Tereus

Tereus was a king of Thrace in Greek mythology, son of the god of war Ares. He was married to Procne, with whom he had a son, Itys. He is known for the crime against his sister-in-law Philomela and for the revenge that followed, which ended with the three of them turned into birds (Ovid, Metamorphoses 6.424–674; Apollodorus, Library 3.14.8).

Tereus came to Athens as an ally of King Pandion. In Apollodorus, Pandion was at war with Labdacus over a boundary, and Tereus helped him to win it (Library 3.14.8); in Ovid, he helped Athens against a barbarian army (Metamorphoses 6.421–425). Pandion rewarded him with the hand of his daughter Procne. Ovid describes Tereus as descended from Mars (Gradivus) and adds that the marriage took place without good omens: the Furies lit the torches, and an owl sat on the roof of the bedchamber (Metamorphoses 6.426–434). Thucydides places the kingdom of Tereus at Daulis in Phocis, a land then inhabited by Thracians, and says that poets call the nightingale the bird of Daulis (Thucydides 2.29.3). Pausanias says the Megarians claimed him as the king of Pagae, but he agrees with Daulis (Pausanias 1.41.8).

In Ovid, five years after the birth of Itys, Procne asked her husband to bring her sister Philomela to visit. Tereus sailed to Athens and received Pandion’s permission, but was seized with desire for Philomela as soon as he saw her (Metamorphoses 6.438–471). He took her to a hut deep in the woods, shut her in, and raped her, though she cried out for her father, her sister and the gods. She told him that she would proclaim what he had done to everyone, and so he cut out her tongue with his sword to silence her (6.520–560). Tereus then returned to Procne and told her that Philomela was dead, and Procne put on mourning and made offerings at an empty tomb (6.563–570).

After a year, Philomela, imprisoned and unable to speak, wove the story in purple letters on a white cloth and sent it to Procne by a servant (Metamorphoses 6.571–586). Procne rescued her sister during the nightly rites of Bacchus, killed her own son Itys, and served his flesh to Tereus at a meal. When he called for his son, Procne told him that he already had him within, and Philomela threw the head of Itys in front of him. Tereus overturned the table and pursued the sisters with his sword (6.587–666). In Apollodorus, the story is told differently: Tereus tells Philomela that Procne is dead, hides Procne in the country, takes Philomela as his wife and cuts out her tongue. Philomela reveals the truth by weaving letters into a robe, and Procne kills Itys, cooks him and serves him to Tereus, then flees with her sister. Tereus took up an axe and chased them (Library 3.14.8).

As he caught up with them, the gods turned all three into birds. Tereus became the hoopoe, a bird with a crest and a long, spear-like beak (Ovid, Metamorphoses 6.667–674). In Apollodorus, Procne becomes a nightingale and Philomela a swallow, and the transformation takes place at Daulis in Phocis (Library 3.14.8). Ovid does not say which sister became which bird; he says only that one flew to the woods and the other to the rooftops, with the marks of blood still on their plumage. In Pausanias, Tereus killed himself at Megara, where the Megarians raised a barrow to him and say that the hoopoe first appeared there (Pausanias 1.41.8–9).

Tereus Sources

Ovid, Metamorphoses 6.412–674; Apollodorus, Library 3.14.8; Thucydides, History 2.29.3; Pausanias 1.41.8–9.

See Also: Ares, Procne, Philomela, Pandion, Itys