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Philomela or Philomel (, ''Philomēlē'') is a minor figure in Greek mythology and is frequently invoked as a direct and figurative symbol in literary, artistic, and musical works in the Western canon. She is identified as being the "princess of Athens" and the younger of two daughters of Pandion I, King of Athens, and Zeuxippe. Her sister, Procne, was the wife of King Tereus of Thrace. While the myth has several variations, the general depiction is that Philomela, after being raped and mutilated by her sister's husband, Tereus, obtains her revenge and is transformed into a nightingale (''Luscinia megarhynchos''), a migratory passerine bird native to Europe and southwest Asia and noted for its song. Because of the violence associated with the myth, the song of the nightingale is often depicted or interpreted as a sorrowful lament. Coincidentally, in nature, the female nightingale is mute and only the male of the species sings.〔Kaplan, Matt. ("Male Nightingales Explore by Day, Seduce by Night" ) in National Geographic News (4 March 2009). (Retrieved 23 November 2012).〕〔PHYS.ORG. "And a nightingale sang... experienced males 'show off' to protect their territories" (9 November 2011). (found online (here )). (Retrieved 23 November 2012).〕 Ovid and other writers have made the association (either fancifully or mistakenly) that the etymology of her name was "lover of song," derived from the Greek and ("song") instead of ("fruit" or "sheep"). The name means "lover of fruit," "lover of apples,"〔Defining φιλόμηλος as "fond of apples or fruit", see Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; and Jones, Henry Stuart. ''A Greek-English Lexicon'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1st Ed. 1843, 9th Ed. 1925, 1996). (LSJ) found online (here ); citing "Doroth.Hist. ap. Ath. 7.276f." (Retrieved 7 October 2012)〕 or "lover of sheep."〔Defining it as "lover of sheep", see White, J. T. ''Virgil: Georgics IV'' (London, 1884) (vocabulary), found online (here ) (Retrieved 7 October 2012).〕 ==The story of Philomela in myth== The most complete and extant rendering of the story of Philomela, Procne, and Tereus can be found in Book VI of the ''Metamorphoses'' of the Roman poet Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso) (43 BC - AD 17/18), where the story reaches its full development during antiquity.〔Ovid. ''Metamorphoses'' Book VI, lines 424–674. ( *Note that the line numbers vary among translations).〕 It is likely that Ovid relied upon Greek and Latin sources that were available in his era such as the ''Bibliotheca'' of Pseudo-Apollodorus (2nd century BC),〔Frazer, Sir James George (translator/editor). Apollodorus, ''Library'' in 2 volumes (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd., 1921). See note 2 to section 3.14.8, citing Pearson, A. C. (editor) ''The Fragments of Sophocles'', II:221ff. (found online (here ) - retrieved 23 November 2012), where Frazer points to several other ancient source materials regarding the myth.〕 or sources that are no longer extant or exist today only in fragments—especially Sophocles' tragic drama ''Tereus'' (5th century BC).〔Sophocles. ''Tereus'' (translated by Lloyd-Jones, Hugh) in ''Sophocles Fragments'' (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard College, 1996), 290-299〕〔Fitzpatrick, David. "Sophocles' Tereus" in ''The Classical Quarterly 51:1 (2001), 90-101. (found online (here )). Retrieved 23 November 2012.〕〔Fitzpatrick, David. "Reconstructing a Fragmentary Tragedy 2: Sophocles' ''Tereus''" in ''Practitioners Voices in Classical Reception Studies'' 1:39-45 (November 2007) (found online (here ) - retrieved 23 November 2012).〕 According to Ovid, in the fifth year of Procne's marriage to Tereus, King of Thrace and son of Ares, she asked her husband to "Let me at Athens my dear sister see / Or let her come to Thrace, and visit me."〔 Indulging his wife's request, Tereus agreed to travel to Athens and escort Philomela, his wife's sister, to Thrace.〔 King Pandion of Athens, the father of Philomela and Procne, was apprehensive about letting his only remaining daughter leave his home and protection and asks Tereus to protect her as if he were her father.〔〔According to the ''Bibliotheca'' of Pseudo-Apollodorus (Book III, chapter 14, section 8), in the translation by Sir James George Frazer, Pandion fought a war with Labdacus, King of Thebes and married his daughter Procne to Tereus to secure and alliance and obtain his assistance in fighting Thebes.〕 Tereus agrees. However, Tereus lusted for Philomela when he first saw her, and that lust grew during the course of the return voyage to Thrace.〔 Arriving in Thrace, he forced her to a cabin or lodge in the woods and raped her.〔 After the assault, Tereus threatened her and advised her to keep silent.〔 Philomela was defiant and angered Tereus. In his rage, he cut out her tongue and abandoned her in the cabin.〔 In Ovid's ''Metamorphoses'' Philomela's defiant speech is rendered (in an 18th-century English translation) as:
Rendered unable to speak because of her injuries, Philomela wove a tapestry (or a robe〔Pseudo-Apollodorus, ''Bibliotheca'', 3.14.8; in Frazer, Sir James George (translator/editor). Apollodorus, ''Library'' in 2 volumes (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd., 1921). (found online () - Retrieved 23 November 2012). Notes on this passage include references several variations on the myth.〕) that told her story and had it sent to Procne.〔 Procne was incensed and in revenge, she killed her son by Tereus, Itys (or Itylos), boiled him and served him as a meal to her husband.〔 After Tereus ate Itys, the sisters presented him with the severed head of his son, and he became aware of their conspiracy and his cannibalistic meal.〔 He snatched up an axe and pursued them with the intent to kill the sisters.〔 They fled but were almost overtaken by Tereus at Daulia in Phocis.〔 In desperation, they prayed to the gods to be turned into birds and escape Tereus' rage and vengeance.〔 The gods transformed Procne into a swallow and Philomela into a nightingale.〔〔Note though that earlier Greek accounts say the opposite (Procne as the nightingale, the "tongueless" Philomela as the silent swallow) and are more consistent with the facts of the myth. Frazer in his translation of the ''Bibliotheca'' (Sir James George (translator/editor). Apollodorus, ''Library'' in 2 volumes (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd., 1921), in note 2 to section 3.14.8 ) comments that the Roman mythographers "somewhat absurdly inverted the transformation of the two sisters."〕 Subsequently, the gods would transform Tereus into a hoopoe.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Philomela」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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