Editing Itylus

{{redirect|Itylos|the [[gossamer-winged butterfly]] [[genus]]|Itylos (butterfly)}}
In some stories from [[Greek mythology]], '''Itylus''' or '''Itylos''' ([[Ancient Greek]]: Ἴτυλος) was the son of [[Aedon]], who was the daughter of [[Pandareus]] of Ephesus and the wife of King [[Amphion and Zethus|Zethus]] of [[Thebes (Greece)|Thebes]].

In others, '''Itys'''<ref>''Itys'' is a [[Doublet_(linguistics)|doublet]] of ''Itylus''.</ref> was the son of [[Procne]] and Tereus.

== Mythology ==

Aedon was envious of [[Niobe]], her sister-in-law, who had six sons and six daughters. Aedon planned to kill the eldest of Niobe's sons, but by mistake killed her own son Itylus. Zeus relieved her grief by changing her into a nightingale, whose songs are Aedon's lamentations about her child.

The story was an ancient one; for example, [[Homer]]'s listeners were expected to know the allusion, when [[Penelope]] reveals to the still-disguised [[Odysseus]] her anguish: <blockquote>I lie on my bed, and the sharp anxieties swarming<br>thick and fast on my beating heart torment my sorrowing self.<br>As when [[Pandareus|Pandareos]]' daughter, the greenwood nightingale<br>perching in the deep of the forest foliage sings out<br>her lovely song when springtime is just begun, she varying<br>the manifold strains of her voice, pours out the melody<br>mourning Itylos, son of the lord Zethos, her own beloved<br>child, whom she once killed with the bronze, when the madness was upon her;<br>So my mind is divided, and starts one way, then another. —''Odyssey'' xix.519-24; [[Richmond Lattimore]]'s translation).</blockquote>

As one of only nine [[simile]]s in the ''Odyssey'' that are longer than five lines, the thematic complexity of the image and its multiple points of contact with Penelope's situation has arrested the attention of many readers.<ref>Emily Katz Anhalt, "A Matter of Perspective: Penelope and the Nightingale in 'Odyssey' 19.512-534", ''The Classical Journal'' '''97'''.2 (December 2001), pp 145-159.</ref>

In an explanatory ''[[scholia|scholium]]'' on this passage, an anonymous scholiast, echoed by [[Eustathius of Thessalonica|Eustathius]], explains that Aedon attempted to kill [[Amaleus]], the son of her sister-in-law and rival, [[Niobe]], but accidentally killed her own son instead: thus, the gods changed her into a nightingale to weep for eternity. The setting of the episode is [[Thebes (Greece)|Thebes]].

Attic authors later than Homer, including the dramatists, knew a different nightingale myth in which Procne was married to Tereus, who raped her sister [[Philomela (princess of Athens)|Philomela]]. Tereus cut out Philomela's tongue so that she could not tell. Philomela wove her story into a robe that she gave to Procne. In a fit of madness, Procne then murdered her own child by Tereus, [[Itys]]. All were changed to birds,<ref>The most substantial surviving account of this myth is in the repertory of myth, ''[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Bibliotheke]]'', but many Greek authors allude to [[Procne]].</ref> though the specific birds vary; for example, in Ovid, Philomela is changed to a nightingale. For more details, see [[Philomela]].

==Notes==
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[[Category:Metamorphoses characters]]
[[Category:Characters in the Odyssey]]