Tityos

Encyclopedia : T : TI : TIT : Tityos

In Greek mythology Tityos was a giant chthonic being of a Titan-like order, the son of Elara, the daughter of King Orchomenus, and Zeus. Zeus hid her from his wife, Hera, by placing her deep beneath the earth. This was where she gave birth to Tityos, who is sometimes said to be the son of Elara and sometimes of Gaia, the earth goddess, for this reason.

Tityos threatened Leto and assailed her in her wanderings, which made him a suitable victim of Apollo and Artemis. Tityos was a phallic being who grew so vast that he split his mother's womb and had to be carried to term by Gaia herself. He attempted to waylay Leto near Delphi, but was laid low by the arrows of Apollo— or possibly Artemis, as another myth-teller recalled. Jane Ellen Harrison noted "To the orthodox worshipper of the Olympians he was the vilest of criminals; as such Homer knew him":

::''I saw Tityus too,

''son of the mighty Goddess Earth—sprawling there

''on the ground, spread over nine acres—two vultures

''hunched on either side of him, digging into his liver,

''beaking deep in the blood-sac, and he with his frantic hands

''could never beat them off, for he had once dragged off

''the famous consort of Zeus in all her glory,

''Leto, threading her way toward Pytho's ridge

''over the lovely dancing-rings of Panopeus". (Robert Fagles' translation)

In the early first century, when the geographer Strabo visited Panopeus (ix.3.423), he was reminded by the local people that it was the abode of Tityos and recalled the fact that the Phaeacians had carried Rhadamanthys in their boats to visit Tityos, according to Homer (Oddysey vii.372). There on Euboea at the time of Strabo they were still showing a "cave called Elarion from Elara who was mother to Tityos, and a hero-shrine of Tityos, and some kind of honours are mentioned which are paid him."Quoted in Harrison 1903, p 336. It is clear that the local hero-cult had been superseded by the cult of the Ol;ympian gods, and the hero demonized.

Notes

References

Harrison, Jane Ellen, Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion (1903), pp 336f

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.