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Phyllis And Carya

Phyllis And Carya
PHYLLIS, a Thracian princess, was in love with Acamas, a son of Theseus, who had gone to fight at Troy. When Troy fell, and the Athenian fleet returned, Phyllis paid frequent visits to the shore, hoping to sight his ship; but this had been delayed by a leak, and she died of grief after her ninth fruitless visit, at a place called Enneodos. She was metamorphosed by Athene into an almond-tree, and Acamas, arriving on the following day, embraced only her rough bark. In response to his caresses the branches burst into flower instead of leaf, which has been a peculiarity of almond-trees ever since. Every year, the Athenians dance in her honour, and in his.
b. And Carya, daughter of a Laconian king, was beloved of Dionysus, but died suddenly at Caryae, and was metamorphosed by him into a walnut-tree. Artemis brought the news to the Laconians, who thereupon built a temple to Artemis Caryatis, from which Caryatids- female statues used as columns-take their name. At Caryae too, the Laconian women dance annually in the goddess’s honour, having been instructed by the Dioscuri.
1. Both these myths are told to account for the festal use of almond or walnut, in honour of Car, or Carya, otherwise known as Metis, the Titaness of Wisdom; and are apparently deduced from an icon which showed a young poet worshipping a nut-tree in the goddess’s presence, while nine young women performed a round dance. Enneodos, which occurs also in the legend of the Thracian Phyllis who drove Demophon mad, means ‘nine journeys’, and the number nine was connected with nuts by the Irish bards, and nuts with poetic inspiration; and in their tree-alphabet the letter coll (‘c’), meaning ‘hazel’-also expressed the number nine.
According to the Irish Dinnschenchas, the fountain of inspiration in the river Boy-ne was overhung by the nine hazels of poetic art, and inhabited by spotted fish which sang. Another Caryae (‘walnut-trees’) in Arcadia, stood close to a stream reported by Pausanias to contain the same peculiar kind of fish (Pausanias).
2. The goddess Car, who gave her name to Caria, became the Italian divinatory goddess Carmenta, ‘Car the Wise’, and the Caryatids are her nut-nymphs-as the Meliae are ashnymphs; the Mëliae, apple-nymphs; and the Dryads, oak-nymphs. Pliny has preserved the tradition that Car invented augury (Natural History). Phyllis (‘leafy’) may be a humble Greek version of the Palestinian and Mesopotarnian Great Goddess Belili; in the Demophon myth she is associated with Rhea.



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