Rhodopis and Euthynicus

{{About|the mythological lovers|other uses|Rhodopis (disambiguation){{!}}Rhodopis}}

In ancient Greek mythology, Rhodopis ({{langx|grc|{{linktext|Ῥοδῶπις}}|Rhodôpis|rosy-faced}},{{sfn|Liddell|Scott|1940|loc=s.v. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aalphabetic+letter%3D*r%3Aentry+group%3D13%3Aentry%3Dr%28odwpo%2Fs ῥοδωπός]}} {{IPA|grc|r̥odɔ̂ːpis}}) and Euthynicus{{efn|A rare name, as Futre Pinheiro, Bierl & Beck note.}} ({{langx|grc|Εὐθύνικος|Euthúnikos}}) are two young hunters sworn to chastity who incurred the wrath of Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty.{{cite web | first = Rosemary M. | last = Wright | title = A Dictionary of Classical Mythology: Summary of Transformations | website = mythandreligion.upatras.gr | url = http://mythandreligion.upatras.gr/english/__trashed/ | access-date = January 3, 2023 | publisher = University of Patras | archive-date = December 30, 2022 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20221230130135/http://mythandreligion.upatras.gr/english/__trashed/ | url-status = dead }} Their myth is attested in two late sources; Leucippe and Clitophon, a Greek second-century AD romance novel by Achilles Tatius, and the Byzantine Drosilla and Charikles novel by Niketas Eugenianos, written in the twelfth century.

Mythology

Rhodopis was a beautiful chaste maiden who kept her hair short and loved to hunt in the forests. Artemis, the maiden goddess of the hunt, took notice of her, and invited Rhodopis to join her in the hunt, and thus the young girl shunned marriage as well as all kinds of romantic love. Aphrodite, the goddess of love, overheard Rhodopis swearing her oath of chastity to the goddess and immediately grew infuriated. Similarly, the young Euthynicus of Ephesus was another deeply devoted hunter who was averse to all delights of romance just like Rhodopis.{{sfn|Forbes Irving|1990|page=306}}{{sfn|Konstan|1994|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=5EAABAAAQBAJ&pg=PA72 72, note 32]}}

One day that Artemis was not around, Aphrodite contrived to make the game they were playing run in the same direction, and after convincing her bow-bearing son Eros that Rhodopis and Euthynicus's chaste lifestyle was a grave insult to both him and her as deities of love and desire, commanded him to strike them both with his love-inducing arrows. Eros did as told, and the two hunters immediately fell in love with one another.{{sfn|Bell|1991|pages=[https://archive.org/details/womenofclassical00bell/page/390/mode/2up?view=theater 391-392]}}

Then the two withdrew to a cavern and there they broke their chastity vows. Meanwhile Artemis caught sight of Aphrodite laughing, and understood what had happened. In anger over the broken vow she metamorphosed Rhodopis into a fountain called Styx right on the spot where she had lost her virginity.{{sfn|Strelan|1996|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=nw1xdz7fO18C&pg=PA75 75]}} For that reason, any young woman suspected of impurity was made to step into the fountain thereafter, as a testing place; if virgin as claimed, the water would only cover up to her knees, but if not it would come up all the way to her neck.{{sfn|Grimal|1987|loc=s.v. [https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofclas00grim/page/403/mode/2up?view=theater Rhodope]}} Euthynicus's own fate following the incident is not touched upon.Achilles Tatius [https://archive.org/details/cu31924026460869/page/504/mode/2up?view=theater 8.12]{{sfn|Foskett|2002|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=DnuApcYAwyUC&pg=PA199 199]}}

A character from the novel, Melite, is subjected to such a test.{{sfn|Konstan|1994|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=5EAABAAAQBAJ&pg=PA72 72, note 32]}} Melite and Clitophon, in spite of their vows of faithfulness to their respective partners, surrender to their urges and lie with each other. In a sense, Aphrodite and Rhodopis hide Melite's, an adulteress, affair under the waters of the spring, in a similar rite in which a sympathetic adulteress is judged innocent.{{sfn|Lefteratou|2017|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=C2ZCDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA150 150]}}

Interpretation of the myth

This myth of a sworn companion to Artemis breaking their vow is similar to the myth of the Arcadian princess Callisto,{{sfn|Lefteratou|2017|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=C2ZCDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA150 150]}} while Aphrodite's ire and revenge due to their rejection of love parallels the story of Hippolytus, whose central theme is the antagonism between Aphrodite and Artemis and the mutually-excluding domains they represent.{{sfn|Paschalis|Panayotakis|2013|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=Xol_bT5QJRQC&pg=PA141 141]}}{{sfn|Futre Pinheiro|Bierl|Beck|2013|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=L7DpBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA18 18]}} There have been some hypotheses that the myths about Artemis's (female) companions breaking their vows were originally about Artemis herself, before her characterization shifted to that of a forever maiden who fiercely defends her virginity.{{sfn|Merriam-Webster, Inc.|1995|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=eKNK1YwHcQ4C&pg=PA74 74]}}

The element of the spring Rhodopis was transformed into being used as a testing place of sexual innocence has similarities with another ancient myth Tatius recorded, that of Syrinx. In the standard tale, Syrinx is a nymph who ran away from the amorous advances of Pan, the god of the countryside. Syrinx transformed into reeds in order to escape him, and Pan used the newly-formed plant to create his panpipes, his defining musical instrument.Ovid, Metamorphoses [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/ovid-metamorphoses/1916/pb_LCL042.51.xml 1.689-712] Tatius adds that Pan left some panpipes in a cave that will sound a melody if a maiden passes her virginity test.{{sfn|Forbes Irving|1990|page=306}}{{cite book | last = Bremmer | first = Jan N. | chapter = Myth in the Novel: Some Observations | title = Intende, Lector - Echoes of Myth, Religion and Ritual in the Ancient Novel | editor1 = Marília P. | editor2 = Futre Pinheiro | editor3 = Anton Bierl | editor4 = Roger Beck | location = Berlin, Boston | publisher = De Gruyter | date = 2013 | pages = 17-23 | url = https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110311907.17 | doi = 10.1515/9783110311907.17}}

Iconography

The myth has no known antecedent in surviving ancient Greek or Roman literature, however in a calyx-crater from circa 340-330 BC attributed to the Darius Painter Rhodopis is identified (as Rhodope) among several other figures, among them the intimidating presence of Artemis and Aphrodite, and even Hippolytus. The calyx-crater seems to attest a variant of the myth above in which Rhodope is called to prove her sexual innocence before a king named Scythes.{{sfn|Lefteratou|2017|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=C2ZCDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA150 150]}}{{sfn|Futre Pinheiro|Bierl|Beck|2013|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=L7DpBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA18 18]}} The god Apollo is also depicted on the vase, indicating an earlier version where he is the seducer, and the progenitor (through Rhodope) of the Cicones. However the name and lover change indicate that the myth had already been adapted in an Anatolian background.{{sfn|Bremmer|2022|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=0cuUEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA22 22]}} This otherwise unknown narrative could perhaps be sourced from a fourth-century tragedy that has been lost to time.{{sfn|Taplin|2007|pages=245-246}}

Footnotes

References

Bibliography

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