In
Greek mythologyGreek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...
,
Eumolpus (also
Eumolpos) was the son of
PoseidonIn Greek mythology, Poseidon was the god of the sea and, as "Earth-Shaker," of earthquakes. The name of the sea-god Nethuns in Etruscan was adopted in Latin for Neptune in Roman mythology: both were sea gods analogous to Poseidon...
and
ChioneIn Greek mythology Chione, the snow-nymph, was the daughter of Boreas, the North Wind and Oreithyia, whom he abducted. The Eumolpidae in charge of the Eleusinian mysteries claimed descent from her, as the mother of Eumolpus with Poseidon....
. According to
ApollodorusApollodorus of Athens son of Asclepiades, was a Greek scholar and grammarian. He was a pupil of Diogenes of Babylon, Panaetius the Stoic, and the grammarian Aristarchus of Samothrace...
, Chione, daughter of Boreas and
OreithyiaIn Greek mythology, Orithyia was the daughter of King Erechtheus of Athens and his wife, Praxithea. Her brothers were Cecrops, Pandorus, and Metion, and her sisters were Procris, Creusa, and Chthonia....
, pregnant with Eumolpus by Poseidon, was frightened of her father's reaction so she threw the baby into the ocean. Poseidon looked after him and brought him to shore in
EthiopiaEthiopia , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country situated in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Sudan to the west, Kenya to the south, Somalia to the east and Djibouti to the northeast. Its size is 1,100,000 km² with an...
, where
BenthesikymeBenthesikyme in Greek mythology according to Apollodorus , was a daughter of Poseidon and Amphitrite and wife of an unnamed Ethiopian by whom she had two daughters. She raised Eumolpus, son of Chione and Poseidon....
, a daughter of Poseidon and
AmphitriteIn ancient Greek mythology, Amphitrite was a sea-goddess. Under the influence of the Olympian pantheon, she became merely the consort of Poseidon, and was further diminished by poets to a symbolic representation of the sea...
, raised the child, who then married one of Benthesikyme's two daughters by her Ethiopian husband.
In
Greek mythologyGreek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...
,
Eumolpus (also
Eumolpos) was the son of
PoseidonIn Greek mythology, Poseidon was the god of the sea and, as "Earth-Shaker," of earthquakes. The name of the sea-god Nethuns in Etruscan was adopted in Latin for Neptune in Roman mythology: both were sea gods analogous to Poseidon...
and
ChioneIn Greek mythology Chione, the snow-nymph, was the daughter of Boreas, the North Wind and Oreithyia, whom he abducted. The Eumolpidae in charge of the Eleusinian mysteries claimed descent from her, as the mother of Eumolpus with Poseidon....
. According to
ApollodorusApollodorus of Athens son of Asclepiades, was a Greek scholar and grammarian. He was a pupil of Diogenes of Babylon, Panaetius the Stoic, and the grammarian Aristarchus of Samothrace...
, Chione, daughter of Boreas and
OreithyiaIn Greek mythology, Orithyia was the daughter of King Erechtheus of Athens and his wife, Praxithea. Her brothers were Cecrops, Pandorus, and Metion, and her sisters were Procris, Creusa, and Chthonia....
, pregnant with Eumolpus by Poseidon, was frightened of her father's reaction so she threw the baby into the ocean. Poseidon looked after him and brought him to shore in
EthiopiaEthiopia , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country situated in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Sudan to the west, Kenya to the south, Somalia to the east and Djibouti to the northeast. Its size is 1,100,000 km² with an...
, where
BenthesikymeBenthesikyme in Greek mythology according to Apollodorus , was a daughter of Poseidon and Amphitrite and wife of an unnamed Ethiopian by whom she had two daughters. She raised Eumolpus, son of Chione and Poseidon....
, a daughter of Poseidon and
AmphitriteIn ancient Greek mythology, Amphitrite was a sea-goddess. Under the influence of the Olympian pantheon, she became merely the consort of Poseidon, and was further diminished by poets to a symbolic representation of the sea...
, raised the child, who then married one of Benthesikyme's two daughters by her Ethiopian husband. Eumolpus however loved a different daughter and was banished because of this. He went with his son Ismarus (or Immaradus) to
ThraceThrace is a historical and geographic area in southeast Europe. As a geographical concept, Thrace designates a region bounded on the north by the Balkan Mountains, on the south by the Rhodope Mountains and the Aegean Sea and on the east by the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara...
. There, he was discovered in a plot to overthrow King
TegyriosIn Greek mythology, King Tegyrios of Thrace welcomed the exiled Eumolpus, who then planned to overthrow him. Tegyrios banished him, but later, on his deathbed, Tegyrios forgave him and gave him his kingdom....
and fled to Eleusis.
In Eleusis, Eumolpus became one of the first priests of
DemeterDemeter , in Greek mythology, is the Goddess of grain and fertility, the pure...
and one of the founders of the
Eleusinian MysteriesThe Eleusinian Mysteries were initiation ceremonies held every year for the cult of Demeter and Persephone based at Eleusis in ancient Greece. Of all the mysteries celebrated in ancient times, these were held to be the ones of greatest importance. These myths and mysteries, begun in the Mycenean...
. He initiated
HeraclesIn Greek mythology, Heracles or Herakles , Alcides or Alcaeus , was a divine hero, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, foster son of Amphitryon and great-grandson of Perseus...
into the mysteries. When Ismarus died, Tegyrios sent for Eumolpus, they made peace and Eumolpus inherited the Thracian kingdom. Eumolpus was an excellent musician and singer; he played the
aulosAn aulos or tibia was an ancient Greek musical instrument. Different kinds of instruments bore the name, including a single pipe without a reed called the monaulos , and a single pipe held horizontally, as the modern flute, called the plagiaulos An aulos (Greek αὐλός, plural αὐλοί, auloi) or...
and the
lyreThe lyre is a stringed musical instrument well known for its use in classical antiquity and later. The recitations of the Ancient Greeks were accompanied by lyre playing. The lyre of Classical Antiquity was ordinarily played by being strummed with a plectrum, like a guitar or a zither, rather than...
. He won a musical contest in the funereal games of
PeliasPelias was king of Iolcus in Greek mythology, the son of Tyro and Poseidon. His wife is recorded as either Anaxibia, daughter of Bias, or Phylomache, daughter of Amphion. He was the father of Acastus, Pisidice, Alcestis, Pelopia, Hippothoe, Asteropia, Antinoe, and Medusa.Tyro was married to...
. He taught music to
HeraclesIn Greek mythology, Heracles or Herakles , Alcides or Alcaeus , was a divine hero, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, foster son of Amphitryon and great-grandson of Perseus...
. During a war between Athens and Eleusis, Eumolpus sided with Eleusis. His son,
HimmaradosIn Greek mythology, Himmarados was a son of King Eumolpus of Thrace. During the war between Eleusis and Athens, Himmarados led the Thracian armies on the side of Eleusis. He was killed by Erechtheus....
, was killed by King Erechtheus. In some sources, Erechtheus also killed Eumolpus and that Poseidon asked
ZeusIn Greek mythology, Zeus is the king of the gods, the ruler of Mount Olympus and the god of the sky and thunder. His symbols are the thunderbolt, eagle, bull, and oak. In addition to his Indo-European inheritance, the classical "cloud-gatherer" also derives certain iconographic traits from the...
to avenge his son's death. Zeus killed Erechtheus with a lightning bolt or Poseidon made the earth open up and swallow Erechtheus. Eleusis lost the battle with Athens but the Eumolpides and
KerykesThe Kerykes were one of the sacred Eleusinian families of priests that ran the Eleusinian Mysteries during the Hellenic era. They popularized the cult and allowed many more to be initiated into the great secrets of Demeter and Persephone. Starting about 300 BC, the state took over control of the...
, two families of priests to Demeter, continued the Eleusinian mysteries. Eumolpus' youngest son,
Herald-KeryxIn Greek mythology, Herald-Keryx was the youngest son of Eumolpus, one of the first priests of Demeter at Eleusis and a founder of the Eleusinian Mysteries. He founded the two families of high priests in Eleusis: the Eumolpidae and the Kerykes....
founded the lines.
Sources
- Anonymous, The Homeric Hymns
The thirty-three anonymous Homeric Hymns celebrating individual gods are a collection of ancient Greek hymns, "Homeric" in the sense that they employ the same epic meter— dactylic hexameter— as the Iliad and Odyssey, use many similar formulas and are couched in the same dialect...
and Homerica, with an English translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White. Homeric Hymns. Cambridge, MA.,Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. ISBN 0-674-99063-3
- Apollodorus
Apollodorus of Athens son of Asclepiades, was a Greek scholar and grammarian. He was a pupil of Diogenes of Babylon, Panaetius the Stoic, and the grammarian Aristarchus of Samothrace...
, Apollodorus, The Library, Sir James George Frazer (translator), two volumes: Loeb Classical Library, #121, Books I-III and #122, Book III; Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; (1921) ISBN 0-674-99135-4, ISBN 0-674-99136-2
- Graves, Robert. The Greek Myths. Volume 1, Penguin Books, Revised Edition (1960), Reprinted 1986.
- Pausanias
Pausanias was a Greek traveller and geographer of the 2nd century AD, who lived in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. He is famous for his Description of Greece , a lengthy work that describes ancient Greece from firsthand observations, and is a crucial link between...
, Description of Greece, Books I-II, (Loeb Classical LibraryThe Loeb Classical Library is a series of books, today published by Harvard University Press, which presents important works of ancient Greek and Latin Literature in a way designed to make the text accessible to the broadest possible audience, by presenting the original Greek or Latin text on each...
) translated by W. H. S. Jones; Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. (1918) ISBN 0-674-99104-4