Teumessian fox
{{Short description|Mythical animal}}
{{Duplication|date=September 2023|dupe=Laelaps (mythology)}}
In Greek mythology, the Teumessian fox, sometimes called the Teumessian vixen, was an enormous fox that was destined never to be caught.{{Langx|grc|Τευμησ(σ)ία ἀλώπηξ}} (Teumēs(s)íā alôpēx), gen.: Τευμησίας ἀλώπεκος, also known as ἀλώπηξ τῆς Τευμησσοῦ "fox of Teumessos"; Teumessos was an ancient city in Boeotia.
Mythology
It was said that the Teumessian fox had been sent by the gods (perhaps Dionysus) to prey upon the children of Thebes as a punishment for a national crime. Creon, then–Regent of Thebes, set Amphitryon the impossible task of destroying this beast. He discovered a supposedly perfect solution by using the magical dog Laelaps, who was destined to catch everything it chased, to catch the Teumessian fox. Zeus, faced with an inevitable contradiction due to the paradoxical nature of their mutually excluding abilities, turned the two beasts into stone. The pair were cast into the stars and remain as Canis Major (Laelaps) and Canis Minor (Teumessian Fox).
Naming
In reference to Cadmus, the legendary founder of Thebes, the Teumessian fox is referred to by the elegant variation Cadmean vixen in James George Frazer's 1921 translation of Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus),{{Cite book |title=Apollodorus: The Library |url=https://archive.org/details/apollodoruslibra01apol/page/n51/mode/2up?q=vixen |translator-last=Frazer |translator-first=James George|oclc=1005513|year=1921}} though in the Greek texts the sex of the fox was not specified.The ungendered nouns ἀλώπηξ and άλώπεκος (fox) are used rather than the term for vixen, σκαφώρη The terms Cadmeian vixen and Teumessian vixen are used by the Oxford Classical Dictionary (1948) and The New Encyclopædia Britannica (1985).{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/oxford-classical-dictionary-1948/page/54/mode/2up?q=%22cadmeian+vixen%22|title=Oxford Classical Dictionary|author=Oxford University Press|year=1948|pages=55, 222}}{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/newencyclopaedia01ency_0/page/354/mode/2up?q=cadmeian|title=The new encyclopaedia Britannica|author=Encyclopaedia Britannica|oclc=11793850|year=1985}}
Primary sources
- Antoninus Liberalis, Metamorphoses [https://books.google.com/books?id=9_Eolzuv0eQC&pg=PA101 41], with [https://books.google.com/books?id=9_Eolzuv0eQC&pg=PA223 n. 478]
- Apollodorus, Bibliotheca [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+2.4.6&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022#note-link31 2.4.6]
- Corinna (fr. 672 PMG). [https://books.google.com/books?id=LfZMEGAlqSwC&pg=PA199]
- Epigoni (fr. 4 PEG).
- Hyginus, Poeticon astronomicon [http://www.theoi.com/Text/HyginusAstronomica2.html#35 2.35]
- Ovid, Metamorphoses [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0028%3Abook%3D7%3Acard%3D759 7.762]
- Pausanias, Description of Greece [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.%209.19.1&lang=original 9.19.1]
- Suda, s.v. [http://www.stoa.org/sol-bin/search.pl?login=guest&enlogin=guest&db=REAL&field=adlerhw_gr&searchstr=Tau,429 Τευμησία]
Citations
{{reflist}}
General and cited references
- 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.]
- Apollodorus, The Library with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. {{ISBN|0-674-99135-4}}. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0022 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.] [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0021 Greek text available from the same website].
- Gaius Julius Hyginus, Astronomica from The Myths of Hyginus translated and edited by Mary Grant. University of Kansas Publications in Humanistic Studies. [https://topostext.org/work/207 Online version at the Topos Text Project.]
- Pausanias, Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. {{ISBN|0-674-99328-4}}. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0160 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library]
- Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio. 3 vols. Leipzig, Teubner. 1903. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0159 Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library].
- Publius Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoses translated by Brookes More. Boston, Cornhill Publishing Co. 1922. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0028 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.]
- Publius Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoses. Hugo Magnus. Gotha (Germany). Friedr. Andr. Perthes. 1892. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0029 Latin text available at the Perseus Digital Library].
- Suida, Suda Encyclopedia translated by Ross Scaife, David Whitehead, William Hutton, Catharine Roth, Jennifer Benedict, Gregory Hays, Malcolm Heath Sean M. Redmond, Nicholas Fincher, Patrick Rourke, Elizabeth Vandiver, Raphael Finkel, Frederick Williams, Carl Widstrand, Robert Dyer, Joseph L. Rife, Oliver Phillips and many others. [https://topostext.org/work/240 Online version at the Topos Text Project.]
{{Metamorphoses in Greco-Roman mythology}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Teumessian Fox}}
Category:Greek legendary creatures
Category:Metamorphoses into inanimate objects in Greek mythology