AEDON

Daughter of Pandareos, wife of the Theban king Zethus, and mother of Itylus. Envious at her sister-in-law, Niobe, having six sons, she tries to kill the eldest, but by mistake kills her own. She is changed by Zeus into a nightingale, and for ever bewails her son. Later legend makes her the wife of an artificer Polytechnus at Colophon in Lydia; she stirs the anger of Hera by boasting that she lives more happily with her husband than the goddess with Zeus. Hera sends Eris ( - strife) to set on foot a wager between husband and wife, that whichever finishes first the piece of work they have in hand (be a chair, she a garment) shall make the other a present of a slave-girl. By Hera's help Aedon wins, and Polytechnus in vexation fetches her sister, Chelidonis, on a false pretext, from her father's house, and having, reduced her to submission oil the way, and bomid her to secrecy on pain of death, presents her to his wife unrecognised as a slave. One day Aedon overhears her sister lamenting her lot at a fountain, and concerts with her to slay Itylus, cook him, and set him before his father to eat. On learning the truth, Polytechnus pursues the sister to her home; but there the gods, to prevent more horrors, turn them all into birds, making Pandareos an osprey, his wife a kingfisher, Polytechnus a pelican, Chelidonis a swallow, and Aedon a nightingale. (Comp.PROCNE.)