Pyrrhus (mythology)
{{short description|Mythological figure}}
{{About|the mythological figure|other uses|Pyrrhus (disambiguation){{!}}Pyrrhus}}
In Nonnus's fifth-century AD epic poem the Dionysiaca, Pyrrhus ({{langx|grc|Πύρρος|Púrrhos|fiery}}) is a minor figure from Asia Minor who was punished by the goddess Rhea, the mother of the gods, for his attempted assault of her. His short story is only mentioned in passing, without much elaboration.
Etymology
The ancient Greek proper name {{lang|grc|Πύρρος}} means "fiery" or "red-coloured" and it is derived from the word {{lang|grc|πῦρ}} (pur) meaning fire, flame.{{sfn|Liddell|Scott|1940|loc=s.v. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:entry=pu=r πῦρ]}} It was especially used to denote red hair.{{sfn|Beekes|2010|loc=s.v. [https://archive.org/details/etymological-dictionary-of-greek/page/1264/mode/2up?view=theater πυρρός]}} In Mycenaean Greek the name is attested in the form pu-wo (Linear B: {{lang|gmy|{{script|Linb|𐀢𐀺}}}}).{{sfn|Beekes|2010|loc=s.v. [https://archive.org/details/etymological-dictionary-of-greek/page/1264/mode/2up?view=theater πυρρός]}}
Mythology
The little-known and otherwise unattested Pyrrhus was a mortal man from Phrygia, a region in northwestern Asia Minor, who impiously lusted after the goddess Rhea, the mother of the gods, and tried to assault her. Rhea changed him into a stone immediately as a punishment for his hubris.{{cite web | author = M. Rosemary Wright | title = A Dictionary of Classical Mythology: Summary of Transformations | website = mythandreligion.upatras.gr | url = http://mythandreligion.upatras.gr/english/m-r-wright-a-dictionary-of-classical-mythology/ | access-date = January 3, 2023 | publisher = University of Patras}}{{sfn|Levitan|Lombardo|2022|page = [https://books.google.com/books?id=KXV-EAAAQBAJ&pg=PA228 228]}} This happened not far from the site of Niobe's own transformation into a weeping rock after she challenged another goddess, Leto (the mother of Artemis and Apollo).Nonnus, Dionysiaca [https://archive.org/details/dionysiaca01nonnuoft/page/402/mode/2up?view=theater 12.81-83] Pyrrhus's transformation into stone is part of a wider typical theme where a man is punished for his lust that led him to assault a goddess, in this case Rhea.{{sfn|Forbes Irving|1990|pages=143, 298}}
See also
{{portal|Ancient Greece|Mythology}}
References
{{reflist}}
Bibliography
- {{cite book | author-link = Robert S. P. Beekes | last = Beekes | first = Robert S. P. | title = Etymological Dictionary of Greek | location = Leiden, the Netherlands | publisher = Brill Publications | date = 2010 | volume = ΙΙ | isbn = 978-90-04-17419-1 | series = Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series | editor = Lucien van Beek | url = https://archive.org/details/etymological-dictionary-of-greek/mode/}}
- {{cite book | title = Metamorphosis in Greek Myths | first = Paul M. C. | last = Forbes Irving | publisher = Oxford University Press, Clarendon Press | date = 1990 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=URvXAAAAMAAJ | isbn = 0-19-814730-9 | location = Oxford, New York, Toronto | series = Oxford Classical Monographs}}
- {{cite book | title = Tales of Dionysus: The Dionysiaca of Nonnus of Panopolis | first1 = William | last1 = Levitan | first2 = Stanley | last2 = Lombardo | isbn = 978-0-472-13311-6 | publisher = University of Michigan Press | location = Michigan, United States | date = August 15, 2022 | year = 2022 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=KXV-EAAAQBAJ}}
- {{cite book | first1 = Henry George | last1 = Liddell | first2 = Robert | last2 = Scott | title = A Greek-English Lexicon, revised and augmented throughout by Sir Henry Stuart Jones with the assistance of Roderick McKenzie | location = Oxford | publisher = Clarendon Press | date = 1940 | author1-link = Henry Liddell | author2-link = Robert Scott (philologist)}} [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057 Online version at Perseus.tufts project.]
- Nonnus, Dionysiaca; translated by Rouse, W H D, I Books I-XV. Loeb Classical Library No. 344, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1940. [https://archive.org/stream/dionysiaca01nonnuoft#page/n7/mode/2up Internet Archive]
{{Metamorphoses in Greco-Roman mythology}}
{{Greek-myth-stub}}
{{Authority control}}
Category:Metamorphoses into inanimate objects in Greek mythology