In Greek mythology, Arethusa (/ˌærɪˈθjuːzə/; Ancient Greek: Ἀρέθουσα, romanized: Aréthousa) is a minor figure from Ithaca who is transformed into a fountain bearing her name. Her story survives in scholia on Homer's epic poem the Odyssey.
Mythology[edit]
Arethusa was a woman from the island of Ithaca; other than a son, no other family or lineage of hers is preserved. According to an anonymous scholiast on Homer, Arethusa had a son named Corax (meaning "raven") who was a hunter.[1] One day while hunting a hare, Corax accidentally fell off a cliff and died. Out of grief for losing her son, the inconsolable Arethusa was transformed into a fountain bearing her name on the spot Corax died, while the rock there took the name of the dead son thereafter.[2][3]
In the Odyssey, after returning home following a long ten-year long journey, the disguised king Odysseus finds his slave Eumaeus tending the swine which graze next to the rock of Corax and the fountain of Arethusa.[4][5]
Arethusa was a common name for springs in antiquity; today a spring with the same name in Pera Pigadi on Ithaca can be potentially identified with the mythological one, but much of this is speculative.[6]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ Metta, Demetra. "Μορφές και Θέματα της Αρχαίας Ελληνικής Μυθολογίας: Αρέθουσα" [Figures and Themes of Greek Mythology: Arethusa]. www.greek-language.gr (in Greek). Retrieved May 4, 2024.
- ^ Scholia on the Odyssey 408
- ^ Stephanus of Byzantium s.v. Arethusa
- ^ Homer, Odyssey 13.379-81
- ^ Greatheed et al. 1809, p. 121.
- ^ Strauch, Daniel (October 1, 2006). "Arethusa". In Cancik, Hubert; Schneider, Helmuth (eds.). Brill's New Pauly. Berlin: Brill Reference Online. doi:10.1163/1574-9347_bnp_e134010. ISSN 1574-9347. Retrieved May 4, 2024.
Bibliography[edit]
- Dindorf, Wilhelm, ed. (1855). Scholia Graeca in Homeri Odysseam Ex Codicibus Aucta Et Emendata. Vol. II. Typographeo Academico. ISBN 978-5-87561-491-0.
- Greatheed, Samuel; Parken, Daniel; Williams, Theophilus; Conder, Josiah; Price, Thomas; Ryland, Jonathan Edwards; Paxton Hood, Edwin (1809). "Gell's Antiquities of Ithaca". The Eclectic Review. Vol. V.
- Homer (2015). The Odyssey. Translated by Barry P. Powell. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-992588-9.
- Stephanus of Byzantium, Ethnica, edited by August Meineike (1790–1870), published 1849.
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