Philomela
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- See also the asteroid 196 Philomela
Philomela is the name of two figures of Greek mythology.
Princess of Athens
The older and better known Philomela was a daughter of Pandion I, King of Athens and Zeuxippe. She was also a sister of Procne. Tereus, Procne's husband, loved Philomela. He raped her, cut her tongue out and held her captive so she could never tell anyone. Philomela wove a tapestry that told her story and gave it to Procne. In revenge, Procne killed her son by Tereus, Itys, and fed him to Tereus unknowingly. Tereus tried to kill the sisters but all three were changed by the Olympic Gods into birds: Tereus was a hoopoe; Philomela was a swallow; Procne was a nightingale whose song is a song of mourning for her son Itys.
The names "Philomela" and "Procne" are sometimes used in literature to refer to a nightingale, though only the latter is mythologically correct.
Apollodorus. Bibliotheke III, xiv, 8; Ovid. Metamorphoses VI, 424-674.
Younger namesake
A younger Philomela is identified by Gaius Julius Hyginus as the wife of Menoetius and mother of Patroclus. The former was one of the Argonauts and the later a participant of the Trojan War.
However one should note that Apollodorus of Athens listed three other wives of Menoetius and possible mothers of Patroclus: