Demophon

Demophon is the name of two figures in Greek mythology: the infant son of Celeus and Metaneira of Eleusis, whom the goddess Demeter tried to make immortal, and a prince of Athens, son of Theseus, who fought at Troy and loved Phyllis of Thrace. The first is called Demophoon in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter.

Demophon, Son of Celeus

While Demeter wandered the earth searching for her daughter Persephone, whom Hades had carried off, she came in the likeness of an old woman to Eleusis. She told the daughters of Celeus that her name was Doso and that she was looking for work as a nurse (Homeric Hymn to Demeter 2.105–144, with the name at 2.122). Celeus’ wife Metaneira received her and gave her the care of her late-born son, Demophoon, whom Metaneira had borne to Celeus (Hymn to Demeter 2.233–234). The child grew like a god: he ate no food and took no milk, but Demeter anointed him with ambrosia, breathed on him and held him in her bosom, and at night she hid him in the fire’s strength like a firebrand, without his parents knowing (Hymn to Demeter 2.235–240).

Metaneira spied on her through the door, saw her son in the fire, and cried out in terror, striking her thighs. Demeter in anger took the child from the flames and set him on the ground, and told Metaneira that her folly had made her unable to give him immortality. Demophoon would nevertheless have undying honour, because he had lain in her lap and slept in her arms (Hymn to Demeter 2.243–264). The goddess then revealed herself and ordered the people of Eleusis to build her a temple. The hymn does not make Triptolemus a brother of Demophoon; it names him with Diocles, Polyxeinus, Eumolpus, Dolichus and Celeus among the leading men of Eleusis (Hymn to Demeter 2.153–155). Apollodorus tells the episode more darkly: Demeter laid the baby on the fire at night to strip off his mortal flesh, a woman named Praxithea saw him in the fire and cried out, and the child was consumed by the flames, after which the goddess revealed herself (Library 1.5.1). In Apollodorus Triptolemus is the elder of Metaneira’s children, to whom Demeter gave a chariot of winged dragons and wheat to sow over the earth (Library 1.5.2).

Demophon, Son of Theseus

The other Demophon was a son of Theseus and Phaedra, with a brother, Acamas (Apollodorus, Epitome 1.18). While Theseus was in the underworld, the Dioscuri captured Aethra, Theseus’ mother, together with Helen, and carried her off into captivity, while Demophon and Acamas fled (Epitome 1.23). After the fall of Troy the two brothers came to rescue Aethra: Pausanias describes Polygnotus’ painting at Delphi, in which Demophon considers how he might free her, and recounts the version in which Agamemnon agreed once Helen had consented (Pausanias 10.25.7–8; Apollodorus, Epitome 5.22).

The Palladium and the Court at Athens

Pausanias reports that Demophon was the first man tried at the Athenian court called “At Palladium”, which hears cases of involuntary homicide. In the tradition Pausanias gives, Diomedes’ fleet landed by night off Phalerum, and Demophon, thinking the Argives to be enemies, attacked them, killed a number and took away the Palladium; an Athenian was trampled to death by his horse in the dark, and Demophon was brought to trial (Pausanias 1.28.8–9).

Phyllis

On his way home from Troy, Demophon put in with a few ships among the Thracian Bisaltians. There Phyllis, the king’s daughter, fell in love with him, and her father gave her to him in marriage with the kingdom as her dowry. Demophon wished to go home and, after many entreaties and oaths that he would return, left; Phyllis went with him as far as a place called the Nine Roads and gave him a casket, telling him it held a sacred object of the Mother Rhea and that he must not open it until he had given up all hope of returning to her (Apollodorus, Epitome 6.16).

Demophon went to Cyprus and settled there. When the appointed day passed, Phyllis called down curses on him and killed herself. Demophon opened the casket, was struck with terror, mounted his horse and galloped wildly; the horse stumbled and he was thrown and fell on his own sword. His people stayed in Cyprus (Apollodorus, Epitome 6.17). In Ovid’s Heroides, Phyllis writes to Demophoon, her Thracian guest, complaining that he has stayed away beyond the promised time (Ovid, Heroides 2.1–2).

Demophon Sources

Homeric Hymn to Demeter 2.105–264; Apollodorus, Epitome 6.16–17, Epitome 1.18, 1.23, 5.22, and Library 1.5.1–2; Pausanias 1.28.8–9, 10.25.7–8; Ovid, Heroides 2.

See Also: Celeus, Metanira, Demeter, Persephone, Theseus, Phaedra, Aethra, Dioscuri, Trojan War, Phyllis, Triptolemus, Palladium