Heracles
Heracles, born Alcaeus or Alcides was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, foster son of Amphitryon. He was a half-brother of Perseus, he was the greatest of the Greek heroes, a paragon of masculinity, the ancestor of royal clans who claimed to be Heracleidae, a champion of the Olympian order against chthonic monsters. In Rome and the modern West, he is known as Hercules, with whom the Roman emperors, in particular Commodus and Maximian identified themselves; the Romans adopted the Greek version of his life and works unchanged, but added anecdotal detail of their own, some of it linking the hero with the geography of the Central Mediterranean. Details of his cult were adapted to Rome as well. Many popular stories were told of the most famous being The Twelve Labours of Heracles, his figure, which drew on Near Eastern motifs such as the lion-fight, was known. Heracles was the greatest of Hellenic chthonic heroes, but unlike other Greek heroes, no tomb was identified as his.
Heracles was both god, as Pindar says heros theos. The core of the story of Heracles has been identified by Walter Burkert as originating in Neolithic hunter culture and traditions of shamanistic crossings into the netherworld, it is possible that the myths surrounding Heracles were based on the life of a real person or several people whose accomplishments became exaggerated with time. Based on commonalities in the legends of Heracles and Odysseus, author Steven Sora suggested that they were both based on the same historical person, who made his mark prior to recorded history. Heracles' role as a culture hero, whose death could be a subject of mythic telling, was accepted into the Olympian Pantheon during Classical times; this created an awkwardness in the encounter with Odysseus in the episode of Odyssey XI, called the Nekuia, where Odysseus encounters Heracles in Hades: Ancient critics were aware of the problem of the aside that interrupts the vivid and complete description, in which Heracles recognizes Odysseus and hails him, modern critics find good reasons for denying that the verses beginning, in Fagles' translation His ghost I mean... were part of the original composition: "once people knew of Heracles' admission to Olympus, they would not tolerate his presence in the underworld", remarks Friedrich Solmsen, noting that the interpolated verses represent a compromise between conflicting representations of Heracles.
In Christian circles a Euhemerist reading of the widespread Heracles cult was attributed to a historical figure, offered cult status after his death. Thus Eusebius, Preparation of the Gospel, reported that Clement could offer historical dates for Hercules as a king in Argos: "from the reign of Hercules in Argos to the deification of Hercules himself and of Asclepius there are comprised thirty-eight years, according to Apollodorus the chronicler: and from that point to the deification of Castor and Pollux fifty-three years: and somewhere about this time was the capture of Troy." Readers with a literalist bent, following Clement's reasoning, have asserted from this remark that, since Heracles ruled over Tiryns in Argos at the same time that Eurystheus ruled over Mycenae, since at about this time Linus was Heracles' teacher, one can conclude, based on Jerome's date—in his universal history, his Chronicon—given to Linus' notoriety in teaching Heracles in 1264 BCE, that Heracles' death and deification occurred 38 years in 1226 BCE.
The ancient Greeks celebrated the festival of the Heracleia, which commemorated the death of Heracles, on the second day of the month of Metageitnion. What is believed to be an Egyptian Temple of Heracles in the Bahariya Oasis dates to 21 BCE. A reassessment of Ptolemy's descriptions of the island of Malta attempted to link the site at Ras ir-Raħeb with a temple to Heracles, but the arguments are not conclusive. Several ancient cities were named Heraclea in his honor. Although the Athenians were among the first to worship Heracles as a god, there were Greek cities that refused to recognize the hero's divine status. There are several polis that provided two separate sanctuaries for Heracles, one recognizing him as a god, the other only as a hero; this ambiguity helped create the Heracles cult when historians and artists encouraged worship such as the painters during the time of the Peisistratos, who presented Heracles entering Olympus in their works. Some sources explained that the cult of Heracles persisted because of the hero's ascent to heaven and his suffering, which became the basis for festivals, ritual and the organization of mysteries.
There is the observation, for example, that sufferings gave rise to the rituals of grief and mourning, which came before the joy in the mysteries in the sequence of cult rituals. Like the case of Apollo, the cult of Hercules has been sustained through the years by absorbing local cult figures such as those who share the same nature, he was constantly invoked as a patron for men the young ones. For example, he was considered the ideal in warfare so he presided over gymnasiums and the ephebes or those men undergoing military training. There were ancient towns and cities that adopted Hera
Eurytus of Oechalia
In Greek mythology King Eurytus of Oechalia, was a skillful archer who said to have instructed Heracles in his art of using the bow. Eurytus was the son of Melaneus either by Stratonice, daughter of King Porthaon of Calydon and Laothoe or by the eponymous heroine Oechalia, he married Antiope, daughter of Pylon and had these children: Iphitus, Toxeus, Molion, Hippasus and a beautiful daughter, Iole. A late legend attributes Eurytus as the father of Dryope, by his first wife. Hesiod calls his wife Antioche and they had four sons but Creophylus says only two. Eurytus' grandfather was Apollo, the archer-god, was a famed archer. Eurytus has been noted by some as the one. According to Homer, Eurytus became so proud of his archery skills; the god killed Eurytus for his presumption, Eurytus' bow was passed to Iphitus, who gave the bow to his friend Odysseus. It was this bow that Odysseus used to kill the suitors who had wanted to take Penelope. A more familiar version of Eurytus' death involves a feud with Heracles.
Eurytus promised the hand of his daughter Iole as a prize to whoever who could defeat him and his sons in an archery contest. Heracles won the archery contest, but Eurytus and his sons reneged on the promise and refused to give up lole, fearing that Heracles would go mad and kill any children he had with Iole, just as he has slew the children he had with Megara. Heracles left in anger, soon after twelve of Eurytus' mares were stolen; some have written that Heracles stole the mares himself, while others have said Autolycus stole the mares and sold them to Heracles. In the search for the mares, convinced of Heracles' innocence, invited Heracles to help and stayed as Heracles' guest at Tiryns. Heracles invited Iphitus to the top of the palace walls and, in a fit of anger, threw Iphitus to his death. For this crime, Heracles was forced to serve the Lydian queen Omphale as a slave for either one or three years. After Heracles had married Deianeira, he returned to Oechalia with an army. Revenge-driven, Heracles sacked the city and killed Eurytus and his sons took Iole as his concubine.
According to a tradition in Athenaeus, the hero put them to death because they had demanded a tribute from the Euboeans. The remains of the body of Eurytus were believed to be preserved in the Carnasian grove. Athenaeus of Naucratis, The Deipnosophists or Banquet of the Learned. London. Henry G. Bohn, York Street, Covent Garden. 1854. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Athenaeus of Naucratis, Deipnosophistae. Kaibel. In Aedibus B. G. Teubneri. Lipsiae. 1887. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library. Homer, The Odyssey with an English Translation by A. T. Murray, PH. D. in two volumes. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website. March, J. Cassell's Dictionary Of Classical Mythology, London, 1999. ISBN 0-304-35161-X 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. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio.
3 vols. Leipzig, Teubner. 1903. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library. Pseudo-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. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website. Publius Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoses translated by Brookes More. Boston, Cornhill Publishing Co. 1922. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Publius Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoses. Hugo Magnus. Gotha. Friedr. Andr. Perthes. 1892. Latin text available at the Perseus Digital Library. Theocritus, Idylls from The Greek Bucolic Poets translated by Edmonds, J M. Loeb Classical Library Volume 28. Cambridge, MA. Harvard Univserity Press. 1912. Online version at theoi.com Theocritus, Idylls edited by R. J. Cholmeley, M. A. London. George Bell & Sons. 1901. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library
Deianira
Deianira, Deïanira, or Deianeira known as Dejanira, was a Calydonian princess in Greek mythology whose name translated as "man-destroyer" or "destroyer of her husband". She was the wife of Heracles and, in late Classical accounts, his unwitting murderer, killing him with the poisoned Shirt of Nessus, she is the main character in Sophocles' play Women of Trachis. Deianira was the daughter of Althaea and her husband Oeneus, the king of Calydon, the half-sister of Meleager, her other siblings were Toxeus, Periphas, Thyreus, Gorge and Melanippe. In some accounts, Deianira was the daughter of King Dexamenus of Olenus and thus, sister to Eurypylus and Theraephon. Others called this daughter of Dexamenus as Hippolyte. Deianira became the mother of Hyllus, Onites and Macaria who saved the Athenians from defeat by Eurystheus. In Sophocles' account of Deianira's marriage, she was courted by the river god Achelous but saved from having to marry him by Heracles, who defeated Achelous in a wrestling contest for her hand in marriage.
In another version of the tale where she was described as the daughter of Dexamenus, Heracles raped her and promised to come back and marry her. While he was away, the centaur Eurytion demanded her as his wife, her father being afraid, agreed but Heracles returning before the marriage had slayed the centaur and claimed his bride. Deianira was associated with combat, was described as someone who "drove a chariot and practiced the art of war." Robert Graves interpreted the association with war as a relationship with the pre-Olympian war goddess, an orgiastic bride in many local sacred marriages to kings who may have been sacrificed. The central story about Deianira concerns the Tunic of Nessus. A wild centaur named Nessus attempted to kidnap or rape Deianira as he was ferrying her across the river Euenos, but she was rescued by Heracles, who shot the centaur with a poisoned arrow; as he lay dying, Nessus persuaded Deianira to take a sample of his blood, telling her that a potion of it mixed with olive oil would ensure that Heracles would never again be unfaithful.
Deianira kept a little of the potion by her. Heracles fathered illegitimate children all across Greece and fell in love with Iole; when Deianira thus feared that her husband would leave her forever, she smeared some of the blood on Heracles' famous lionskin shirt. Heracles' servant, brought him the shirt and he put it on; the centaur's toxic blood burned Heracles and he threw himself into a funeral pyre. In despair, Deianira committed suicide with a sword. Hesiod, Catalogue of Women fr. 2 5 Ovid, Heroides 9 Ovid, Metamorphoses 9.101-238 Harry Thurston Peck, Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, 1898 Graves, The Greek Myths, 1955, 142.ff, 142.2,3,5
Thucydides
Thucydides was an Athenian historian and general. His History of the Peloponnesian War recounts the fifth-century BC war between Sparta and Athens until the year 411 BC. Thucydides has been dubbed the father of "scientific history" by those who accept his claims to have applied strict standards of impartiality and evidence-gathering and analysis of cause and effect, without reference to intervention by the deities, as outlined in his introduction to his work, he has been called the father of the school of political realism, which views the political behavior of individuals and the subsequent outcomes of relations between states as mediated by and constructed upon the emotions of fear and self-interest. His text is still studied at military colleges worldwide; the Melian dialogue is regarded as a seminal work of international relations theory, while his version of Pericles' Funeral Oration is studied by political theorists and students of the classics. More Thucydides developed an understanding of human nature to explain behaviour in such crises as plagues and civil war.
In spite of his stature as a historian, modern historians know little about Thucydides's life. The most reliable information comes from his own History of the Peloponnesian War, which expounds his nationality and native locality. Thucydides says that he fought in the war, contracted the plague, was exiled by the democracy, he may have been involved in quelling the Samian Revolt. Thucydides identifies himself as an Athenian, telling us that his father's name was Olorus and that he was from the Athenian deme of Halimous, he survived the Plague of Athens, which killed many other Athenians. He records that he owned gold mines at Scapte Hyle, a coastal area in Thrace, opposite the island of Thasos; because of his influence in the Thracian region, Thucydides wrote, he was sent as a strategos to Thasos in 424 BC. During the winter of 424–423 BC, the Spartan general Brasidas attacked Amphipolis, a half-day's sail west from Thasos on the Thracian coast, sparking the Battle of Amphipolis. Eucles, the Athenian commander at Amphipolis, sent to Thucydides for help.
Brasidas, aware the presence of Thucydides on Thasos and his influence with the people of Amphipolis, afraid of help arriving by sea, acted to offer moderate terms to the Amphipolitans for their surrender, which they accepted. Thus, when Thucydides arrived, Amphipolis was under Spartan control. Amphipolis was of considerable strategic importance, news of its fall caused great consternation in Athens, it was blamed on Thucydides, although he claimed that it was not his fault and that he had been unable to reach it in time. Because of his failure to save Amphipolis, he was exiled: I lived through the whole of it, being of an age to comprehend events, giving my attention to them in order to know the exact truth about them, it was my fate to be an exile from my country for twenty years after my command at Amphipolis. Using his status as an exile from Athens to travel among the Peloponnesian allies, he was able to view the war from the perspective of both sides. Thucydides claimed that he began writing his history as soon as the war broke out, because he thought it would be one of the greatest wars waged among the Greeks in terms of scale:Thucydides, an Athenian, wrote the history of the war between the Peloponnesians and the Athenians, beginning at the moment that it broke out, believing that it would be a great war, more worthy of relation than any that had preceded it.
This is all that Thucydides wrote about his own life, but a few other facts are available from reliable contemporary sources. Herodotus wrote that the name Olorus, Thucydides's father's name, was connected with Thrace and Thracian royalty. Thucydides was connected through family to the Athenian statesman and general Miltiades and his son Cimon, leaders of the old aristocracy supplanted by the Radical Democrats. Cimon's maternal grandfather's name was Olorus, making the connection quite likely. Another Thucydides lived before the historian and was linked with Thrace, making a family connection between them likely as well. Combining all the fragmentary evidence available, it seems that his family had owned a large estate in Thrace, one that contained gold mines, which allowed the family considerable and lasting affluence; the security and continued prosperity of the wealthy estate must have necessitated formal ties with local kings or chieftains, which explains the adoption of the distinctly Thracian royal name Óloros into the family.
Once exiled, Thucydides took permanent residence in the estate and, given his ample income from the gold mines, he was able to dedicate himself to full-time history writing and research, including many fact-finding trips. In essence, he was a well-connected gentleman of considerable resources who, after involuntarily retiring from the political and military spheres, decided to fund his own historical investigations; the remaining evidence for Thucydides' life comes from and rather less reliable ancient sources. According to Pausanias, someone named Oenobius had a law passed allowing Thucydides to return to Athens shortly after the city's surrender and the end of the war in 404 BC. Pausanias goes on to say that Thucydides was murdered on his way back to Athens, placing his tomb near the Melite gate. Many doubt this
Sophocles
Sophocles is one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived. His first plays were written than or contemporary with those of Aeschylus, earlier than or contemporary with those of Euripides. Sophocles wrote over 120 plays during the course of his life, but only seven have survived in a complete form: Ajax, Women of Trachis, Oedipus Rex, Electra and Oedipus at Colonus. For 50 years, Sophocles was the most celebrated playwright in the dramatic competitions of the city-state of Athens that took place during the religious festivals of the Lenaea and the Dionysia, he competed in 30 competitions, won 24, was never judged lower than second place. Aeschylus won 13 competitions, was sometimes defeated by Sophocles, while Euripides won four competitions; the most famous tragedies of Sophocles feature Oedipus and Antigone: they are known as the Theban plays, although each play was a part of a different tetralogy, the other members of which are now lost. Sophocles influenced the development of drama, most by adding a third actor, thereby reducing the importance of the chorus in the presentation of the plot.
He developed his characters to a greater extent than earlier playwrights such as Aeschylus. Sophocles, the son of Sophilus, was a wealthy member of the rural deme of Hippeios Colonus in Attica, to become a setting for one of his plays, he was born there. Sophocles was born a few years before the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC: the exact year is unclear, although 497/6 is the most likely. Sophocles was born into a wealthy family and was educated. Sophocles' first artistic triumph was in 468 BC, when he took first prize in the Dionysia theatre competition over the reigning master of Athenian drama, Aeschylus. According to Plutarch, the victory came under unusual circumstances. Instead of following the usual custom of choosing judges by lot, the archon asked Cimon and the other strategoi present to decide the victor of the contest. Plutarch further contends that following this loss Aeschylus soon left for Sicily. Although Plutarch says that this was Sophocles' first production, it is now thought that his first production was in 470 BC.
Triptolemus was one of the plays that Sophocles presented at this festival. In 480 BC Sophocles was chosen to lead the paean, celebrating the Greek victory over the Persians at the Battle of Salamis. Early in his career, the politician Cimon might have been one of his patrons, although if he was, there was no ill will borne by Pericles, Cimon's rival, when Cimon was ostracized in 461 BC. In 443/2 he served as one of the Hellenotamiai, or treasurers of Athena, helping to manage the finances of the city during the political ascendancy of Pericles. According to the Vita Sophoclis, in 441 BC he was elected one of the ten generals, executive officials at Athens, as a junior colleague of Pericles, he served in the Athenian campaign against Samos. In 420 BC, he welcomed and set up an altar for the image of Asclepius at his house, when the deity was introduced to Athens. For this, he was given the posthumous epithet Dexion by the Athenians, he was elected, in 413 BC, one of the commissioners who responded to the catastrophic destruction of the Athenian expeditionary force in Sicily during the Peloponnesian War.
Sophocles died at the age of ninety or ninety-one in the winter of 406/5 BC, having seen within his lifetime both the Greek triumph in the Persian Wars and the bloodletting of the Peloponnesian War. As with many famous men in classical antiquity, his death inspired a number of apocryphal stories; the most famous is the suggestion that he died from the strain of trying to recite a long sentence from his Antigone without pausing to take a breath. Another account suggests. A third holds. A few months a comic poet, in a play titled The Muses, wrote this eulogy: "Blessed is Sophocles, who had a long life, was a man both happy and talented, the writer of many good tragedies. According to some accounts, his own sons tried to have him declared incompetent near the end of his life. One of his sons, a grandson called Sophocles became playwrights. An ancient source, Athenaeus’s work Sophists at Dinner, contains references to Sophocles' homosexuality or bisexuality. In that work, a character named Myrtilus, in a lengthy banquet speech claims that Ion of Chios writes in his book Encounters, that Sophocles loved boys as much as Euripides loved women.
Myrtilus repeats an anecdote told by Ion of Chios that involves Sophocles flirting with a serving boy at a symposium. Myrtilus claims that in a work by Hieronymus of Rhodes entitled Historical Notes it is said that Sophocles once lured a boy outside to have sex, afterwards the boy left with Sophocles' cape, while the boy's own cape was left with Sophocles Among Sophocles' earliest innovations was the addition of a third actor, which further reduced the role of the chorus and created greater opportunity for character development and conflict between characters. Aeschylus, who dominated Athenian playwriting during Sophocles' early career, followed suit and adopted the third character into his own work towards the end of h
Iole
In Greek mythology, Iole was the daughter of King Eurytus of Oechalia. According to the brief epitome in the Bibliotheca, Eurytus had a beautiful young daughter named Iole, eligible for marriage. Iole was claimed by Heracles for a bride. Iole was indirectly the cause of Heracles' death because of his wife's jealousy of her. There are different versions of the mythology of Iole from many ancient sources; the Bibliotheca gives the most complete story followed by slight variations of his from Seneca and Ovid. Other ancient sources have similar information on Iole with additional variations. Apollodorus recounted the tale in his Bibliotheca. King Eurytus was an expert archer who taught his sons his knowledge of the arrow, he promised his daughter Iole to whoever could his sons in an archery contest. The sons shot so well. Heracles heard of the prize and eagerly entered the contest for he desired the maiden. Heracles shot with keenness and beat Eurytus' scores, it is ironic. When the king realized that Heracles was winning, he stopped the contest and forbade him to participate.
Eurytus was well-aware of Heracles' murder of his previous wife and their children and thus afraid that Iole and her offspring by him would suffer the same fate. Heracles had won the contest but was not entitled to the prize because of his reputation. Eurytus broke his promise to give his royal daughter to the winner of the archery contest. Iphitos urged his father to reconsider. Heracles had not left the city yet when Eurytus' mares were run off by Autolycus, a notorious thief. Iphitos asked Heracles to help him find them. Heracles, in one of his madness, hurled Iphitos over the city walls. According to Diodorus Siculus, it was Heracles himself that drove off the mares of Eurytus in revenge; the hero had failed in his courtship to win Iole. After the archery contest, Heracles went to Calydon, where, on the steps of the temple, he saw Deianira, Prince Meleager's sister, he forgot about Iole for a while and wooed her won her over and married her. Heracles after acquiring a kingdom and in control of an army, went about to kill Eurytus in revenge for not giving up his promised prize.
Hyginus added that Heracles not only murdered Eurytus, but slayed Iole's brothers and other relatives as well. The hero plundered Oechalia and overthrew its walls while Iole threw herself down from the high city wall to escape, it turned out that the garment she was wearing, opened up and acted like a parachute which ensured her soft and safe descent. Heracles took Iole unwillingly as captive, his wife, Deianira did not like Iole to become Heracles' concubine but she forebore to object and tolerated it temporarily. Deianira feared she would lose Heracles to more beautiful Iole. Years earlier, the centaur Nessus had ferried her across the river Evenus and attempted to rape her when they were on the other side. Heracles saved her from Nessus by shooting him with poisoned arrows, she had kept some of Nessus' blood for the centaur told her in his dying breath that if she were to give Heracles a cloak soaked in his blood, it would be a love charm. Deianira, being concerned by Heracles' infidelity, believed Nessus’ lie that Heracles would no longer desire any other woman after he was under the spell of the love philter.
This seemed like the perfect solution to her problem to reclaim her husband's love from him Iole, the foreign concubine. The cloak was delivered to Heracles and when he put it on the poison went into his body. Deianira had unwittingly poisoned her husband with this purported love potion because of her sadness over her husband's unfaithfulness. Upon realizing the mistake she had made, Deianira killed herself; because of his love for his concubine Iole, Heracles asked his eldest son, Hyllus to marry her so that she would be well taken care of. Iole and Hyllus had a son called Cleodaeus, three daughters, Evaechme and Hyllis. Ovid's version of this story has Heracles under the erotic control of Iole, she has Heracles wear women's clothing and perform women's work. Heracles at this time all the while is bragging about his heroic deeds. However, Deianira reminds him how he is dressed in feminine attire and Iole is wearing his clothing while carrying his club. Deianira urges silence from him; the same version shows the disgrace and shame of Heracles, once a strong warrior fighter, outwitted by Iole in being made to do effeminate acts.
In this skillful crafty manner, she had avenged her father's death. According to Sophocles' play Women of Trachis, Iole's mother was Antiope and her siblings were Iphitos, Toxeus, Deioneus and Didaeon. In the play, Iole is described as the daughter of the royal princess of Oechalia, she is among the captive maidens of Oechalia. She is to become the concubine of Heracles. Toward the end of the play Heracles asks his son Hyllus to marry her when he dies, so she will be well taken care of. Hyllus agrees to do this for his father. According to Seneca, Deianira is concerned if the captive Iole that Heracles took as his concubine will give brothers to her sons, she fears. He explains how Deianira thinks of the possible children of Heracles by Iole and her chance for vengeance on them, he shows the same jealousy. - Iole appears
Tereus
In Greek mythology, Tereus was a Thracian king, the son of Ares and the naiad Bistonis. He was the brother of Dryas. Tereus was the father of Itys; when Tereus desired his wife's sister, Philomela, he came to Athens to his father-in-law Pandion to ask for his other daughter in marriage, stating that Procne had died. Pandion granted him the favour, sent Philomela and guards along with her, but Tereus threw the guards into the sea, finding Philomela on a mountain, forced himself upon her. He cut her tongue out and held her captive so she could never tell anyone. After he returned to Thrace, Tereus gave Philomela to King Lynceus and told his wife that her sister had died. Philomela sent it secretly to Procne. Lynceus' wife Lathusa, a friend of Procne, at once sent the concubine to her; when Procne recognized her sister and knew the impious deed of Tereus, the two planned to return the favour to the king. Meanwhile, it was revealed to Tereus by prodigies that death by a relative's hand was coming to his son Itys.
When he heard this, thinking that his brother Dryas was plotting his son's death, he killed the innocent man. Procne, killed her son Itys by Tereus, served his flesh in a meal at his father's table in revenge, fled with her sister; when Tereus learned of the crime she had done, he pursued the sisters and tried to kill them but all three were changed by the Olympian Gods into birds out of pity: Tereus became a hoopoe or a hawk. Incidentally, the female nightingale has no song.. Tereus was a common given name among Thracians; the Attic playwrights Sophocles and Philocles both wrote plays entitled Tereus on the subject of the story of Tereus. Shakespeare refers to Tereus in Titus Andronicus, after Chiron and Demetrius have raped Lavinia and cut out her tongue and both her hands, he makes reference to Tereus in "Cymbeline", when Iachimo spies upon the sleeping Imogen to gather false evidence so he can persuade Posthumus he has seduced her. The transformed Tereus is a character in The Birds by Aristophanes.
The Love of the Nightingale, play by Timberlake Wertenbaker The Love of the Nightingale, opera by Richard Mills to a libretto from the above play The New Tereus by Robert Lalonde
Trachiniai public domain audiobook at LibriVox
