Procne’s place, and provided Athenian guards as her escort when she went to Daulis for the wedding. The guards Tereus murdered and, when Philomela reached the palace had already forced her to lie with him. Procne soon heard the news, but, as a measure of precaution, Tereus cut out her tongue and confined to the slaves’ quarters, where she could communicate with Philomela only by weaving a secret message into the pattern of a bridal robe intended for her. This ran simply: ‘Procne is among the slaves.’
‘Oh, to be revenged on Tereus, who pretended that you were dead and seduced me!’ wafted Philomela, aghast.
Procne, being tongueless, could not reply, but flew out and, seized her son Itys, killed him, gutted him, and then boiled him in a cauldron for Tereus to eat on his return.
e. But some say that Tereus was turned into a hawk.
1. This extravagant romance seems to have been invented to account for a series of Thraco-Pelasgian wall-paintings, found by Phocian invaders in a temple at Daulis (‘shaggy’), which illustrated different methods of prophecy in local use.
2. The cutting-out of Procne’s tongue misrepresents a scene showing a prophetess in a trance, induced by the chewing of laurel-leaves; her face is contorted with ecstasy, not pain, and the tongue which seems to have been cut out is in fact a laurel-leave handed her by the priest who interprets her wild babblings. The weaving of the letters into the bridal robe misrepresents another scene: a priestess has cast a handful of oracular sticks on a white cloth, in the Celtic Fashion described by Tacitus (Germania), or the Scythian fashion described by Herodotus; they take the shape of letters, which she is about to read. In the so-called eating of Itys by Tereus, a willow-priestess is taking omens from the entrails of a child sacrificed for the benefit of a king. The scene of Tereus and the oracle probably showed him asleep on a sheep-skin in a temple, receiving a dream revelation; the Greeks would not have mistaken this. That of Dryas’s murder probably showed an oak-tree and priests taking omens beneath it, in Druidic fashion, by the way a man fell when he died. Procne’s transformation into a swallow will have been deduced from a scene that showed a priestess in a feathered robe, taking auguries from the flight of a swallow; Philomela’s transformation into a nightingale, and Tereus’s into a hoopoe, seem to result from similar misreadings. Tereus’s name, which means ‘watcher’, suggests that a male augur figured in the hoopoe picture.
3. Two further scenes may be presumed: a serpent-tailed oracular hero, being offered blood-sacrifices; and a young man consulting a bee-oracle. These are, respectively, Erechtheus and Butes who was the most famous bee-keeper of antiquity, the brothers of Procne and Philomela. Their mother was Zeuxippe, ‘she who yokes horses’, doubtless a Mare-headed Demeter.
5. Daulis, afterwards called Phocis, seems to have been the centre of bird cult. Phocus, the eponymous founder of the new state, was the son of Ornytion (‘moon bird’), and a later king was named Xuthus (‘sparrow’). Hyginus reports that Tereus became hawk, a royal bird of Egypt, Thrace, and North-western Europe.
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