Chrysippus of Elis

This article is about the son of Pelops. For other uses, see Chrysippus (mythology).

The abduction of Chrysippus by Laius on an Apulian red-figure hydria, c. 320-310 BC, Archaeological Museum of Fiesole.

In Greek mythology, Chrysippus (/kraɪˈsɪpəs, krɪ-/; Ancient Greek: Χρύσιππος, romanized: Khrúsippos, lit. 'golden horse') was a divine hero of Elis in the Peloponnesus peninsula (southern Greece), sometimes referred to as Chrysippus of Pisa. He is traditionally the son of Pelops by a nymph.

Chrysippus is notable for his abduction by Laius, prince of Thebes who was warmly received at Pisa and Pelops' court but became infatuated with Chrysippus due to his good looks. Laius' actions would result in Pelops' terrible curse being cast over him and his descendants. Chrysippus' life was eventually cut short by his jealous half-brothers who murdered him in cold blood.

Family

Chrysippus was the bastard son of Pelops, king of Pisa in the Peloponnesus, and the nymph Axioche^[1] or Danais.^[2] In Hellanicus however he was a legitimate son from a previous marriage instead.^[3] He was half-brother to Atreus, Thyestes, Pittheus, Dias, Cynosurus, Corinthus, Hippalmus (or Hippalcimus), Hipassus, Cleon, Argeius, Alcathous, Aelius, Dimoetes, Troezen, Nicippe, Astydameia, and Lysidice.^[4] According to Pseudo-Plutarch, of all his children Pelops loved Chrysippus best.^[2]

Mythology

Laius

The beautiful youth Chrysippus was kidnapped by the exiled Theban prince Laius, his tutor,^[5] who was escorting him to the Nemean Games, where the boy planned to compete.^[6][7] Instead, Laius carried him off to Thebes and there he raped him, a crime for which he, his city, and his family were later punished by the gods.^[8] Other ones named as Chrysippus' kidnapper include Zeus,^[9] and even Theseus.^[a][11] Laius was credited as the first man to introduce the love of nobleborn boys; this was supposedly the reason why the Thebans considered it a good thing to love the handsome, apparently not discouraged by Laius and Oedipus' fates.^[12]

Chrysippus is carried off by Laius, Apulian red-figure bell-krater c. 350-340 BC, kept in Altes Museum, Berlin.

In one version Chrysippus' father Pelops, following his son's abduction, cursed Laius to be killed by one of his own children.^[13][14] Pelops also waged a war against Laius in order to get his son back.^[5][15] In a different one Chrysippus' half-brothers Atreus and Thyestes caught Laius and retrieved Chrysippus, so Pelops pardoned him.^[2] One late scholiast who cites Peisander (though possibly not the same as the Archaic poet) as his source claims that Chrysippus killed himself with his sword out of shame over what had transpired with Laius.^[16][17] A rare version, preserved in scholia and ancient art, bypasses the curse of Pelops entirely; according to it, the exposed infant Oedipus was adopted not by Polybus and Merope but Hippodamia and Pelops. Laius then abducted Oedipus' assumed brother Chrysippus, causing Oedipus to kill Laius.^[18] Another scholion suggests Oedipus also desired Chrysippus, and fought his father over their common desire.^[18]

Chrysippus' violation by Laius might have been the direct cause behind the Thebans' woes in the lost epic Oedipodea (the ancient poem that recounted the story of Oedipus),^[b] as far as it can be reconstructed based on other authors' testimonies. Hera, as the goddess of marriage, was enraged at Laius and his unlawful, contrary to traditional marriage, actions, and sent the terrible Sphinx to attack the Thebans in revenge for not punishing the impious Laius, while Oedipus' defeat of her did little to appease the goddess.^[19][20]

Envious brothers

Chrysippus' death had many other variations. Hellanicus of Lesbos and Thucydides for example wrote that Chrysippus was murdered out of jealousy by Atreus and Thyestes, who cast him into a well.^[21] They usually act on their mother Hippodamia's suggestion, envious as she was of Pelops' love for Chrysippus and afraid that he was going to leave his kingdom to the boy.^[10][22] In one author, Hippodamia took matters in her own hands when they refused to involve themselves, and after stealing the sleeping Laius' sword, she thrusted it into Chrysippus' belly and left it there so that suspicion would fall upon Laius. Chrysippus however lived just long enough to reveal the truth with his dying breath.^[2][23]

Afterwards, Pelops blamed Hippodamia for Chrysippus' demise, so she killed herself,^[24] or she withdrew to Midea in the Argolid, far away from Elis and Pelops.^[25] He also exiled his sons, and cursed them to have their descendants cause each other's perish.^[26]

The death of Chrysippus is sometimes seen as springing from the curse that Myrtilus placed on Pelops for his betrayal, as many years before Pelops had thrown him off a cliff after he helped Pelops win the chariot race that landed him Hippodamia as a wife.^[27][28]

In ancient Greek drama

It is known that Athenian tragedian Euripides wrote a play called Chrysippus, which is now lost with few details preserved, but it is the earliest known account of Chrysippus' tale.^[17] Its plot covered Laius and the boy's death,^[22] with a theme centered around the relations between men and boys,^[29] specifically Laius' failure to control his desire, the abduction and Chrysippus' death.^[30] Arguments have been proposed both for and against Euripides being the one who invented the story in the first place.^[17][31]

Presumably, it opened with the arrival of Laius at Pisa, his first encounter with Chrysippus and his inner struggle with his desires; surviving fragments suggest Chrysippus' rejection of him, which motivated Laius' abduction, perhaps under the pretext of teaching Chrysippus chariot-driving.^[32] The play probably ended with an eye-witness reporting the events to Pelops, the return of Chrysippus' body, and Pelops' curse.^[33] It is not so clear whether the play condemned the pederasty as is, or just Laius' use of force and abuse of sacred hospitality; Hubbard notes that the first pederast being also the first to abduct and violently rape a child means that the play likely was a middle-class reaction to the elite's pederastic customs.^[33] Chrysippus was originally included in the same trilogy as The Phoenician Women, which survives.

Those elements were probably also present in the earlier and similarly lost tragedy Laius by Aeschylus.^[b][22] Chrysippus' rape might have been the transgression that has turned Apollo against Laius in Seven Against Thebes, which was part of the same trilogy as Laius, but this cannot be confirmed because of the vagueness of the text, apparently due to the author expecting his audience to already be familiar with his previous plays.^[34] Another play titled Chrysippus by Accius probably covered the Hippodamia version.^[35]

Interpretation

The Murder of Laius by Oedipus, by Joseph Blanc.

The myths about curses of the royal houses of Mycenae and Thebes were likely used to explain the collapse of Bronze Age Greece, as due to the culminating wars all the great families were extinguished. What exact nature of those curses, particularly their generational extend and reach, was in Archaic literature is not clear. The idea of an ancestral curse gained a lot traction in the fifty century BC, as evidenced by the works of the tragedians.^[36]

Although most authors use the word harpazein (meaning 'to abduct', rapio in Latin), which does not necessarily have sexual connotations, to describe the incident, nevertheless Chrysippus' myth is definitely a story about rape, as evidenced by use of words deriving from erao such as eros or erastheis, and Chrysippus' own suicide out of aiskhyne ("shame").^[37] The exact origin of the violation myth has been much debated; an origin from the lost Oedipodea has been proposed but also challenged.^[38] Hubbard suggested that it does have pre-Euripidean origins, as Praxilla mentioned an abduction of Chrysippus by Zeus, but was mostly integrated into the Labdacid mythological corpus after the play was produced.^[39] Praxilla might have modelled her rendition on the myth of Pelops and Poseidon's romance, as the two myths share a similar structure and a genealogical connection.^[40] Apollodorus in the Bibliotheca seems to have drawn from Euripides, but perhaps the combination of Laius' exile and the abduction was unique to him, possibly in order to create a coherent narrative with those multiple epidodes.^[41]

The versions where Pelops manages to retrieve Chrysippus seem to have been invented in order to reconcile the two main but conflicting narratives of Chrysippus, his abduction (and eventual suicide) with his murder by his brothers.^[6] Supposing the boy does not commit suicide, his final fate does not necessarily exclude him having being kidnapped earlier, but putting those stories in the same framework has been described as 'hard'; nevertheless some antiquity authors did manage to combine them.^[17] Pelops' pardon of Laius in this version would equal an acceptance of the pederastic relationship, which in an ancient Greek context meant that the actions of Laius were legitimised by the consent of the father, the legal authority, and would not be socially or legally seen as rape.^[42] Devereux suggested that, taking in account the version where Oedipus and Laius fight over Chrysippus, the dispute between father and son as to who would go first through the 'narrow road' was an euphemism for the anal penetration of the youth.^[42]

See also

• Mythology portal
• Ancient Greece portal

• List of rape victims from history and mythology
• Ocyrhoë
• Cydippe

Notes

1. Perhaps merely a mistake as elsewhere Hyginus recounts the standard tale.^[10]
2. Supposing the hypothesis that the myth was invented by Euripides is rejected.

References

1. Scholia ad Euripides, Orestes 5; ad Pindar, Olympian Odes 1.144
2. Pseudo-Plutarch, Greek and Roman Parallel Stories 33
3. Fowler 2000, p. 432.
4. Bell 1991, p. 243.
5. Smith 1873, s.v. Chrysippus 1.
6. Hard 2004, p. 307.
7. Fry 2018, pp. 354–5.
8. Apollodorus, 3.5.5; Hyginus, Fabulae 85
9. Athenaeus, Scholars at Dinner 13.79
10. Tripp 1970, p. 162.
11. Hyginus, Fabulae 271
12. Aelian, Historical Miscellany 13.5, and n. 6.
13. Scholia ad Euripides, The Phoenician Women 1605
14. Grimal 1987, p. 97.
15. Hyginus, Fabulae 85
16. Scholia ad Euripides, The Phoenician Women 1748
17. Gantz 1996, p. 489.
18. Gantz 1996, p. 492.
19. Tsagalis 2022, p. 285.
20. Avery 1962, p. 283.
21. Hellanicus of Lesbos frag. 85 [= Schol. ad. Hom. Il. 2.105.]; Thucydides 1.9; Plato, Cratylus 395b
22. Scheer 2006, para. 1.
23. Grimal 1987, p. 235.
24. Hyginus, Fabulae 243
25. Pausanias 6.20.7
26. Hard 2004, p. 505.
27. Sophocles, Electra 504-515
28. Apollodorus, Epitome 2.8
29. Avery 1962, p. 466.
30. Collard & Cropp 2009, p. 459
31. Collard & Cropp 2009, p. 460
32. Rodrigues 2023, p. 87.
33. Collard & Cropp 2009, pp. 461–2
34. Gantz 1996, p. 490.
35. Hathorn 1967, p. 87.
36. Fowler 2000, p. 432–3.
37. Rodrigues 2023, pp. 84.
38. Michels 2023, pp. 477–8.
39. Rodrigues 2023, pp. 83, 86.
40. Rodrigues 2023, p. 86.
41. Michels 2023, pp. 478–9.
42. Rodrigues 2023, pp. 85.

Bibliography

Ancient sources

• Aelian, Historical Miscellany, translated by Nigel G. Wilson. Loeb Classical Library 486. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997. Available at Loeb Classical Library.
• Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Athenaeus (1927–1941). Gulick, Charles Burton (ed.). Deipnosophistae [Scholars at Dinner]. Loeb Classical Library (in Ancient Greek). Heinemann & Harvard University Press. 15 books in 7 vols. LCCN 28004492. OCLC 688821.
• Euripides (2009). Collard, Christopher; Cropp, Martin (eds.). Fragments: Oedipus-Chrysippus. Other Fragments. Loeb Classical Library 506. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
• Hellanicus of Lesbos, Fragmenta, edited and translated into Latin by Friedrich Wilhelm Sturz. Leipzig, 1826. Archive.
• Hyginus, Gaius Julius, The Myths of Hyginus. Edited and translated by Mary A. Grant, Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1960.
• Pausanias, Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Plato, Cratylus in Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 12 translated by Harold N. Fowler. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. Available online at Perseus Digital Library.
• Plutarch, The Moralia, with an English Translation by. Frank Cole Babbitt. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. London. William Heinemann Ltd. 1936. 4. Online version at topos text.
• Sophocles, The Electra of Sophocles, edited with introduction and notes by Sir Richard Jebb. Sir Richard Jebb. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1894. Cambridge: University Press Warehouse, Ave Maria Lane. Glasgow: 363, Argyle Street. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, Volume I: Books 1-2. Translated by C. F. Smith. Loeb Classical Library 108. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1919. Available at Loeb Classical Library.

Modern sources

• Avery, Catherine B., ed. (1962). New Century Classical Handbook. New York, US: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
• Bell, Robert E. (1991). Women of Classical Mythology: A Biographical Dictionary. ABC-Clio. ISBN 9780874365818.
• Fowler, Robert L. (2000). Early Greek Mythography. Vol. 2: Commentary. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-814741-1.
• Fry, Stephen (2018). Heroes. Chronicle Books. ISBN 978-1797201863.
• Gantz, Timothy (1996). Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources. Vol. II. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-0-8018-5362-3.
• Grimal, Pierre (1987). The Dictionary of Classical Mythology. Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-13209-0.
• Hard, Robin (2004). The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology". Routledge. ISBN 9780415186360.
• Hathorn, Richmond Y. (1967). Crowell's Handbook to Classical Drama. NYC, United States: Thomas Y. Crowell Company. ISBN 0-690-22501-6.
• Michels, Johanna Astrid (2023). "Theban Myths: Amphion & Zethus and the Labdacids (III.40–47)". Agenorid Myth in the ›Bibliotheca‹ of Pseudo-Apollodorus: A Philological Commentary of Bibl. III.1-56 and a Study into the Composition and Organization of the Handbook. Beiträge zur Altertumskunde. Vol. 42. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter. ISBN 9783110610529.
• Rodrigues, Nuno Simões (2023). "5: The Rape of Chrysippus". In Deacy, Susan; Magalhães, José Malheiro; Zacharski Menzies, Jean (eds.). Revisiting Rape in Antiquity: Sexualised Violence in Greek and Roman Worlds. Bloomsbury Publishing.
• Scheer, Tanja (October 1, 2006). "Chrysippus". In Cancik, Hubert; Schneider, Helmuth (eds.). Brill's New Pauly. Translated by Christine F. Salazar. Rome: Brill Reference Online. ISSN 1574-9347. Retrieved August 1, 2025.
• Smith, William (1873). A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. London, UK: John Murray, printed by Spottiswoode and Co. Online version at the Perseus.tufts library.
• Tripp, Edward (June 1970). Crowell's Handbook of Classical Mythology (1st ed.). Thomas Y. Crowell Co. ISBN 069022608X.
• Tsagalis, Christos (December 5, 2022). Early Greek Epic: Language, Interpretation, Performance. De Gruyter. ISBN 9783110981384.

External links

• CHRYSIPPUS on The Theoi Project