Editing Oenone

{{Short description|Nymph of Greek mythology}}
{{about|the mythological figure|the poem by Tennyson|Oenone (poem)}}
[[Image:Judgement Paris Altemps Inv8563 n2.jpg|thumb|Oenone holding [[pan pipes]], behind [[Paris (mythology)|Paris]] and [[Eros (mythology)|Eros]] &ndash; a detail from a [[sarcophagus]] with the ''[[Judgement of Paris]]'', Roman, [[Hadrian]]ic period ([[Palazzo Altemps]], [[Rome]])]]
In [[Greek mythology]], '''Oenone''' ({{IPAc-en|ᵻ|ˈ|n|oʊ|n|iː}}; [[Ancient Greek]]: Οἰνώνη ''Oinōnē''; "wine woman") was the first wife of [[Paris (mythology)|Paris]] [[Troy|of Troy]], whom he abandoned for [[Helen of Troy|Helen]]. Oenone was also the ancient name of an island, which was later named after [[Aegina (mythology)|Aegina]], daughter of the river god [[Asopus]].<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0104:entry=aeacus-bio-1 A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, Aeacus]</ref>

== Biography ==
Oenone was a mountain [[nymph]] on [[Mount Ida (Turkey)|Mount Ida]] in [[Phrygia]], a mountain associated with the Mother Goddess [[Cybele]] and the Titaness [[Rhea (mythology)|Rhea]]. Her gift of prophecy was learned from Rhea.<ref name="biblio">[[Pseudo-Apollodorus|Apollodorus]], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+3.12.6&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022:boo=0:chapter=0&highlight=Oenone 3.12.6]</ref> Her father was either the river-gods, [[Cebren]]<ref>Apollodorus, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+3.12.6&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022:boo=0:chapter=0&highlight=Oenone 3.12.6]; [[Parthenius of Nicaea|Parthenius]], [https://topostext.org/work/550#4 4] from ''Book of Poets'' of [[Nicander]] and the ''Trojan History'' of Cephalon of Gergitha; [[John Tzetzes|Tzetzes]] ad [[Lycophron]], [https://topostext.org/work/860#57 57]</ref>{{AI-generated source|date=November 2024}}<ref>{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Oenone}}</ref> or Oeneus.<ref>Tzetzes ad Lycophron, [https://topostext.org/work/860#57 57]</ref>{{AI-generated source|date=November 2024}}<ref>{{Cite book|last=[[Robert Graves|Graves, Robert]]|title=The Greek Myths - The Complete and Definitive Edition|publisher=Penguin Books Limited|year=2017|isbn=9780241983386|pages=632}}</ref> Her name links her to the gift of wine.

== 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>

== In literature ==
[[Thomas Heywood]] wrote the [[epyllion]] [https://archive.org/details/elizabethanminor00donn/page/126/mode/2up ''Oenone and Paris''] (1594) in [[rhyme royal]].

[[William Morris]] included "The Death of Paris" in ''[[The Earthly Paradise]].''

[[Lawrence Binyon]] published ''Paris and Oenone'', a one-act [[Closet drama|closet tragedy]] in [[blank verse]], in 1906.

[[Alfred Tennyson|Tennyson]] adapted the source material of Smyrnaeus for "The Death of Oenone" (1892), distilling its tragic essence.<ref>Tennyson dedicated his poem to the classical scholar [[Benjamin Jowett]] as "a Grecian tale retold" and in his ''Memoirs'' (ii.386) credited it with being "even more strictly classical in form and language than the old", as Wilfred P. Mustard noted in ''The American Journal of Philology'' '''23'''.3 (1902), p 318. See [http://whitewolf.newcastle.edu.au/words/authors/T/TennysonAlfred/verse/deathofoenone/deathoenone.html "The death of Oenone"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070609133345/http://whitewolf.newcastle.edu.au/words/authors/T/TennysonAlfred/verse/deathofoenone/deathoenone.html |date=2007-06-09 }}</ref> This was Tennyson's second poem on the subject; his previous attempt, "[[Oenone (poem)|Oenone]]", was critically panned when first published in 1833.<ref>Thorn, Michael. (1992) ''Tennyson'', p. 106. New York: St. Martin's Press.</ref>  The poem was practically rewritten between then and 1842 and the revised version has been described as exquisitely beautiful.<ref>Notes to Poetical Works of Lord Tennyson, Collins, published ca. 1940</ref>

In [[Jean Racine|Racine]]'s ''[[Phèdre]]'', the name Oenone is given to [[Phaedra (mythology)|Phaedra]]'s nurse, a character who also commits suicide.

== Notes ==
{{Reflist|2}}

== References ==
* [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], ''The Library'' with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. ISBN 0-674-99135-4. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0022 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.] [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0021 Greek text available from the same website].
* [[Robert Graves|Graves, Robert]], ''The Greek Myths'', Harmondsworth, London, England, Penguin Books, 1960. {{ISBN|978-0143106715}}
* Graves, Robert, ''The Greek Myths: The Complete and Definitive Edition.'' Penguin Books Limited. 2017. {{ISBN|978-0-241-98338-6|024198338X}}
* [[Parthenius of Nicaea|Parthenius]], ''Love Romances'' translated by Sir Stephen Gaselee (1882–1943), S. Loeb Classical Library Volume 69. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. 1916.  [https://topostext.org/work/550 Online version at the Topos Text Project.]
* Parthenius, ''Erotici Scriptores Graeci, Vol. 1''. Rudolf Hercher. in aedibus B. G. Teubneri. Leipzig. 1858. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:2008.01.0643 Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library].

== External links ==
{{Commons category|Oenone}}
* [https://www.theoi.com/Nymphe/NympheOinone.html OENONE from The Theoi Project]

{{Greek mythology (deities)}}

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[[Category:Children of Greek river gods]]
[[Category:Women of Apollo]]
[[Category:Mythological rape victims]]
[[Category:Women of the Trojan war]]
[[Category:Mythological people from Anatolia]]