Arethusa (Ithaca)
{{short description|Greek mythological figure}}
{{Other uses|Arethusa (Greek myth)}}
File:LAMBART(1895) p192 RAVINE OF THE FOUNTAIN OF ARETHUSA, ITHACA.jpg
In Greek mythology, Arethusa ({{IPAc-en|ˌ|ær|ᵻ|ˈ|θj|uː|z|ə}}; {{langx|grc|Ἀρέθουσα|Aréthousa}}) is a minor figure from Ithaca who kills herself and has a fountain bear her name. Her story survives in scholia on Homer's epic poem the Odyssey.
Family
Arethusa was a woman from the island of Ithaca; other than a son, no other family or lineage of hers is preserved. It is unknown whether she was a free woman or a slave.
Mythology
According to an anonymous scholiast on Homer, Arethusa had a son named Corax (meaning "raven") who was a hunter.{{cite web | title = Μορφές και Θέματα της Αρχαίας Ελληνικής Μυθολογίας: Αρέθουσα | trans-title = Figures and Themes of Ancient Greek Mythology: Arethusa | url = https://www.greek-language.gr/digitalResources/ancient_greek/mythology/lexicon/metamorfoseis/page_038.html | first = Demetra | last = Metta | language = Greek | website = www.greek-language.gr | access-date = May 4, 2024}} One day while hunting a hare, Corax did not notice where the hunt was taking him, so he accidentally fell off a cliff and died.{{sfn|Bell|1991|loc=s.v. [https://archive.org/details/womenofclassical00bell/page/60/mode/2up?view=theater Arethusa (6)]}} Out of grief for losing her son, the inconsolable Arethusa took her life by hanging next to a fountain near the spot where Corax died.{{sfn|Pope|1827|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=3bsOAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA331 331]}} The spring was then called Arethusa after her, while the rock itself took the name of the dead son thereafter.Scholia on the Odyssey [https://books.google.com/books?id=ksEMAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA577 13.408]Stephanus of Byzantium s.v. [https://topostext.org/work/241#A116.5 Arethusa]
In the Odyssey, after returning home following a long ten-year long journey following the end of the Trojan War and the sacking of the city of Troy, the disguised king Odysseus finds his slave Eumaeus tending the swine which graze next to the rock of Corax and the fountain of Arethusa.Homer, Odyssey [https://books.google.com/books?id=KflQEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA263 13.379-81]{{sfn|Greatheed|Parken|Williams|Conder|1809|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=6w03AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA121 121]}}
Location
Arethusa was a very common name for springs in antiquity, and several others all over Greece bore the same name as the spring in Ithaca.{{sfn|Lewis|2019|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=UDGoDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA41 41, n. 45]}} 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.{{cite encyclopedia | encyclopedia = Brill's New Pauly | publisher = Brill Reference Online | url = https://referenceworks.brill.com/display/entries/NPOE/e134010.xml?rskey=n9hBxE | last = Strauch | doi = 10.1163/1574-9347_bnp_e134010 | first = Daniel | location = Berlin | title = Arethusa | date = October 1, 2006 | editor-first1 = Hubert | editor-last1 = Cancik | editor-first2 = Helmuth | editor-last2 = Schneider | access-date = May 4, 2024| issn = 1574-9347 | url-access = subscription }}
See also
{{portal|Ancient Greece|Mythology}}
References
{{reflist}}
Bibliography
- {{cite book | last = Bell | first = Robert E. | title = Women of Classical Mythology: A Biographical Dictionary | publisher = ABC-Clio | date = 1991 | isbn = 9780874365818 | url = https://archive.org/details/womenofclassical00bell/mode/2up?view=theater}}
- {{cite book | editor-first = Wilhelm | editor-last = Dindorf | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=ksEMAwAAQBAJ | title = Scholia Graeca in Homeri Odysseam Ex Codicibus Aucta Et Emendata | volume = II | publisher = Typographeo Academico | date = 1855| isbn = 978-5-87561-491-0 }}
- {{cite book | title = The Eclectic Review | volume = V | first1 = Samuel | last1 = Greatheed | first2 = Daniel | last2 = Parken | first3 = Theophilus | last3 = Williams | first4 = Josiah | last4 = Conder | first5 = Thomas | last5 = Price | first6 = Jonathan Edwards | last6 = Ryland | first7 = Edwin | last7 = Paxton Hood | chapter = Gell's Antiquities of Ithaca | date = 1809 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=6w03AAAAYAAJ}}
- {{cite book | author = Homer | author-link = Homer | title = The Odyssey | isbn = 978-0-19-992588-9 | publisher = Oxford University Press | date = 2015 | translator = Barry P. Powell | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=KflQEAAAQBAJ}}
- {{cite book | title = Myth, Locality, and Identity in Pindar's Sicilian Odes | first = Virginia M. | last = Lewis | date = August 15, 2019 | publisher = Oxford University Press | isbn = 978-0-19-091031-0 | location = UK, USA | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=UDGoDwAAQBAJ}}
- {{cite book | title = Classical Manual| first = Alexander | last = Pope | date = 1827 | location = London, UK | publisher = A. J. Vaipy, M.A. | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=3bsOAwAAQBAJ}}
- Stephanus of Byzantium, Ethnica, edited by August Meineike (1790–1870), published 1849. [https://topostext.org/work/241 Online text available at Topos Text.]
Category:Women in Greek mythology
Category:Suicides in Greek mythology