In Greek mythology

Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...

, Botres was a Theban

Theban

Theban can refer to:* A thing or person of or from the city of Thebes, Greece.* A thing or person of or from the city of Thebes, Egypt.* The occult Theban alphabet...

 son of Eumelus

Eumelus

Eumelus was the name of:*Eumelus of Corinth, an epic poet of the second half of the 8th century BC*Several men in Greek mythology:**Eumelus, who succeeded Admetus as the King of Pherae. He led Pherae and Iolcus in the Trojan War on the side of the Greeks. He was the husband of Iphthime and the son...

 and grandson of Eugnotus. His father venerated the god Apollo

Apollo

Apollo is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in Greek and Roman mythology...

 devotedly and honored him with generous offerings. One day, when Eumelus was sacrificing a ram to the god, Botres, who was helping around, tasted the victim's brain before the ritual was completed. Eumelus, enraged, hit Botres on the head with a brand and inflicted a fatal injury on him. As it became evident that Botres was dying, Eumelus, his wife and the servants were overcome with sorrow. Being that Eumelus was a devotee, Apollo took pity on them and and changed Botres into a bird called Aeropus (bee-eater

Bee-eater

The bee-eaters are a group of near-passerine birds in the family Meropidae. Most species are found in Africa and Asia but others occur in southern Europe, Australia, and New Guinea. They are characterised by richly coloured plumage, slender bodies, and usually elongated central tail feathers...

).

This myth is also briefly referenced in Ovid

Ovid

Publius Ovidius Naso , known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who is best known as the author of the three major collections of erotic poetry: Heroides, Amores, and Ars Amatoria...

's Metamorphoses.

Secondary sources

• Pierre Grimal
  Pierre Grimal
  Pierre Grimal was a French historian, classicist and Latinist. Fascinated by the Roman civilization, he did much to promote the cultural inheritance of ancient Rome, both among specialists and the general public.-Biography:Admitted to the École Normale Supérieure in 1933, and receiving a third in...
  
  , The dictionary of classical mythology, p. 77
• Anderson, William S. A commentary on Ovid's Metamorphoses, 7. 390