Editing Catreus

{{Short description|King in Greek mythology}}
{{for|the genus of pheasant|Cheer pheasant}}
{{Infobox deity
| type = Greek
| name = Catreus
| deity_of = King of [[Crete]]
| member_of = the Cretan Royal Family
| image = 
| alt = 
| caption = 
| other_names = 
| affiliation = 
| cult_center = 
| abode = Crete
| consort = 
| parents = [[Minos]] and [[Pasiphae]] or [[Crete (mythology)|Crete]]
| siblings = [[Acacallis (mythology)|Acacallis]], [[Ariadne]], [[Androgeus (son of Minos)|Androgeus]], [[Xenodice (mythology)|Xenodice]], [[Phaedra (mythology)|Phaedra]], [[Glaucus of Crete|Glaucus]] and [[Deucalion (son of Minos)|Deucalion]]
| offspring = [[Althaemenes]], [[Apemosyne]], [[Aerope]] and [[Clymene (mythology)|Clymene]]
| predecessor = [[Deucalion (son of Minos)|Deucalion]]
| successor = [[Idomeneus]]
| Roman_equivalent = 
| Etruscan_equivalent = 
}}

In [[Greek mythology]], '''Catreus''' or '''Katreus''' ({{IPAc-en|'|k||eɪ|t|r|i|.|ə|s}}, {{IPAc-en|'|k|eɪ|t|r|uː|s}};<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/websterspractica00we/page/540/mode/2up |page=541 |title=A Practical Dictionary of the English Language|editor1-first=Dorsey |editor1-last=Gardner |editor2-first=Noah |editor2-last=Porter|publisher=Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & Co. |location=New York |year=1884}}</ref> {{langx|grc|{{lang|grc|Κατρεύς}}}}) was the eldest son of [[Minos]] and [[Pasiphaë]], and Minos' successor as king of [[Crete]]. Catreus had one son, [[Althaemenes]], and three daughters, [[Apemosyne]], [[Aerope]] and [[Clymene (mythology)|Clymene]]. Catreus was mistakenly killed by his son Althaemenes thereby fulfilling an oracle's prophecy.<ref>Hard, pp. 354&ndash;355; Grimal, s.v. Catreus, p. 92; Tripp, s.v. Catreus, p. 152; Smith, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0104:entry=creteus-bio-1&highlight=catreus s.v. Creteus]; [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+3.2.1 3.2.1]; [[Diodorus Siculus]], [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/4D*.html#60 4.60.4], [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/5D*.html#59 5.59.1&ndash;4]; [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.perseus-eng1:8.53.4 8.53.4].</ref>

== Mythology ==

According to [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]]' account,<ref>[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+3.2 3.2].</ref> an [[oracle]] told Catreus that one of his children would kill him. Although Catreus kept the prophecy secret, his son Althaemenes found out, and fearing that he would be the one to kill his father, took his sister Apemosyne and left [[Crete]] for [[Rhodes]]. Catreus gave his other daughters to [[Nauplius (mythology)|Nauplius]] to be sold off in foreign lands, and Aerope married [[Pleisthenes]] (or [[Atreus]]),<ref>See for example [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+Epit.+E.2.10 E.2.10], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+Epit.+E.3.12 E.3.12]. </ref> but Nauplius kept  Clymene for himself as wife. Years later, as an old man Catreus sailed the seas searching for his son, so that he could pass on his kingship to him. His ship stopped at Rhodes and was mistaken by some cowherds for a pirate ship. Catreus tried to explain who he was, but could not be heard above the barking of the cowherds' dogs. Althaemenes arrived and killed his father with his javelin, thus fulfilling the prophecy. When Althaemenes realized what he had done, Althaemenes prayed and was swallowed up by a chasm in the ground.

[[Diodorus Siculus]], gives a slightly different version of the story, saying that an oracle had been given to Althaemenes which said that he was destined to kill his father.<ref>[[Diodorus Siculus]], [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/4D*.html#60 4.60.4].</ref> Another tradition involving Catreus' daughter Aerope, followed by [[Euripides]] in his lost play  ''Kressai'',<ref>Hard, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA355 p. 355]; Gantz, p. 271. Euripides' treatment of the story is according to the scholiast on [[Sophocles]], [[Ajax (play)|''Ajax'']] 1297, citing Euripides' ''Cretan Women'', see: Collard and Cropp, [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL504.521.xml pp. 520, 521]; Webster, pp. 37&ndash;38; Jebb's note to ''Ajax'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0024:text=comm:commline=1295 1295 '''Κρήσσης'''].</ref> and possibly by [[Sophocles]] in his play ''Ajax'',<ref>Gantz, pp. 554&ndash;555; Jebb's note to ''Ajax'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0024:text=comm:commline=1296 1296 '''ὁ φιτύσας πατήρ'''].</ref> was that Catreus found Aerope in bed with a slave and sent her to Nauplius to be drowned.

Catreus, an ancient Cretan city mentioned by the second-century Greek geographer [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], was apparently supposed by the Cretans to have been founded by Catreus.<ref>[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.perseus-eng1:8.53.4 8.53.4], which also says that according to the [[Tegea]]ns, Catreus, along with [[Kydonia|Cydonia]] and [[Gortyna]], had instead been founded by three sons of [[Tegeates]], [[Cydon]], Archedius, and [[Gortys]], who had migrated to Crete from [[Arcadia (ancient region)|Arcadia]].</ref> According to Apollodorus, Catreus' grandson [[Menelaus]] (Aerope's son) was away in Crete, presiding at Catreus' funeral, when [[Paris (mythology)|Paris]] took [[Helen of Troy|Helen]] to [[Troy]].<ref>Tripp, 
s.v. Catreus, p. 152; [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+Epit.+E.3.3 E.3.3].</ref>

== Parallel story ==
The story of Catreus shares similarities with stories told about [[Aleus]], king of [[Tegea]]. In these stories,<ref>Alcidamas, ''Odysseus'' 14-16 (Garagin and Woodruff,  p. 286); Apollodorus, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+2.7.4 2.7.4], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+3.9.1 3.9.1]; Diodorus Siculus, [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/4B*.html#33 4.33.7&ndash;12]; Pausanias, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.+8.48.7 8.48.7].</ref> Aleus received an oracle that his grandson would kill Aleus' sons, so Aleus took measures to keep his daughter [[Auge]] a virgin, nevertheless Auge became pregnant (by [[Heracles]]) and Aleus (as did Catreus) gives his daughter to Nauplius, to be drowned but instead Nauplius sold her to the Mysian king Tethras, who adopts her son [[Telephus]], as his heir. As an adult Telephus returns to Tegea and unknowingly kills his uncles.

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
* [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], ''Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes.'' Cambridge, Massachusetts, [[Harvard University Press]]; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg001.perseus-eng1 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library].
* Collard, Christopher and Martin Cropp (2008a), ''Euripides Fragments: Aegeus&ndash;Meleanger'',  [[Loeb Classical Library]] No. 504. Cambridge, Massachusetts: [[Harvard University Press]], 2008. {{ISBN|978-0-674-99625-0}}. [http://www.loebclassics.com/view/LCL504/2008/volume.xml Online version at Harvard University Press].
* [[Diodorus Siculus]], ''Diodorus Siculus: The Library of History''. Translated by C. H. Oldfather. Twelve volumes. [[Loeb Classical Library]]. Cambridge, Massachusetts: [[Harvard University Press]]; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1989. [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/home.html Online version by Bill Thayer]
* [[Timothy Gantz|Gantz, Timothy]], ''Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources'', Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, Two volumes: {{ISBN|978-0-8018-5360-9}} (Vol. 1), {{ISBN|978-0-8018-5362-3}} (Vol. 2).
* Garagin, M., P. Woodruff, ''Early Greek Political thought from Homer to the Sophists'', Cambridge 1995. {{ISBN|978-0-521-43768-4}}.
* Grimal, Pierre, ''The Dictionary of Classical Mythology'', Wiley-Blackwell, 1996. {{ISBN|978-0-631-20102-1}}.
* Hard, Robin, ''The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology"'', Psychology Press, 2004, {{ISBN|9780415186360}}. [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC Google Books].
* [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], ''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, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.+1.1.1 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library].
* [[Sophocles]], ''The Ajax of Sophocles. Edited with introduction and notes by Sir Richard Jebb'', [[Richard Claverhouse Jebb|Sir Richard Jebb]]. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1893 [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0011.tlg003.perseus-eng1:1-35 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library]
* [[William Smith (lexicographer)|Smith, William]]; ''[[Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology]]'', London (1873). [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3atext%3a1999.04.0104 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library].
* Tripp, Edward, ''Crowell's Handbook of Classical Mythology'', Thomas Y. Crowell Co; First edition (June 1970). {{ISBN|069022608X}}.
* Webster, Thomas Bertram Lonsdale, ''The Tragedies of Euripides'', Methuen & Co, 1967 {{ISBN|978-0-416-44310-3}}.
[[Category:Princes in Greek mythology]]
[[Category:Kings of Crete]]
[[Category:Kings in Greek mythology]]
[[Category:Rhodian mythology]]
[[Category:Deaths by javelin]]
[[Category:Mythological Cretans]]