Arne Sithonis
Arnê (Ἄρνη) is a mythologized princess of an ancient Greek island, who according to legend betrayed her motherland, after the legendary king Minos had bribed her with gold into supporting Crete. After she had accepted the bribe that "her greed demanded", Minos' troops attacked the island. For this misdeed the gods punished her by turning her into a black-footed, black-winged jackdaw, and she would be forever attracted to golden and shining objects.
Localization and chronology
The only source on Arnê's story is Ovid's mythological poem Metamorphoses from 8 BC,[1] where—depending on the manuscript—her name is given as Arne Sithonis or Arne Sithon ("Arnê the Sithonian", meaning "Arnê the Thracian"; see below). Attempts have been made to identify the island as Siphnos due to paleographical similarities,[2] but no independent legend connects an Arnê to the island of Siphnos[3] or any other island of the Cyclades.[4]
Like Sithoniae (nurus),[5] Sithonios (agros)[6] and Sithon,[7] Sithonis means "Thracian". Based on the original assumption of the legend's Cycladian origin (e.g. the island of Siphnos), the term Sithonis was doubted,[8] because for a long time it was believed that the Thracians had never been to the Cyclades.[9] Huxley (1984) however has shown that Sithonis refers to the inhabitants of Naxos.
This origin was first proposed by Franz Börner,[10] because Naxos (as the largest of the Cyclades) was missing in Ovid's catalog of islands. In addition, Greek sources confirm that Thracians settled on Naxos for roughly two hundred years before they were replaced by Karians after a drought,[11] two generations before the time of Theseus and Minos.
more later
References
- ↑ Publius Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoses 7.465–466
- ↑ G.L. Huxley, "Arne Sithonis", Classical Quarterly 32 (i), 1982, p. 159
- ↑ Still, the legend is readily popularized as a Siphnoan story, especially in the local tourism industry.
- ↑ Identifying the island as Cythnon is impossible, because Cythnon is already mentioned in Ovid, Metamorphoses 7.464
- ↑ Publius Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoses 6.588
- ↑ Publius Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoses 13.571
- ↑ Publius Ovidius Naso, Fasti 3.719
- ↑ W.S. Anderson (ed.), P. Ovidii Nasonis Metamorphoses, Leipzig 1977, p. 161
- ↑ W.S. Anderson (ed.), Ovid's Metamorphoses Books 6–10, Oklahoma, 1972, p. 294
- ↑ Franz Börner (ed.), P. Ovidius Naso, Metamorphosen Buch VI–VII, Heidelberg 1976, pp. 315 & 317
- ↑ Diodorus Siculus 5.50.3 & 5.51.3