Eumolpus

This article is about the king of Thrace. For the genus of beetles, see Eumolpus (beetle). For the character in the Satyricon, see Satyricon § Principal characters.
Eumolpus
King of Thrace
AbodeThrace and later Eleusis
ParentsPoseidon and Chione or
Apollo and Astycome
Consort(1) Daeira
(2) Selene
Offspring(1 Immaradus
(2) Musaeus; Ceryx; ?Phorbas

In Greek Mythology, Eumolpus (/juˈmɒlpəs/; Ancient Greek: Εὔμολπος Eúmolpos, "good singer" or "sweet singing", derived from εὖ eu "good" and μολπή molpe "song", "singing") was a legendary king of Thrace. He was described as having come to Attica either as a bard, a warrior, or a priest of Demeter and Dionysus.

Family

Eumolpus was the son of Poseidon (Neptune in Roman tradition) and Chione.[1] In the legend he is described as neither Greek, nor Thracian or Roman, but Libyan and a native of North Africa,[2] though his mother Chione is said to be a Thracian princess.[3] An alternative genealogy also stated that Eumolpus was born to the god Apollo and the nymph Astycome.[4] He was the father of Immarados by the Oceanid Daeira.[5]

Mythology

Early years

According to the mythographer Apollodorus,[6][7] Chione, daughter of Boreas and the heroine Oreithyia, pregnant in secret with Eumolpus by Poseidon, was frightened of her father's reaction so she threw the baby into the ocean after giving birth to him. Poseidon however, looked after him and brought him to shore in Ethiopia, where Benthesikyme, a daughter of Poseidon and Amphitrite, raised the child as their own. When he grew up, Eumolpus married one of Benthesikyme's two daughters by her Ethiopian husband. Eumolpus however, loved a different daughter and made an attempt upon her chastity, and was banished because of this. He went to Thrace with his son Ismarus (or Immaradus) who was married to the daughter of King Tegyrius. Later on, Eumolpus was discovered in a plot to overthrow King Tegyrios and was obliged to take flight and fled to Eleusis where he formed a friendship with the Eleusinians.

In Eleusis, Eumolpus became one of the first priests of Demeter and one of the founders of the Eleusinian Mysteries.[8] When Ismarus died, Tegyrios sent for Eumolpus to return to Thrace, they made peace and Eumolpus inherited the Thracian kingdom.[9] During a war between Athens and Eleusis, Eumolpus sided with Eleusis and came with a numerous band of Thracians.

War with Athens

The traditions about this Eleusinian war, however, differ very much. According to some, the Eleusinians under Eumolpus attacked the Athenians under Erechtheus, but were defeated, and Eumolpus with his two sons, Phorbas and Immaradus, were slain.[10] Pausanias relates a tradition that in the battle between the Eleusinians and Athenians, Erechtheus and Immaradus fell, and that thereupon peace was concluded on condition that the Eleusinians should in other respects be subject to Athens, but that they alone should have the celebration of their mysteries, and that Eumolpus and the daughters of Celeus should perform the customary sacrifices.[11] His son, Immaradus, was killed by King Erechtheus. In some sources, Erechtheus having killed Eumolpus, Poseidon asked Zeus to avenge his son's death. Zeus killed Erechtheus with a lightning bolt or Poseidon made the earth open up and swallow Erechtheus. According to Hyginus,[12] Eumolpus came to Attica with a colony of Thracians, to claim the country as the property of his father, Poseidon.

Eleusis lost the battle with Athens but the Eumolpides and Kerykes, two families of priests to Demeter, continued the Eleusinian mysteries. Eumolpus' youngest son, Herald-Keryx who succeeded him in the priestly office, founded the lines.

Other feats

Mythology regards Eumolpus as the founder of the Eleusinian mysteries, and as the first priest of Demeter and Dionysus; the goddess herself taught him, Triptolemus, Diocles, and Celeus, the sacred rites, and he is therefore sometimes described as having himself invented the cultivation of the vine and of fruit-trees in general.[13][14][15]

Eumolpus was an excellent musician and singer; he played the aulos and the lyre. He won a musical contest in the funereal games of Pelias. Eumolpus was regarded as an ancient priestly bard, poems and writings on the mysteries were fabricated and circulated at a later time under his name. One hexameter line of a Dionysiac hymn, ascribed to him, is preserved in Diodorus.[16][17] The legends connected him also with Heracles, whom he is said to have instructed in music, or initiated into the mysteries.[18][19][20]

According to Diogenes Laërtius Eumolpus was the father of Musaeus.[21] Lastly, according to Philochorus, Eumolpus was the father of the legendary poet Musaeus by the lunar goddess Selene.[22]

The tomb of Eumolpus was shown both at Eleusis and Athens.[23] The difference in the traditions about Eumolpus led some of the ancients to suppose that two or three persons of that name ought to be distinguished.[24][25][26]

Legacy

Vinzenz Brinkmann and Ulrike Koch-Brinkmann have identified a 5th-century bronze statue called Riace B as being a representation of Eumolpus.[27] The fingers of the well-preserved statue indicate that the figure was originally carrying a bow and arrow, typical of Thracian warriors.

Notes

  1. ^ "A Classical Dictionary". 1831.
  2. ^ Sweeney, Emmet John (2010). Atlantis. Algora. ISBN 9780875867731.
  3. ^ Bremmer, Jan N. (18 March 2014). Interpretations of Greek Mythology (Routledge Revivals). Routledge. ISBN 9781317800248.
  4. ^ Photius, Lexicon s.v. Eumolpidai
  5. ^ Clement of Alexandria, Exhortations 45.1
  6. ^ Apollodorus, 3.15.4.
  7. ^ Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio 1.38.2
  8. ^ Homeric Hymn to Demeter, 147, 474.
  9. ^ Apollodorus, 3.15.4.
  10. ^ Thucydides. ii. 15; Plutarch. Menex. p. 239; Isocrates, Panathenaicus 193; Plutarch, Parallela minora 20; Scholia ad Euripides, Phoenissae 854.
  11. ^ Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio 1.38.3
  12. ^ Hyginus, Fabulae 46; compare: Strabo, Geographica 7, p. 321
  13. ^ Homeric Hymn to Demeter 476
  14. ^ Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 7.53
  15. ^ Ovid, Metamorphoses 10.93
  16. ^ Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca historica 1.11
  17. ^ Suida, Suda Encyclopedia s.v.
  18. ^ Hyginus, Fabulae 273
  19. ^ Theocritus, Idylls 24.108
  20. ^ Apollodorus, 2.5.12.
  21. ^ Diogenes Laërtius, Lives Introduction
  22. ^ Smith, s.v. Musaeus (literary 1); Philochorus FHG fr. 200 (Müller) [= Scholia on Aristophanes's Frogs 1033].
  23. ^ Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio 1.38.2
  24. ^ Hesychius s.v. Eumolpidai
  25. ^ Scholia on Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus 1051
  26. ^ Photius, Lex. s. v. Eumolpidai
  27. ^ Brinkmann, Vinzenz; Koch-Brinkmann, Ulrike (2019-12-31). "The experimental reconstruction of the bronze warriors of Riace as part of the Frankfurt "Liebieghaus Polychromy Research Project"". Technè (48): 120–132. doi:10.4000/techne.2707. ISSN 1254-7867. S2CID 226784786.

References