Dictionary
PROCNE	100.00%
Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 A daughter of the Athenian king Pandion and Zeuxippe, sister of Philomela. She was given in marriage by her father to the Thracian prince Tereus, in Daulis near Parnassus, in return for assistance given him in war. Tereus became by her the father of lt~s. Pretending that his wife Procne was dead, Tereus fetched her sister Philomela from Athens, Find ravished her on the wav. He then cut,out her tongue that she might be unable to inform against him, and concealed her in a grove on Parnassus; but the unfortunate girl contrived to inform her sister of what had happened by a robe into which she ingeniously wove, the story of her fate. Taking the opportunity of a feast of Dionysus in Parnassus, Procne went in quest of her sister, and agreed with her on a bloody revenge. They slew the boy Itys, and served him up to his father to eat. When Tereus learnt the outrage, and was on the point of slaying the sisters, the gods changed him into a hoopoe or hawk, Procne into a nightingale, and Philomela into a swallow, or (according to another version) Procne into a swallow, and Philomela into a nightingale. (See AEDON)/.
ITYLUS	100.00%
Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 See AEDON, PROCNE.
TEREUS	87.98%
King of Daulis, husband of Procne (q.v.).
PANDION	85.22%
Son of Erichthonius, father of Procne and Erechtheus (q.v.).
ERECHTHEUS	12.88%
Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64 A mythical king of Athens. According to Homer he was the son of Earth by Hephaestus, and brought up by Athene. Like that of Cecrops, half of his form was that of a snake-a sign that he was one of the aborigines. Athene put the child in a chest which she gave to the daughters of Cecrops, Agraulos, Herse, and Pandrosos, to take care of; forbidding them at the same time to open it. The two eldest disobeyed, and in terror at the serpent-shaped child (or according to another version, the snake that surrounded the child), they went mad, and threw themselves from the rocks of the Acropolis. Another account made the serpent kill them. Erechtheus drove out Amphictyon, and got possession of the kingdom. He then established the worship of Athene, and built to her, as goddess of the city (Polias), a temple, named after him the Erechtheum. Here he was afterwards worshipped himself with Athene and Poseidon. He was also the founder of the Panathenaic festival. He was said to have invented the four-wheeled chariot, and to have been taken up to heaven for this by Zeus, and set in the sky as the constellation of the charioteer. His daughters were Orithyia and Procris (see BOREAS and CEPHALUS). Originally identified with Erichthonius, he was in later times distinguished from him, and was regarded as his grandson, and as son of Pandion and Zeuxippe. His twin brother was Butes, his sisters Procne and Philomela. The priestly office fell to Butes, while Erechtheus assumed the functions of royalty. By Praxithea, the daughter of Cephissus, he Was father of the second Cecrops (see PANDION, 2), of Metion (see DAeDALUS); of Creusa (see ION), as well as of Protogoneia, Pandora, and Chthonia. When Athens was pressed hard by the Eleusinians under Eumolpus, the oracle promised him the victory if he would sacrifice one of his daughters. He chose the youngest, Chthonia; but Protogeneia and Pandora, who had made a vow with their sister to die with her, voluntarily shared her fate. Erechtheus conquered his enemies and slew Eumolpus, but was afterwards destroyed by the trident of his enemy's father, Poseidon.
AEDON	11.26%
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.)