Psamathe (daughter of Crotopus)

Psamathe was theorized to be a sea-nymph (nereid) by {{illm|Karl Bernhard Stark|de}} (1863) and a personification of the "sand of the sea-shore" ({{langx|el|ψάμαθος}} psamathos), from which she derived her name.{{harvp|Frazer|1898|p=536}} citing {{harvp|Stark|1863|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=7-5XeGlxQVcC&pg=PA347 347ff]}}.

Psamathe was pursued and assaulted by King Aeacus of Agina. They had a child named Phocus ("Seal") or Linus.

In one version (Conon), Psamathe abandoned the child, and although shepherds reared the foundling who was then named Linus, the child was torn apart by the shepherd's dogs. In the interim, Psamathe was ordered to be killed by her father. Apollo avenged her murder by sending a plague to Argos. When consulted, Apollo demanded that Psamathe and Linus be propitiated with due honors and festivities. The Argives complied but the plague persisted. And by oracular decree, the king was forced to leave in order to found the city of Tripodiscium near Megara, where he would live out his life.Conon, Narrationes, 19, paraphrased in {{harvp|Frazer|1898|p=536}}.

In an alternate version (Pausanias), Psamathe exposed the unnamed child, which was torn apart by the king's sheepdogs. Apollo then sent Poena (Greek: Poinē), the personification of punishment, upon the city. Poine would steal children from their mothers until Coroebus killed her. A hero Coroebus emerged from Argos to slay it, but Apollo then brought a plague upon the city.Pausanias, translated by Jones, W.H.S.; Ormerod, H.A., {{plainlink|url=http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.perseus-eng1:1.43 |name=Description of Greece}}, Vol. 1. Chap. 43. para. 7–8

A version by Statius tells this story, but does not name Psamathe, whom he only records as Crotopos's daughter.{{sfnp|Ogden|2013b|p=103}} Psamathe is sometimes said to be the daughter of Nereus and Doris.

The monster is called also Poena, the personification of punishment, in Pausanias's version of the tale. It is a female monster with a snake protruding from her forehead in Statius's version, possibly having snake-feet (anguipedal form) as well.{{sfnp|Ogden|2013b|pp=100–101}}

The monster is also called a Kēr ({{langx|el|Κήρ}} "death-demon") in one poem,{{Refn|name="anthology"|Greek Anthology 7.154, quoted and translated by {{harvp|Pache|2004|pp=72–73}}. Also cited as Palatine Anthology 7.154{{sfnp|Ogden|2013a|pp=87–88, note 1014}}}} and a late source (9th to 11th century) labels her as one of the Lamiai.First Vatican Mythographer, c. 9th to 11th century, cited by {{harvp|Ogden|2013a|p=87}} It is also supposed to have a human head upon a serpent's body, according to a scholiast to Ovid.{{sfnp|Fontenrose|1959|p=104}} The poem indicates that the ker was entombed in the city of the tripod (Tripodiscium) to stand as a monument to commemorate Psamathe, and that its slayer Coroebus is interred right underneath the monster.{{Refn|name="anthology"}}

Coroebus of Argos slew Poine, in Pausanias's version. Thereupon Apollo struck the city with a plague. Coroebus decided to go to Delphi to ask for punishment to befall only him, so that the city didn't have to suffer. The Pythia told him to never return home, but to take up a tripod and carry it until he would drop it, then settle on the spot where it would happen. The tripod slipped out of his hands as he had reached the Geraneian Mountains, where he founded a town known as Tripodiskoi ("Little Tripods"). The tomb of Coroebus was shown in Megara.

The hero named Coroebus does not appear in the version according to Conon.{{sfnp|Frazer|1898|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=m_RYAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA536 536]}}

;Citations

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;Bibliography

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• {{cite book |last=Fontenrose|first=Joseph Eddy |author-link=Joseph Eddy Fontenrose |title=Python: A Study of Delphic Myth and Its Origins |publisher=University of California Press |year=1959 |isbn=9780520040915 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wqeVv09Y6hIC }}
• {{cite book|editor-last=Frazer |editor-first=J. G. (tr.)|title=Pausanias's Description of Greece |volume=II |place=London |publisher=Macmillan |year=1898|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m_RYAAAAYAAJ}}
• {{cite book |last=Ogden |first=Daniel |author-link= |title=Drakon: Dragon Myth and Serpent Cult in the Greek and Roman Worlds |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2013a |isbn=978-0199557325 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FQ2pAK9luwkC&pg=PA86}}
• {{cite book |last=Ogden |first=Daniel |author-link= |title=Dragons, Serpents, and Slayers in the Classical and Early Christian Worlds: A Sourcebook |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2013b |pages=99– |chapter=10 Lamia, Slain by Eurybatus and Others |isbn=978-0199323746 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bFwWDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA99}}
• {{cite book|editor-last=Pache |editor-first=Corinne Ondine |chapter=Linos and Demophone |title=Baby and Child Heroes in Ancient Greece |publisher=University of Illinois Press |year=2004 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OR47FBpYDJAC&pg=PA66 |pages=66–77|isbn=9780252029295 }} {{isbn|9780252029295}}
• {{cite book|last=Stark |first=Karl Bernhard |title=Niobe und die Niobiden in ihrer literarischen, künstlerischen und mythologischen Bedeutung |series=Niobe und die Niobiden |publisher=W. Engelmann |year=1863 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7-5XeGlxQVcC |hdl=2027/hvd.32044018785782 |hdl-access=free}}

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Category:Female lovers of Apollo

Category:Princesses in Greek mythology