Cinyras in the ancient sources

Ancient Sources / Figures / Cinyras

5 passages from 3 ancient authors that tell of Cinyras, in the original with English translation, author by author in the order the Greeks read them. Cinyras was a king of Cyprus in Greek mythology. According to a myth, Cinyras offered a corselet to Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, when he found out that... For the story in one place, read our article on Cinyras.

Homer (1)

Homer, Iliad 11.1–83Strife rouses the Achaeans; Agamemnon armsAt dawn Zeus sends Strife to the ships, and she stands on Odysseus' vessel and shouts so that every Achaean longs for war. Agamemnon puts on his armour, with the corselet that Cinyras gave him and a shield of ten circles of bronze, and Hera and Athena thunder in his honour. The charioteers line the ditch and the army follows, and Zeus sends down drops of blood from the sky.

Pindar (2)

Pindar, Pythian Odes 2.1–96Pythian 2: for Hieron — IxionPindar praises Syracuse and Hieron, victor in the chariot race, and recalls that Cinyras of Cyprus is honoured in song. He tells how Ixion, whom the gods had welcomed, tried to seduce Hera and was bound to a wheel; Zeus made a cloud in her likeness, and from it the Centaurs were born. The poet then warns against slanderers and flatterers, says that one must not fight against god, and prays to please the noble.
Pindar, Nemean Odes 8.1–51Nemean 8: for Deinias — Ajax and OdysseusPindar invokes the queen of youthful prime, and praises Deinias of Aegina, double foot-race winner, and prays to Aeacus for his city. He recalls the envy that has always pursued the valiant, as it did Ajax, who killed himself after the Greeks gave Achilles' arms to Odysseus. He ends by saying that it is easy to raise a monument of song for Deinias' grandfather Megas and the Chariadae.

Ovid (2)

Ovid, Metamorphoses 10.298–430MyrrhaOrpheus sings of Myrrha, daughter of King Cinyras of Cyprus, who falls in love with her own father. She tries to hang herself, but is saved by her nurse, and the nurse, learning the cause of her grief, tries to dissuade her.
Ovid, Metamorphoses 10.431–518Myrrha's flight and the birth of AdonisThe nurse, in the end, yields and promises to help her, and arranges for Myrrha to go to Cinyras' bed in the dark during the festival of Demeter (Ceres), when the queen is away. Myrrha visits her father night after night, until Cinyras, bringing a light, sees whom he has been with, and draws his sword. She flees, wandering through Arabia for nine months, and finally prays to the gods to be neither among the living nor the dead. She is changed into a myrrh tree, and from the tree, which weeps resin, the child Adonis is born.