Editing Itys

{{short description|Greek mythological figure}}

[[File:Philomela Procne preparing to kill Itys.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|Attic wine cup, circa 490 BC, depicting Philomela and Procne preparing to kill Itys. (Louvre, Paris)]]

In [[Greek mythology]], '''Itys''' ({{langx|grc|Ἴτυς|Ítus}}) is a minor mythological character, the son of [[Tereus]], a king of [[Thrace]], by his Athenian wife [[Procne]]. Itys was murdered by his own mother and served to be consumed during dinner by his father, as part of a revenge plan against Tereus for assaulting and raping [[Philomela]], Procne's sister. His immediate family were all transformed into birds afterwards, and in some versions Itys too joins them in the avian kingdom. Itys' story survives in several accounts, the most extensive and famous among them being [[Ovid]]'s ''[[Metamorphoses]]''. His myth had been known since at least the sixth century BC.

== Family ==
Itys was the son of [[Procne]], a princess of [[Athens]], and [[Tereus]], a [[Thrace|Thracian]] king, thus nephew to [[Philomela]]. Through his father he was a grandson of the god of war [[Ares]].

== Mythology ==
Itys was born and raised in Thrace. At some point his father Tereus raped Itys' maternal aunt Philomela while escorting her to Thrace on her visit to her sister Procne. Tereus cut Philomela's tongue so she could never be able to tell anyone her story, and abandoned her. Philomela however managed to weave a tapestry or robe with her story and sent it to her sister. In rage, Procne slew Itys, seeing him as but an image of his father, boiled him and served him as a meal to Tereus. After he finished his meal, the two sisters presented him with the disembodied head of Itys. Once he realised what had happened, Tereus hunted down the two sisters, who prayed to the gods. All three were transformed into birds. Depending on the myth's version, either Philomela or Procne is turned into either the silent [[swallow]] or the singing [[nightingale]]<ref>[[Ovid]], ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/ovid-metamorphoses/1916/pb_LCL042.319.xml 6.338]-[https://www.loebclassics.com/view/ovid-metamorphoses/1916/pb_LCL042.337.xml 6.674]</ref><ref>pseudo-Apollodorus, ''[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Bibliotheca]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/apollodorus_mythographer-library/1921/pb_LCL122.99.xml 3.14.8]</ref><ref>[[Conon (mythographer)|Conon]], ''Narrations'' [https://topostext.org/work/489#31 31]</ref>{{efn|Versions vary on which sister became which bird.}} which continued to mourn her slain son in her new life. "Itys" was also the name for the plaintive cry of the nightingale.<ref name="will"/><ref>[[Aeschylus]], ''[[Oresteia#Agamemnon|Agamemnon]]'' 1144; [[scholia]] on [[Aristophanes]]'s ''[[The Birds (play)|Aves]]'' 212</ref>

[[File:Bauer - Tereus Philomela Procne.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.15|Philomela and Procne show the severed head of Itys to Tereus, engraved by Baur for a 1703 edition of ''Metamorphoses''.]]

[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] on the other hand writes that Tereus was so remorseful for his actions against Philomela and Itys's fate at the hands of the women (the nature of which is not described in clear detail) that he killed himself.<ref>[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], ''Description of Greece'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/pausanias-description_greece/1918/pb_LCL093.223.xml 1.41.8-9]</ref> [[Eustathius of Thessalonica|Eustathius]]'s version of the story has the sisters reversed, so that Philomela married Tereus and became the mother of Itys.<ref>For the comparison between Homer's version and Eusthathius' version of the myth, see: [https://books.google.com/books?id=SyAOAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA139 Notes to Book XIX (regarding line 605&c.)] in Pope, Alexander. ''The Odyssey of Homer, translated by A. Pope'', Volume V. (London: F. J. DuRoveray, 1806), 139–140.</ref>

In some texts, Itys is called '''[[Itylus]]''' instead, another mythological bird who was killed by his mother [[Aëdon]], who then transformed into a nightingale. In one variation of the myth, Procne is called Aëdon and his father [[Polytechnus]].<ref>[[Antoninus Liberalis]] [https://topostext.org/work/216#11 11]</ref>

The fullest surviving account of Itys' tale comes to us via the Roman poet [[Ovid]] and his narrative poem the ''[[Metamorphoses]]''; however, the myth itself is much older, and Ovid's telling was largely influenced by [[Sophocles]]'s now lost tragedy ''[[Tereus (play)|Tereus]]''. Scholar Jenny Marsh theorized that Sophocles must had borrowed certain elements of the plot from [[Euripides]]'s drama ''[[Medea (play)|Medea]]''.

She argues that the element of the enraged wife killing her child in an act of revenge against her husband's actions was directly borrowed from Euripides and incorporated into his tragedy. If accurate, that would mean that the infanticide of Itys did not appear in the myth of Procne and Philomela until Sophocles.<ref>{{cite book | last = Marsh | first = Jenny | chapter = Vases and Tragic Drama | editor1 = Rutter | editor2 = N.K. | editor3 = Sparkes, B.A. | title = Word and Image in Ancient Greece | location = [[Edinburgh]] | publisher = [[University of Edinburgh]] | date = 2000 | pages = 121–123, 133–134}}</ref> Tellingly, the chorus in ''Medea'' state that they know only of one woman sans [[Medea]] herself that killed her children ([[Ino (mythology)|Ino]]) without taking Procne into account.<ref>[[Euripides]], ''[[Medea]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-medea/1994/pb_LCL012.399.xml 1282-1284]</ref>

In some versions, Itys himself was transformed into a bird like the rest of his family, specifically a [[pheasant]], to be admired for its fine plumage.<ref>[[Maurus Servius Honoratus|Servius]], ''On Virgil's Eclogues'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Serv.+Ecl.+6.78&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2007.01.0091 6.78]</ref><ref name="will">Willi, Andreas (Basle), [https://referenceworks-brillonline-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/entries/brill-s-new-pauly/itys-e529190?s.num=0&s.f.s2_parent=s.f.book.brill-s-new-pauly&s.q=itys “Itys”], in ''[[Brill’s New Pauly]]'', Antiquity volumes edited by Hubert Cancik and Helmuth Schneider, English Edition by Christine F. Salazar, Classical Tradition volumes edited by Manfred Landfester, English Edition by Francis G. Gentry. Consulted online on 11 January 2023.</ref><ref>{{cite book | title = The Irish Metropolitan Magazine | first = Edward J. | last = Milliken | date = 1858 | location = [[Dublin]] | volume  = III | publisher = College-green | page = [https://books.google.com/books?id=h7ERAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA150 150]}}</ref> This element is not present in Ovid and most authors, who instead have Itys unceremoniously killed and eaten.

== See also ==
{{portal|Ancient Greece|Mythology}}

* [[Iphigenia]]
* [[Harpalyce (daughter of Clymenus)|Harpalyce]]
* [[Lycaon (king of Arcadia)|Lycaon]]
* [[Procne and Itys (sculpture)]]

== Notes ==
{{notelist}}

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== Bibliography ==
* [[Antoninus Liberalis]], ''The Metamorphoses of Antoninus Liberalis'' translated by Francis Celoria (Routledge 1992). [https://topostext.org/work/216 Online version at the Topos Text Project.]
* {{cite book | author = Apollodorus | title = [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|The Library]] | volume  = I: Books 1-3.9 | translator = James G. Frazer | series = [[Loeb Classical Library]] 121 | location =[[Cambridge]], MA | publisher = [[Harvard University Press]] | date = 1921}}
* {{cite book | author = Euripides | author-link = Euripides | title = Cyclops. Alcestis. Medea. | translator = David Kovacs | series = [[Loeb Classical Library]] 12 | location = [[Cambridge]], MA | publisher = [[Harvard University Press]] | date = 1994}}
* [[Maurus Servius Honoratus]], ''In Vergilii carmina comentarii. Servii Grammatici qui feruntur in Vergilii carmina commentarii;'' recensuerunt Georgius Thilo et Hermannus Hagen. Georgius Thilo. Leipzig. B. G. Teubner. 1881. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0053 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library].
* {{cite book | author = Ovid | author-link = Ovid | title = [[Metamorphoses]] | volume = I: Books 1-8 | translator = Frank Justus Miller, revised by G. P. Goold | series = [[Loeb Classical Library]] 42 | location = [[Cambridge]], MA | publisher = [[Harvard University Press]] | date = 1916}}
* {{cite book | author = Pausanias | author-link = Pausanias (geographer) | title = Description of Greece | volume = I: Books 1-2 (Attica and Corinth) | translator = W. H. S. Jones | series = [[Loeb Classical Library]] 93 | location = [[Cambridge]] MA | publisher = [[Harvard University Press]] | date = 1918}}

== External links ==
* {{Commons category-inline|Philomela and Procne|Itys}}

{{Metamorphoses in Greco-Roman mythology}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Mythological cannibals]]
[[Category:Metamorphoses characters]]
[[Category:Metamorphoses into birds in Greek mythology]]
[[Category:Princes in Greek mythology]]
[[Category:Mythological Thracians]]