Editing Oenone (section)

== Mythology ==
[[File:Drawing of a fresco depicting Paris, Eros, and Oinone from the House of the Labyrinth VI 11,9 Pompeii (excavated in 1834) by Wilhelm Zahn.jpg|thumb|Drawing of a fresco depicting Paris, Eros, and Oenone from the House of the Labyrinth, Pompeii]]
Paris, son of the king [[Priam]] and the queen [[Hecuba]], fell in love with Oenone when he was a shepherd on the slopes of [[Mount Ida]], having been [[Infanticide|exposed in infancy]] (owing to a prophecy that he would be the means of the destruction of the city of Troy) and rescued by the herdsman [[Agelaus]]. The couple married, and Oenone gave birth to a son, [[Corythus (son of Paris)|Corythus]].<ref>Parthenius, [https://topostext.org/work/550#34 Love Romances 34] from 2nd book of [[Hellanicus of Lesbos|Hellanicus]]’ ''Troica'' and from the ''Trojan History'' of Cephalon of Gergitha</ref> When Paris swore he would never desert her, Oenone (through her gift of prophecy) informed him that - whilst his love for her was true now - he would later sail across the sea to find another lover and bring ruin to his family. Paris, perhaps disturbed or afraid, always attempted to dismiss her warnings.<ref>Parthenius, [https://topostext.org/work/550#4 Love Romances 4]</ref>

Her prediction came true when Paris abandoned her, returning to his birth parents in Troy and sailing across the Aegean for Helen, the queen of Sparta. Out of revenge for Paris's betrayal, she sent Corythus to guide the Greeks to Troy. Another version has it that she used her son to drive a rift between Paris and Helen, but Paris, not recognizing his own son, killed him.<ref>Conon, [https://topostext.org/work/489#23 Narrations 23]</ref>

One of the only extensive surviving narrations of Oenone and Paris is [[Quintus Smyrnaeus]], ''[[Posthomerica]]'', Book X, ll. 259–489, which tells the return of the dying Paris to Oenone.<ref>[http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/readfile?fk_files=36051&pageno=123 On-line text of Posthomerica]; [https://topostext.org/work/863 Alternative text]</ref> Mortally wounded by [[Philoctetes]]'s arrow, he begged Oenone to heal him with her herbal arts,<ref>"Oenone, skilled in drugs". according to [[Lycophron]], [https://topostext.org/work/128#31 61].</ref> but she refused and cast him out with scorn, to return to Helen's bed, and Paris died on the lower slopes of Ida. Then, overcome with remorse, Oenone, the one whole-hearted mourner of Paris, threw herself onto his burning funeral pyre, which the shepherds had raised.<ref>Posthomerica, Book X, from lines [https://topostext.org/work/863#10.260 260] and [https://topostext.org/work/863#10.410 410]</ref>

A fragment of [[Bacchylides]] suggests that she threw herself off a cliff,<ref>[[Bacchylides]], fr. 20D</ref> in the ''Bibliotheke'' it is noted "when she found him dead she hanged herself", and Lycophron imagines her hurtling head first from the towering walls of Troy. Her tragic story makes one of the ''Love Romances'' of [[Parthenius of Nicaea]], where she jests to the messenger that Paris should have asked Helen to heal him but sets out to save her former husband all the same. Still, she arrives too late, and ends her life out of grief.<ref>Parthenius, [https://topostext.org/work/550#4 4] from ''Book of Poets'' of [[Nicander]] and the ''Trojan History'' of Cephalon of Gergitha</ref>

[[Ovid]] includes an imagined reproachful letter from Oenone to Paris in his ''[[Heroides]]'',<ref>''Heroides'' v.</ref> a text that has been extended by a number of spurious post-Ovidian interpolations, which include an elsewhere unattested rape of Oenone by Apollo.<ref>Sergio Casali, reviewing ''The Cambridge Heroides'' in ''The Classical Journal'' '''92'''.3 (February 1997, pp. 305–314) pp306-07.</ref>