Editing Thamyris (section)

== Mythology ==

=== Early years ===
When Philammon refused to take Argiope into his house as his wife, the girl left [[Peloponnese]] and went to the country of the [[Odrysian kingdom|Odrysians]] in [[Thrace]] where she gave birth to a son, Thamyris. When the boy reached puberty, he became so accomplished in singing to the cithara that the [[Scythians]] made him their king even though he was an interloper.<ref>[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], 4.33.3; [[Conon (mythographer)|Conon]], [https://topostext.org/work/489#7 7]</ref>

According to [[Diodorus]] the mythical singer [[Linus (mythology)|Linus]] took three pupils: [[Heracles]], Thamyris, and [[Orpheus]], which neatly settles Thamyris' legendary chronology.<ref>[[Diodorus Siculus]], [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/3E*.html#67.1 3.67.1]</ref> When [[Pliny the Elder]] briefly sketches the origins of music, he credits Thamyris with inventing the [[Dorian mode]] and with being the first to play the [[cithara]] as a solo instrument with no vocal accompaniment.<ref>[[Pliny the Elder]], ''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Naturalis Historia]]'' 7.204</ref>

Thamyris is said to have been enamored of [[Hyacinth (mythology)|Hyacinth]] (who however spurned him for the god [[Apollo]]), and thus to have been the first man to have loved another male.<ref name="ReferenceA" />

=== Contest with Muses ===
While returning from [[Oechalia (Thessaly)|Oechalia]], Thamyris paused at the ford of the river [[Alpheus (deity)|Alpheus]] and boasted that he could surpass the [[Muses]] – the daughters of Zeus – in singing.  But they were angry and stilled his singing forever, robbing him of the divine powers of song and playing the lyre anymore. The story is mentioned briefly in the ''[[Iliad]]''.<ref>[[Homer]], ''[[Iliad]]'' 2.594-600</ref> According to Apollodorus in the ''[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Library]]'', the Muses instead punished him by gouging out his eyes.<ref>[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], 1.3.3</ref>

This allusion is taken up in [[Euripides]]' ''Rhesus'', and in the [[scholia]] on the ''Iliad''. These later sources add the details that Thamyris had demanded as his prize for winning the contest either the privilege of having sex with all the Muses or of marrying one of them;<ref name=":0">Conon, [https://topostext.org/work/489#7 7]</ref> and that after his death he was further punished in [[Hades]]. Ancient scholia emphasized that the episode was meant to illustrate that poetic inspiration was a gift of the gods, and could be taken away by them.<ref>Apollodorus, 1.3.3</ref><ref>Scholia on Homer, ''Iliad'' 2.595. See {{Citation|title=[[Rediscovering Homer]]|year=2006|place=New York, London|publisher=Norton|author-link=Andrew Dalby|surname=Dalby|given=Andrew|isbn=0-393-05788-7}}, p. 96.</ref>