Pompilus (mythology)

Pompilus along with three other fish, engraving by Adriaen Collaert, 1598.

Pompilus (Ancient Greek: Πομπίλος, romanized: Pompilos, lit. 'pilot fish') is a minor character in Greek mythology who incurred the wrath of the god Apollo when he foiled the god's plans as he was chasing the nymph Ocyrhoë.

Mythology

During a festival in honour of Artemis in the city of Miletus, in western Asia Minor, the god Apollo became infatuated with Ocyrhoë, a young Samian nymph, daughter of a local river god in Samos. Apollo chased Ocyrhoë, but she ran away from him. Finally she reached the shore and there she ran into Pompilus, a seafarer and old family friend of her father Imbrasos. Pompilus agreed to let her board his boat, and transferred her to the nearby island of Samos.^[1]

But as they reached the coast of Samos, they found Apollo waiting for them in there. Apollo grabbed Ocyrhoë and turned Pompilus into a pilot fish as a punishment for trying to sabotage his plans.^[2] Both authors who mention this tale, Athenaeus and Claudius Aelianus, quote second century BC author Apollonius of Rhodes.

See also

• Ancient Greece portal
• mythology portal

• Aglaurus
• Caanthus
• Psalacantha

References

1. Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae 283e
2. Claudius Aelianus, De Natura Animalium 15.23

Bibliography

• Athenaeus, The Learned Banqueters, Volume V: Books 10.420e-11. Edited and translated by S. Douglas Olson. Loeb Classical Library 274. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009.
• Aelian, On Animals, Volume III: Books 12-17, translated by A. F. Scholfield, Loeb Classical Library No. 449, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1959. Online version at Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-99494-2.