Megaletor
{{short description|Greek mythological figure}}
{{Infobox character
| name = Megaletor
| gender = Male
| title = Prince
| relatives =
| lbl21 = Birthplace
| data21 = Molossia
}}
In Greek mythology, Megaletor ({{langx|grc|Μεγαλήτωρ|Megalḗtōr|great-hearted}}) is a minor figure, a prince of the Molossians, who was transformed into a bird by the will of Zeus, the god of justice, in order to escape a fiery death.
Family
Mythology
The entire family was seen as just and righteous and therefore especially favored by the gods. One day raiders attacked them in the fields; the family ran off to their house and began to throw various objects at them in self-defense, whereupon the offenders set the house ablaze. The god of justice, Zeus would not let his favourites suffer such a cruel and undeserving death that he changed them all six of them into various birds in order to save them from the flames; Megaletor himself was changed into a 'ichneumon bird', a bird that is very hard to say what it could be identified with.Ovid, Metamorphoses [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/ovid-metamorphoses/1916/pb_LCL043.279.xml 13.717]Antoninus Liberalis, [https://topostext.org/work/216#14 14]{{sfn|Celoria|1992|page=77}}
See also
{{portal|mythology|ancient Greece}}
References
{{reflist}}
Bibliography
- Antoninus Liberalis, The Metamorphoses of Antoninus Liberalis translated by Francis Celoria (Routledge 1992). [https://topostext.org/work/216 Online version at the Topos Text Project.]
- {{cite book | last = Celoria | first = Francis | title = The Metamorphoses of Antoninus Liberalis: A Translation with a Commentary | publisher = Routledge | date = 1992 | isbn = 0-415-06896-7}}
- Ovid, Metamorphoses, Volume II: Books 9-15. Translated by Frank Justus Miller. Revised by G. P. Goold. Loeb Classical Library 43. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1916.
{{Metamorphoses in Greek mythology}}
{{Authority control}}
Category:Princes in Greek mythology
Category:Metamorphoses into birds in Greek mythology
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