Stheneboea

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In Greek mythology, Stheneboea (/ˌsθɛnɪˈbiːə/; Ancient Greek: Σθενέβοια, romanized: Sthenéboia, lit. 'strong cow, strong through cattle') also called Antea in Homer (Ancient Greek: Ἄντεια, romanized: Ánteia), is the daughter of Iobates, king in Lycia. She was the queen consort of Proetus, joint-king in the Argolid along with Acrisius, having his seat at Tiryns. According to early sources, Stheneboea was the daughter of Aphidas and sister of Aleus. Stheneboea desired the hero Bellerophon, but he spurned her advances, so she accused him of rape to her husband, setting in motion the events that would result in Bellerophon becoming one of the greatest ancient Greek heroes.

Etymology

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Stheneboea is one of a number of female figures named for their role as "cattle queens"; they include Phereboia ("bringing in cattle"), and Polyboia ("worth much cattle").[1] In archaic Greece cattle were a source of wealth[2] and a demonstration of social pre-eminence; they also signified the numinous presence of Hera.

Family

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An early genealogy in Hesiod's Catalogue of Women has Stheneboea as the daughter of Aleus' father Apheidas[3] but by the time of Euripides' lost tragedy Stheneboea her father is Iobates.[4]

By Proetus she had three daughters, Iphinoë, Iphianassa and Lysippe, collectively known as the Proetids ("daughters of Proetus").

Mythology

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Stheneboea or Antea was married to king Proetus, who once welcomed the hero Bellerophon in his court. Stheneboea took a strong fancy to the gallant and handsome Bellerophon but was repulsed, for Bellerophon was of noble heart. The bitterly rejected Stheneboea testified falsely against Bellerophon, accusing him of rape to her husband, and urged Proetus to kill him.[5] Proetus could not slay a guest, so he sent him to deliver a letter to Iobates with instructions for his father-in-law to kill the messenger. Iobates, also unwilling to kill a guest, sent Bellerophon on a deadly quest to slay the monstrous Chimera, in hopes that he would perish doing so, but Bellerophon triumphed and accoplished all the additional hard tasks the king gave him, until eventually Iobates gave up.[5]

Afterwards Iobates gave Stheneboea's sister's hand in marriage to Bellerophon, and consequently, this resulted in Stheneboea's suicide out of despair when she heard the news.[6] In another version, after he was done with the Chimera and pretending to reciprocate her affections after all,[7] Bellerophon took her up on Pergasus with the promise to take her away to the land of Caria, and threw her at the sea below near the island of Melos; fishermen found the body and returned it to Proetus.[8]

Divine judgement was added to this tragic end, since Stheneboea's three daughters were overcome with madness, inflicted by either Hera or Dionysus, and took to ranging over the mountains as maenads, assaulting travelers.

Parallel stories

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Robert Graves observes that Anteia's attempted seduction of Bellerophon has several Greek parallels and draws attention to Biadice's love for Phrixus, which "recalls Potiphar's wife's love for Joseph, a companion myth from Canaan"[9] as well as Cretheis and Peleus, Phaedra and Hippolytus or Philonome and Tenes. Graves also notes the parallel in the Egyptian Tale of the Two Brothers,[10] from about the end of the second millennium BC.[11] "Such poisonous triangular relationships," Jeffrey A White has observed in this context,[12] "with negligible variations of detail and conclusion (the common ingredients being a failed seductress, an innocent youth and a deceived father-figure), can be multiplied easily from Greek myth,[13] as from Hebrew. That the Bellerophon-Proetus-Anteia relationship recalls quite vividly the Joseph-Potiphar-Potiphar's wife episode in Gen. 39, is well known."

Notes

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  1. ^ Steven H. Lonsdale, "Attitudes towards animals in ancient Greece" Greece & Rome, 2nd Series 26.2 (October 1979), pp. 146-159; John Heath, The Talking Greeks: Speech, Animals, and the Other in Homer, Aeschylus, and Plato, p. 190 and note 67.
  2. ^ Iliad xxiii.700-05; see also the Greek region of Euboia ("rich in cattle").
  3. ^ Hesiod fragment 129 Merkelbach–West numbering, Most, pp. 148–151), see also Apollodorus 3.9.1
  4. ^ Gantz 1993, pp. 311–312; Apollodorus, 2.2.1
  5. ^ a b Homer, Iliad 6.156–90
  6. ^ Hyginus, Fabulae 57, 243
  7. ^ Tzetzes on Aristophanes' Frogs 1051
  8. ^ Euripides, Stheneboea hypothesis [=P. Oxy. 2455]; scholia on Aristophanes' Peace 141
  9. ^ Graves, The Greek Myths (1955; 1960) sub 70.2 "Athamas".
  10. ^ Graves 1960:75.1. Graves note "the provenience of the myth is uncertain."
  11. ^ In J.B. Pritchard, ed., Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament (Princeton: Princeton University Press) 1955:23-25. The two brothers are Anubis and his wife, and Anubis' younger brother Bata, who is rescued from Anubis' misplaced vengeance by the intervention of Re-Herakti.
  12. ^ Jeffrey A. White, "Bellerophon in the 'Land of Nod': Some Notes on Iliad 6.153-211" The American Journal of Philology 103.2 (Summer 1982:119-127) p. 123
  13. ^ White notes further triangles from M. Simpson, Gods and Heroes of the Greeks: the Library of Apollodorus (Amherst) 1976, Acastus-Peleus-Astydamia (Bibliotheke 3.13.3); Amyntor-Phoenix-concubine (Bib. 3.13.8); Paneus-Plexippus and Pandion-Idaea (Bib. 3.15.3); Cycnus-Tenes-Philonome (Epitome 3.24; Cretheus and Athamus-Phrixus-Demodice (Hyginus, Astronomia, 2.20); and Theseus-Hippolytus-Phaedra (Epitome 1.18-19).

References

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  • Euripides' tragedies Stheneboia and Bellerophon are both lost, although fragments survive (see Matthew Wright, Euripides and quotation culture. Classical literature and society. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2024. Pp. 224. ISBN 9781350441170).
  • Hesiod, Catalogue of women
  • Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheke ii.4.1.
  • Diodorus Siculus, iv.68.
  • Heroic Patterns, Heroes of Greek Mythology 13.