Crommyonian Sow

The Crommyonian Sow was a huge, fierce sow that ravaged the countryside around Crommyon, on the road between the Isthmus of Corinth and Megara. She was killed by Theseus on his journey from Troezen to Athens, as one of his early exploits. The ancient writers call her Phaea.

Origin and Name

The sow was called Phaea, according to Apollodorus after the old woman who bred her. Apollodorus adds that some said she was the offspring of Echidna and Typhon (Apollodorus, Epitome 1.1). Pausanias says that Phaea was bred at Crommyon, a place named after Cromus, a son of Poseidon (Pausanias 2.1.3). Bacchylides calls her simply the “man-killing sow in the glens of Crommyon” (Bacchylides 18.23–24). Pausanias lists the boar of Crommyon among the dangerous beasts of Greece, together with the Nemean lion and the boars of Calydon and Erymanthus (Pausanias 1.27.9).

The Sow at Crommyon

Crommyon lay on the coast road between the Isthmus and the Sceironian Rocks (Strabo 9.1.4), in the Corinthian territory about 120 stades from Corinth (Thucydides 4.42.4; 4.45.1). Diodorus says that the sow had its haunts about Crommyon and surpassed other beasts in ferocity and size, and that it killed many people (Diodorus 4.59.4). Plutarch calls it no insignificant creature, but fierce and hard to master (Plutarch, Theseus 9).

Theseus and the Sow

Theseus met the sow on his way by land from Troezen to Athens, when he rid the road of its wrongdoers (Pausanias 2.1.4). In the list of Apollodorus it is the third of his exploits, after Periphetes the club-bearer and Sinis the pine-bender, and before Sceiron (Apollodorus, Epitome 1.1). Plutarch says that Theseus went out of his way to seek out and kill the sow, so that he would not seem to perform all his exploits under compulsion, and because he thought a brave man should fight villainous men only in self-defence but should risk his life against nobler beasts (Plutarch, Theseus 9). The sources do not describe the fight itself. Ovid says only that the farmer now ploughs Cromyon without fear, and that this is Theseus’ gift and work (Metamorphoses 7.433–436). In Bacchylides’ ode, Aegeus reports a herald’s news that a mighty young man, not yet known to him as his son, has killed Sinis, the sow of Crommyon and the reckless Sceiron (Bacchylides 18.16–25).

A Rationalized Version

Plutarch also reports that some said Phaea was not an animal at all but a female robber, a woman of murderous and lawless spirit who lived at Crommyon and was called Sow because of her way of life, and was later killed by Theseus (Plutarch, Theseus 9).

Crommyonian Sow Sources

Bacchylides 18.16–25; Apollodorus, Epitome 1.1; Plutarch, Theseus 9; Diodorus 4.59.4; Pausanias 1.27.9 and 2.1.3; Strabo 9.1.4; Thucydides 4.42.4 and 4.45.1; Ovid, Metamorphoses 7.433–436.

See Also: Typhon, Echidna, Calydonian Boar, Theseus, Erymanthian Boar, Nemean Lion