In Greek mythology, Mestra (Ancient Greek: Μήστρα, Mēstra)[1] was a daughter of Erysichthon of Thessaly.[2] Antoninus Liberalis called her Hypermestra and Erysichthon Aethon.[3]

Erysichthon sells his daughter Mestra. An engraving from among Johann Wilhelm Baur's illustrations of Ovid's Metamorphoses. Poseidon can be seen in the lower-left background.

Family

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Mestra was the mother of King Eurypylus of Cos by Poseidon.[4] According to Ovid, she was married to the thief Autolycus.[5]

Mythology

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Mestra had the ability to change her shape at will, a gift of her rapist Poseidon according to Ovid.[6] Erysichthon exploited this gift in order to sate the insatiable hunger with which he had been cursed by Demeter for violating a grove sacred to the goddess.[7] The father would repeatedly sell his daughter to suitors for the bride prices they would pay, only to have the girl return home to her father in the form of various animals.[8] Mestra's great-granduncle Sisyphus also hoped to win her as a bride for his son Glaucus although that marriage did not take place.[9][10]

Ultimately, Poseidon carried away Mestra to the island of Cos.[11]

"And earth-shaking Poseidon overpowered her
far from her father, carrying her over the wine-dark sea
in sea-girt Cos, clever though she was;
there she bore Eurypylus, commander of many people."

Notes

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  1. ^ She is also occasionally referred to as Mnestra in modern sources, though the form is not anciently attested; cf. Clytemnestra, whose name does appear with and without the n in ancient authors. The Pseudo-Apollodoran Bibliotheca (2.1.5) uses the form Mnestra for one of Danaus' daughters who marries and then murders Aegius, son of Aegyptus.
  2. ^ Ovid, Metamorphoses 8.739; cf. Hesiod, Ehoiai fr. 43a
  3. ^ Antoninus Liberalis, 17
  4. ^ Hesiod, Ehoiai 43a.79(55)–82(58)
  5. ^ Ovid, Metamorphoses 8.739
  6. ^ Ovid, Metamorphoses 8.850–54
  7. ^ Ovid, Metamorphoses 8.741–842; cf. Callimachus, Hymn to Demeter 24–69
  8. ^ Hesiod, Ehoiai fr. 43a (Berlin papyrus 7497); Ovid, Metamorphoses 8.871–74; Tzetzes on Lycophron, 1393
  9. ^ Hesiod, Ehoiai fr. 43a.2–83; cf. West (1985a, p. 64)
  10. ^ Hard, Robin (2004). The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology. New York: Taylor & Francis Group. pp. 433, 663. ISBN 0-203-44633-X.
  11. ^ Hesiod, Ehoiai 43a.79(55)–82(58)

References

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Further reading

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