Editing Procris

{{Short description|Greek mythological princess of Athens}}
{{for|the plant genus|Procris (plant)}}
{{distinguish|text=the mythological eldest daughter of [[Thespius]] and Megamede, who bore [[Heracles]] twin sons, Antileon and Hippeus}}
[[Image:Joachem Wtewael - Cephalus and Procris (The Death of Procris).jpg|thumb|right|''The Death of Procris'' by [[Joachim Wtewael]] (circa 1595–1600)]]
In [[Greek mythology]], '''Procris''' {{IPAc-en|ˈ|p|r|oʊ|k|r|ᵻ|s}} ({{langx|grc|Πρόκρις}}, ''gen''.: Πρόκριδος) was an [[Athens|Athenian]] princess, the third daughter of [[Erechtheus]], king of Athens and his wife, [[Praxithea]]. [[Homer]] mentions her in the ''[[Odyssey]]'' as one of the many dead spirits [[Odysseus]] saw in the [[Greek Underworld|Underworld]].<ref>[[Homer]], ''[[Odyssey]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0218%3Abook%3D11%3Acard%3D7 11.321]</ref> [[Sophocles]] wrote a tragedy called ''Procris'' that has been lost, as has a version contained in the Greek [[Cyclic poets|Cycle]], but at least six different accounts of her story still exist.

== Family ==
Procris's sisters were [[Creusa (daughter of Erechtheus)|Creusa]], [[Orithyia (Athenian)|Oreithyia]], [[Chthonia]], [[Protogeneia]], [[Pandora (Greek myth)|Pandora]]<ref>[[Suda]] ''s.v.'' ''[https://topostext.org/work/240#pi.668 Maidens, Virgins (Παρθένοι)]''</ref> and [[Merope (Greek myth)|Merope]]<ref>[[Plutarch]], ''Theseus'' 19.5</ref> while her brothers were [[Cecrops II|Cecrops]], [[Pandorus]], [[Metion]],<ref>[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], 3.15.1</ref> and possibly [[Orneus]],<ref>[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], 2.25.6; Plutarch, ''Theseus'' 32.1; [[Stephanus of Byzantium]], s.v. ''[https://topostext.org/work/241#O496.5 Orneiai]''</ref> [[Thespius]],<ref>[[Diodorus Siculus]], ''[[Bibliotheca historica]]'' 4.29.2</ref> [[Eupalamus]]<ref>Diodorus Siculus, ''Bibliotheca historica'' 4.76.1</ref> and [[Sicyon (mythology)|Sicyon]].<ref>Pausanias, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160%3Abook%3D2%3Achapter%3D6%3Asection%3D5 2.6.5], citing [[Hesiod]] (''[[Catalogue of Women|Ehoiai]]'' fr. 224) for [[Erechtheus]]</ref> She married [[Cephalus of Phocis|Cephalus]], the son of King [[Deioneus]] of [[Phocis (ancient region)|Phocis]].

== Mythology ==

===Pherecydes===
The earliest version of Procris' story comes from [[Pherecydes of Athens]]. Cephalus remains away from home for eight years because he wanted to test Procris. When he returns, he seduces her while disguised. Although reconciled, Procris suspects that her husband has a lover because he is often away hunting. A servant tells her that Cephalus called to [[Nephele]] (a cloud) to come to him. Procris follows him the next time he goes hunting and leaps out of the thicket when she hears him call out to Nephele again. He is startled and thinking that she is a wild animal, shoots her with an arrow and kills her.<ref>[[Pherecydes of Athens]] FGrHist 3F 34 [= [[Scholia]] on [[Homer]]'s ''[[Odyssey]]'' [https://books.google.com/books?id=tXxxxgDaY4wC&pg=PA90 1.320].]</ref>

===Ovid===
[[Image:Piero di Cosimo 013.jpg|thumb|right|300px|''[[The Death of Procris]]'', by [[Piero di Cosimo]] (c.&nbsp;1486–1510)]]

====Early version====
[[Ovid]] tells the end of the story a bit differently in the third of his books on ''The Art of Love.''<ref name="May">Ovid. Transl. J. Lewis May. [http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/ovid/lboo/lboo60.htm ''The Art of Love''], sacred-texts.com</ref><ref name="Kline">Ovid. Transl. [[A. S. Kline]]. [https://web.archive.org/web/20070703070529/http://www.gutenberg.com/eBooks/TonyKline_Collection/Html/ArtofLoveBkIII.htm ''The Art of Love''], The Gutenberg Museum Mainz</ref> No goddesses are mentioned in this earlier published work, a [[cautionary tale]] against [[credulity]]. After hunting, Cephalus calls for a breeze ([[Zephyrus|Zephyr]]<ref name="May"/> or [[Aura (mythology)|Aura]]<ref name="Kline"/>) to cool him as he lies in the shade.

Overhearing a comment to Procris, a [[busybody]] reports what he heard to Procris, who grew pale with terror that her husband loved another, and hastened in fury to the valley, then crept silently to the forest where Cephalus hunted. When she saw him flop on the grass to cool himself and call, to Zephyr to come relieve him, Procris realized that what she had taken to be the name of a lover was merely a name for the air and nothing more. Joyfully she rose to fling herself into his arms, but hearing a rustling of foliage, Cephalus shot an arrow at what he thought would be a wild beast in the brush. Dying, the woman laments that the breeze by whose name she was deceived would now carry away her spirit, and her husband weeps, holding her in his arms.{{Citation needed|date=September 2023}}

====Late version====
In Ovid's later account, the goddess of the dawn, [[Eos]] ([[Aurora (mythology)|Aurora]] to the Romans) seizes Cephalus while he is hunting, but Cephalus begins to pine for Procris. A disgruntled Eos returns Cephalus to his wife, but offers to show Cephalus how easily Procris would be seduced by another stranger. He therefore goes home in disguise. He pushes Procris to "hesitate" by promising her money before claiming that she is unfaithful. Procris flees to take up the pursuits of Diana, and is later persuaded to return to her husband, bringing him a magical spear and a hunting dog as gifts. Ovid emphasizes that Cephalus (who is the narrator of the events) dares not say how he acquired the dog and the javelin from Procris, hinting that Cephalus himself was seduced and tricked in the same manner as he did Procris, like in the versions Antoninus Liberalis and Hyginus related.<ref>{{cite book | first1 = Sara | last1 = Mack | title = [[Ovid]] | page = [https://books.google.com/books?id=zmqdbLroH4oC&pg=PA132 132] | publisher = [[Yale University Press]] | date = 1968 | isbn = 0-300-04295-7}}</ref> The transformation scene centers on the dog, which always catches its quarry, and the uncatchable fox; Jupiter turns them into stone.

The tale resumes with a similar ending to that of Pherecydes, as Procris is informed of her husband's calling out to "Aura", the Latin word for breeze, which sounds similar to Eos' Roman equivalent Aurora. Cephalus kills her by accident when she stirs in the bushes nearby, upset at his beseeching of "beloved Aura" to "come into his lap and give relief to his heat". Procris dies in his arms after begging him not to let Aura take her place as his wife. He explains to her that it was 'only the breeze' and she seems to die at ease.<ref>Ovid, ''Metamorphoses'' 7.690-862</ref>

===Apollodorus, Hyginus, and Antoninus===
The ''[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Bibliotheca]]'' gives an entirely different characterization of Procris. It states that Procris was bribed with a golden crown to sleep with [[Pteleon (mythology)|Pteleon]], but was discovered in his bed by her husband. She is described as fleeing to [[Minos|King Minos]], who had been cursed by his wife [[Pasiphaë]] to ejaculate scorpions, serpents and centipedes that killed his mistresses from the inside. Procris was said to have helped cure the king of his genital sickness with a [[Circe|circean herb]]. She was given a dog no quarry could escape and an infallible javelin. The ''Bibliotheca'' states that she gave the dog and javelin to Cephalus and they were reconciled.{{Citation needed|date=September 2023}}

[[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]] (who states that the dog and javelin are gifts from the goddess [[Artemis]]) and [[Antoninus Liberalis]],<ref>{{cite book |author=Antoninus Liberalis |author-link=Antoninus Liberalis |date=1992 |title=The Metamorphoses of Antoninus Liberalis: A Translation with Commentary |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9_Eolzuv0eQC&pg=PA101 |editor-last=Celoria |editor-first=Francis |publisher=Psychology Press |orig-year=translation; original work between 100 and 300 |pages=101–102 |isbn=9780415068963 |access-date=23 February 2014 }}</ref> however, write that she disguised herself as a boy and seduced her husband, so that he too was guilty, and they were reconciled. According to the latter, Minos' unexplained disease not only killed his mistresses, but also prevented him and Pasiphaë from having any children (Pasiphaë herself was not otherwise harmed, being an immortal daughter of [[Helios]]). Procris then inserted a goat's bladder in a woman, told Minos to ejaculate there, and after that she sent him to his wife; the couple was thus able to conceive, and Minos gave his spear and his dog as gratitude gifts to her.{{Citation needed|date=September 2023}}

Unlike the other versions, Hyginus omits Cephalus' abduction by Eos; instead he rejects her when she propositions him, and she replies that she does not want him to break his marital vows unless Procris has. She then disguises him as a stranger who successfully seduces Procris. When they lie together in bed, Eos removes the enchantment from him, and Procris, realizing she has been deceived by Eos, flees in shame. After their reunion, Procris follows Cephalus in secret out of fear of Eos.<ref>[[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], ''Fabulae'' [https://topostext.org/work/206#189 189]</ref>

===The dog and the fox===
The name of the dog is [[Laelaps (mythology)|Laelaps]]. The story of the hunting of the [[Teumessian fox]], which could never be caught, and that Zeus turned to stone along with Procris' dog when the dog hunted it, and the death of Procris were told in one of the lost early Greek epics of the [[Cyclic poets|Cycle]], most probably the ''[[Epigoni (epic)|Epigoni]]''.{{Citation needed|date=September 2023}}

=== Medieval tradition ===
Procris' story is included in ''[[De Mulieribus Claris]]'', a collection of biographies of historical and mythological women by the [[Florence|Florentine]] author [[Giovanni Boccaccio]], composed in 1361{{endash}}62. It is notable as the first collection devoted exclusively to biographies of women in Western literature.<ref name="Brown_xi">{{cite book |last=Boccaccio |first=Giovanni |author-link=Giovanni Boccaccio |year=2003 |translator=Virginia Brown |title=Famous Women |publisher=Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge, MA |series=I Tatti Renaissance Library |volume=1 |isbn=0-674-01130-9 |page=xi}}</ref>

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

== References ==

* [[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.]

* [[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].
* [[Diodorus Siculus]], ''The Library of History'' translated by [[Charles Henry Oldfather]]. Twelve volumes. [[Loeb Classical Library]]. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1989. Vol. 3. Books 4.59–8. [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/home.html Online version at Bill Thayer's Web Site]
* Diodorus Siculus, ''Bibliotheca Historica. Vol 1-2''. Immanel Bekker. Ludwig Dindorf. Friedrich Vogel. in aedibus B. G. Teubneri. Leipzig. 1888-1890. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:2008.01.0540 Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library].

* [[Plutarch|Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus]], ''Lives'' with an English Translation by Bernadotte Perrin. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. London. William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. 1. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:2008.01.0067 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.] [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:2008.01.0075 Greek text available from the same website].
*[[Pausanias (geographer)|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, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. {{ISBN|0-674-99328-4}}. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0160 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library]
* Pausanias, ''Graeciae Descriptio.'' ''3 vols''. Leipzig, Teubner. 1903.  [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0159 Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library].
* [[Ovid|Publius Ovidius Naso]], ''The Art of Love (Ars Amatoria)'' translated by A.S. Kline. [https://topostext.org/work/661 Online version at the Topos Text Project.]
* [[Stephanus of Byzantium]], ''Stephani Byzantii Ethnicorum quae supersunt,'' edited by August Meineike (1790-1870), published 1849. A few entries from this important ancient handbook of place names have been translated by Brady Kiesling. [https://topostext.org/work/241 Online version at the Topos Text Project.]
* [[Suda|Suida]], ''Suda Encyclopedia'' translated by Ross Scaife, David Whitehead, William Hutton, Catharine Roth, Jennifer Benedict, Gregory Hays, Malcolm Heath Sean M. Redmond, Nicholas Fincher, Patrick Rourke, Elizabeth Vandiver, Raphael Finkel, Frederick Williams, Carl Widstrand, Robert Dyer, Joseph L. Rife, Oliver Phillips and many others. [https://topostext.org/work/240 Online version at the Topos Text Project.]

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[[Category:Princesses in Greek mythology]]
[[Category:Characters in Book VI of the Aeneid]]
[[Category:Mythological people from Attica]]
[[Category:Love stories]]
[[Category:Mythological hunters]]
[[Category:Metamorphoses characters]]
[[Category:Characters in the Odyssey]]
[[Category:Retinue of Artemis]]
[[Category:Hunting accident deaths]]