Procne

Procne is a character in Greek mythology, the daughter of King Pandion of Athens. She was married to King Tereus of Thrace. Her sister Philomela was mutilated by Tereus, and in revenge Procne killed their son Itys and served him to his father. All three were then changed into birds.

Family and Marriage

According to Apollodorus, Pandion married Zeuxippe and had two daughters, Procne and Philomela, and twin sons, Erechtheus and Butes. When war broke out between Pandion and Labdacus over a boundary, Pandion called in Tereus, son of Ares, from Thrace. With his help the war was won, and Pandion gave Tereus his daughter Procne in marriage (Apollodorus, Library 3.14.8). Pausanias also says that Pandion made the marriage alliance with the king of Thrace for the sake of power, and that it ended unhappily (Description of Greece 1.5.4).

Procne and Tereus had a son, Itys. Pausanias believes that Tereus ruled at Daulis in Phocis, though the Megarians claimed him as the king of the region around Pagae and showed his grave (Description of Greece 1.41.8). Ovid places the story in Thrace (Metamorphoses 6.424–674).

Philomela

In Apollodorus’ version, Tereus fell in love with Philomela and told her that Procne was dead, concealing his wife in the country. He then married Philomela, lay with her and cut out her tongue (Library 3.14.8). In Ovid, Procne herself asks Tereus to bring her sister to visit. On the way back Tereus carries Philomela to a hut in the forest, rapes her, and when she threatens to tell everyone, he seizes her tongue with pincers and cuts it out with his sword (Metamorphoses 6.424–562). He then tells Procne that her sister has died.

Philomela revealed what had happened by weaving the story into a robe. In Apollodorus she wove “characters” into the cloth, and in Ovid she worked purple marks on a white web and gave it to a servant to take to Procne (Apollodorus, Library 3.14.8; Ovid, Metamorphoses 6.573–580).

The Revenge of Procne

Procne went to find her sister, killed her son Itys, boiled him and served him to the unsuspecting Tereus at supper. Then she fled with Philomela (Apollodorus, Library 3.14.8). Pausanias says that the women served up the boy at Daulis, which was the first pollution of the dinner table among men (Description of Greece 10.4.8), and that a statue group of Procne with Itys, her mind already made up about the boy, stood on the Athenian Acropolis (1.24.3). In Ovid, Philomela flings the head of the boy in front of Tereus, who realises what he has eaten (Metamorphoses 6.587–666).

Transformation into Birds

When Tereus found out what had happened, he took an axe and pursued the sisters; Ovid has him draw a sword. At Daulis in Phocis, according to Apollodorus, the sisters prayed to the gods to be changed into birds: Procne became a nightingale and Philomela a swallow, and Tereus was changed into a hoopoe (Library 3.14.8). The same assignment of the birds is found in the Greek poets: for Aeschylus and Sophocles it is the nightingale that mourns for Itys (Aeschylus, Agamemnon 1142–1145; Sophocles, Electra 147–149), and Pausanias says that the Phocians claim that the swallow, even as a bird, fears Tereus and avoids their country (10.4.9). Latin poets often reverse the sisters, with Procne as the swallow: Virgil counts Procne, her breast marked by her bloody hands, among the birds that harm bees (Georgics 4.15). Ovid does not name the sisters’ birds: one flies to the woods and the other to the roofs, their breasts still marked with blood, and Tereus becomes the crested hoopoe (Metamorphoses 6.667–674).

Procne Sources

Apollodorus, Library 3.14.8; Pausanias 1.5.4, 1.24.3, 1.41.8, 10.4.8–9; Ovid, Metamorphoses 6.424–674; Aeschylus, Agamemnon 1142–1145; Sophocles, Electra 147–149; Virgil, Georgics 4.15.

See Also: Philomela, Tereus, Itys, Pandion, Erechtheus, Athena