Broteas
Encyclopedia
In Greek mythology
, Broteas, a hunter, was the ugly son of Tantalus
(by Dione, Euryanassa
or Eurythemista
), whose other offspring were Niobe
and Pelops
. He was said to have carved the most ancient image of the Great Mother of the Gods (Cybele
), an image that in Pausanias
' day (2nd century CE) was still held sacred by the Magnesians
. The sculpture was carved into the rock-face of the crag Coddinus, north of Spil Mount-Mount Sipylus, whose daemon was one of the mythographers' candidates for Broteas' grandfather.
The rock-cut carving mentioned by Pausanias was rediscovered in 1881 by W. M. Ramsay and is still to be seen above the road about 6 or 7 km east of Manisa
(the modern descendant of Magnesia ad Sipylum
), though the head has partly cleaved away, from natural causes. The figure 8–10 metres high carved in a recess in the a cliff-face a hundred meters above the marshy plain near the village of Akpinar, has come to be confused with a nearby natural rock formation associated with Niobe
, the "Niobe of Sipylus" (the "Weeping Rock", in Turkish
Ağlayan Kaya), also mentioned by Pausanias.
Apart from the badly damaged head, the sitting figure is clear enough to be made out by a non-professional. The goddess with the polos
headgear holds her breasts with her hands; a vague trace of four Hittite hieroglyphics could be seen on a squared section to the right of her head. The site is Hittite
, second millennium BCE.
Nearby, other archaeological sites traditionally associated with the House of Tantalus since Antiquity are also in fact Hittite. Some 2 km east of Akpınar there are another two monuments on Spil Mount, which are also mentioned by Pausanias: the tomb of Tantalus
(Christianized
as "Saint Charalambos' tomb") and the "throne of Pelops", in fact a rocky altar.
Broteas was consumed on a pyre
as a propitiating sacrifice. The mythic rationale, that he was a famous hunter who refused to honor Artemis
. Artemis then drove him mad, causing him to immolate
himself. This combines three familiar mytheme
s. Compare the hunter Actaeon
, whose sacrifice is also justified as retribution. The heir of Broteas was named Tantalus
, like his grandfather.
A Hesiodic papyrus fragment from Oxyrhyncus connects Dardanus
, Broteas and Pandion
, in a tradition of which there is no further evidence.
and later, Broteas is most often called "Brotheus" and described as a son of Vulcan
who cast himself into the flames, sometimes specified as those of Mount Aetna
, because of his deformity. The immediate source for the Renaissance trope
of Brotheus and his self-immolation was Ovid
's curse poem Ibis
, an erudite rant of gruesome threats cataloguing the fates of numerous mythic and historical figures. Ovid's reference is minimal: "May you consign your body parts, set on fire, to the pyre to be cremated, as they say Broteas did out of a desire for death."
The Italian humanist
and literary agitator Domizio Calderini, also known in Latin
as Domitius Calderinus, appended the Ibis to his annotated edition of Martial
(1474). Calderini's note says that Brotheus was the son of Vulcan and Minerva
; scorned because of his ugliness, he cast himself into a burning pyre. The same year, drawing on his classical sources, Calderini published a Defensio adversus Brotheum ("Defense against Brotheus"), an attack on his literary rivals Angelo Sabino
and Niccolò Perotti
under the pseudonyms "Fidentinus," after the plagiarist in Book 1 of Martial's epigrams, and "Brotheus." The literary feud is mentioned in several sources, including Gyraldus
, and its notoriety helped establish the predominant version of the myth in the 15th–18th centuries.
The idiosyncratic but enormously influential Mythologiae of Natalis Comes
(1567) uses this version in a chapter on the aspects of Vulcan and his progeny: "Brotheus, who was mocked by everyone because of his ill-formed appearance, hurled himself into the fire, as if to escape libel
by death." This description is repeated closely in The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621) by Robert Burton
, and early 19th-century versions of Samuel Johnson
's Dictionary
specify that Brotheus "threw himself into Mount Ætna."
spelling Brotheus, is also a character in "Anakhronismos," a long-form poem with mock annotations by Mike Ladd
. In the poem, Brotheus is called a philosopher and attends the cinema with the poem's speaker, the fictional Aponius Maso. The note identifies Brotheus as the "deformed son of Vulcan and Minerva who burned himself because of the ridicule he suffered."
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...
, Broteas, a hunter, was the ugly son of Tantalus
Tantalus
Tantalus was the ruler of an ancient western Anatolian city called either after his name, as "Tantalís", "the city of Tantalus", or as "Sipylus", in reference to Mount Sipylus, at the foot of which his city was located and whose ruins were reported to be still visible in the beginning of the...
(by Dione, Euryanassa
Euryanassa
In Greek mythology, Euryanassa is a name that may refer to:*Daughter of the river-god Pactolus. She was the wife of Tantalus, and one of the possible mothers of Pelops, Broteas and Niobe.*Daughter of Hyperphas and mother of Clymene with Minyas....
or Eurythemista
Eurythemista
In Greek mythology, the name Eurythemista or Eurythemiste may refer to:*Daughter of Xanthus. She is one of Pelops' and Niobe's possible mothers by Tantalus ....
), whose other offspring were Niobe
Niobe
Niobe was a daughter of Tantalus and of either Dione, the most frequently cited, or of Eurythemista or Euryanassa, and she was the sister of Pelops and Broteas, all of whom figure in Greek mythology....
and Pelops
Pelops
In Greek mythology, Pelops , was king of Pisa in the Peloponnesus. He was the founder of the House of Atreus through his son of that name....
. He was said to have carved the most ancient image of the Great Mother of the Gods (Cybele
Cybele
Cybele , was a Phrygian form of the Earth Mother or Great Mother. As with Greek Gaia , her Minoan equivalent Rhea and some aspects of Demeter, Cybele embodies the fertile Earth...
), an image that in Pausanias
Pausanias (geographer)
Pausanias was a Greek traveler and geographer of the 2nd century AD, who lived in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. He is famous for his Description of Greece , a lengthy work that describes ancient Greece from firsthand observations, and is a crucial link between classical...
' day (2nd century CE) was still held sacred by the Magnesians
Magnesia ad Sipylum
Magnesia ad Sipylum , was a city of Lydia, situated about 65 km northeast of Smyrna on the river Hermus at the foot of Mount Sipylus...
. The sculpture was carved into the rock-face of the crag Coddinus, north of Spil Mount-Mount Sipylus, whose daemon was one of the mythographers' candidates for Broteas' grandfather.
The rock-cut carving mentioned by Pausanias was rediscovered in 1881 by W. M. Ramsay and is still to be seen above the road about 6 or 7 km east of Manisa
Manisa
Manisa is a large city in Turkey's Aegean Region and the administrative seat of Manisa Province.Modern Manisa is a booming center of industry and services, advantaged by its closeness to the international port city and the regional metropolitan center of İzmir and by its fertile hinterland rich in...
(the modern descendant of Magnesia ad Sipylum
Magnesia ad Sipylum
Magnesia ad Sipylum , was a city of Lydia, situated about 65 km northeast of Smyrna on the river Hermus at the foot of Mount Sipylus...
), though the head has partly cleaved away, from natural causes. The figure 8–10 metres high carved in a recess in the a cliff-face a hundred meters above the marshy plain near the village of Akpinar, has come to be confused with a nearby natural rock formation associated with Niobe
Niobe
Niobe was a daughter of Tantalus and of either Dione, the most frequently cited, or of Eurythemista or Euryanassa, and she was the sister of Pelops and Broteas, all of whom figure in Greek mythology....
, the "Niobe of Sipylus" (the "Weeping Rock", in Turkish
Turkish language
Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
Ağlayan Kaya), also mentioned by Pausanias.
Apart from the badly damaged head, the sitting figure is clear enough to be made out by a non-professional. The goddess with the polos
Polos
Polos generally refers to a high cylindrical crown typically worn by mythological goddesses.Polos may also refer to:* The plural of polo* In music, the polos is one of the interlocking parts of Kotekan...
headgear holds her breasts with her hands; a vague trace of four Hittite hieroglyphics could be seen on a squared section to the right of her head. The site is Hittite
Hittites
The Hittites were a Bronze Age people of Anatolia.They established a kingdom centered at Hattusa in north-central Anatolia c. the 18th century BC. The Hittite empire reached its height c...
, second millennium BCE.
Nearby, other archaeological sites traditionally associated with the House of Tantalus since Antiquity are also in fact Hittite. Some 2 km east of Akpınar there are another two monuments on Spil Mount, which are also mentioned by Pausanias: the tomb of Tantalus
Tantalus
Tantalus was the ruler of an ancient western Anatolian city called either after his name, as "Tantalís", "the city of Tantalus", or as "Sipylus", in reference to Mount Sipylus, at the foot of which his city was located and whose ruins were reported to be still visible in the beginning of the...
(Christianized
Christianization
The historical phenomenon of Christianization is the conversion of individuals to Christianity or the conversion of entire peoples at once...
as "Saint Charalambos' tomb") and the "throne of Pelops", in fact a rocky altar.
Broteas was consumed on a pyre
Pyre
A pyre , also known as a funeral pyre, is a structure, usually made of wood, for burning a body as part of a funeral rite...
as a propitiating sacrifice. The mythic rationale, that he was a famous hunter who refused to honor Artemis
Artemis
Artemis was one of the most widely venerated of the Ancient Greek deities. Her Roman equivalent is Diana. Some scholars believe that the name and indeed the goddess herself was originally pre-Greek. Homer refers to her as Artemis Agrotera, Potnia Theron: "Artemis of the wildland, Mistress of Animals"...
. Artemis then drove him mad, causing him to immolate
Self-immolation
Self-immolation refers to setting oneself on fire, often as a form of protest or for the purposes of martyrdom or suicide. It has centuries-long traditions in some cultures, while in modern times it has become a type of radical political protest...
himself. This combines three familiar mytheme
Mytheme
In the study of mythology, a mytheme is the essential kernel of a myth—an irreducible, unchanging element, a minimal unit that is always found shared with other, related mythemes and reassembled in various ways—"bundled" was Claude Lévi-Strauss's image— or linked in more...
s. Compare the hunter Actaeon
Actaeon
Actaeon , in Greek mythology, son of the priestly herdsman Aristaeus and Autonoe in Boeotia, was a famous Theban hero. Like Achilles in a later generation, he was trained by the centaur Chiron....
, whose sacrifice is also justified as retribution. The heir of Broteas was named Tantalus
Tantalus son of Broteas
In Greek mythology Tantalus, not to be confused with his more famous grandfather and namesake , who was also called Atys, was the son of Broteas . He ruled over the city of Lydia. He was the first husband of Clytemnestra and was slain by Agamemnon, King of Mycenae, a soldier in the Trojan War, who...
, like his grandfather.
A Hesiodic papyrus fragment from Oxyrhyncus connects Dardanus
Dardanus
In Greek mythology, Dardanus was a son of Zeus and Electra, daughter of Atlas, and founder of the city of Dardania on Mount Ida in the Troad....
, Broteas and Pandion
Pandion
Pandion may refer to:* Pandion I and Pandion II, two kings of Athens in Greek mythology* Pandion son of Phineas in Greek mythology* Pandion, a son of Aegyptus, husband and victim of Callidice, daughter of Danaus, in Greek mythology...
, in a tradition of which there is no further evidence.
Brotheus and Renaissance invective
In literature of the RenaissanceRenaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
and later, Broteas is most often called "Brotheus" and described as a son of Vulcan
Vulcan (mythology)
Vulcan , aka Mulciber, is the god of beneficial and hindering fire, including the fire of volcanoes in ancient Roman religion and Roman Neopaganism. Vulcan is usually depicted with a thunderbolt. He is known as Sethlans in Etruscan mythology...
who cast himself into the flames, sometimes specified as those of Mount Aetna
Mount Etna
Mount Etna is an active stratovolcano on the east coast of Sicily, close to Messina and Catania. It is the tallest active volcano in Europe, currently standing high, though this varies with summit eruptions; the mountain is 21 m higher than it was in 1981.. It is the highest mountain in...
, because of his deformity. The immediate source for the Renaissance trope
Trope (literature)
A literary trope is the usage of figurative language in literature, or a figure of speech in which words are used in a sense different from their literal meaning...
of Brotheus and his self-immolation was 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 curse poem Ibis
Ibis (Ovid)
Ibis is a curse poem by the Latin poet Ovid, written during his years in exile across the Black Sea for an offense against Augustus. It is "a stream of violent but extremely learned abuse," modeled on a poem of the same title by the Alexandrian poet Callimachus.The object of this verbal assault is...
, an erudite rant of gruesome threats cataloguing the fates of numerous mythic and historical figures. Ovid's reference is minimal: "May you consign your body parts, set on fire, to the pyre to be cremated, as they say Broteas did out of a desire for death."
The Italian humanist
Renaissance humanism
Renaissance humanism was an activity of cultural and educational reform engaged by scholars, writers, and civic leaders who are today known as Renaissance humanists. It developed during the fourteenth and the beginning of the fifteenth centuries, and was a response to the challenge of Mediæval...
and literary agitator Domizio Calderini, also known in Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
as Domitius Calderinus, appended the Ibis to his annotated edition of Martial
Martial
Marcus Valerius Martialis , was a Latin poet from Hispania best known for his twelve books of Epigrams, published in Rome between AD 86 and 103, during the reigns of the emperors Domitian, Nerva and Trajan...
(1474). Calderini's note says that Brotheus was the son of Vulcan and Minerva
Minerva
Minerva was the Roman goddess whom Romans from the 2nd century BC onwards equated with the Greek goddess Athena. She was the virgin goddess of poetry, medicine, wisdom, commerce, weaving, crafts, magic...
; scorned because of his ugliness, he cast himself into a burning pyre. The same year, drawing on his classical sources, Calderini published a Defensio adversus Brotheum ("Defense against Brotheus"), an attack on his literary rivals Angelo Sabino
Angelo Sabino
Angelo Sabino or in Latin Angelus Sabinus was an Italian Renaissance humanist, poet laureate, classical philologist, Ovidian impersonator, and putative rogue....
and Niccolò Perotti
Niccolò Perotti
Niccolò Perotti, also Perotto or Nicolaus Perottus was an Italian humanist and author of one of the first modern Latin school grammars.-Biography:...
under the pseudonyms "Fidentinus," after the plagiarist in Book 1 of Martial's epigrams, and "Brotheus." The literary feud is mentioned in several sources, including Gyraldus
Giglio Gregorio Giraldi
Giglio Gregorio Giraldi was an Italian scholar and poet.He was born at Ferrara, where he early distinguished himself by his talents and acquirements....
, and its notoriety helped establish the predominant version of the myth in the 15th–18th centuries.
The idiosyncratic but enormously influential Mythologiae of Natalis Comes
Natalis Comes
Natale Conti or Latin Natalis Comes, also Natalis de Comitibus and French Noël le Comte was an Italian mythographer, poet, humanist and historian. His major work Mythologiae, ten books written in Latin, was first published in Venice in 1567 and became a standard source for classical mythology in...
(1567) uses this version in a chapter on the aspects of Vulcan and his progeny: "Brotheus, who was mocked by everyone because of his ill-formed appearance, hurled himself into the fire, as if to escape libel
Libel (poetry)
Libel is a verse genre primarily of the Renaissance, descended from the tradition of invective in classical Greek and Roman poetry. Libel is usually expressly political, and balder and coarser than satire...
by death." This description is repeated closely in The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621) by Robert Burton
Robert Burton (scholar)
Robert Burton was an English scholar at Oxford University, best known for the classic The Anatomy of Melancholy. He was also the incumbent of St Thomas the Martyr, Oxford, and of Segrave in Leicestershire.-Life:...
, and early 19th-century versions of Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson , often referred to as Dr. Johnson, was an English author who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer...
's Dictionary
A Dictionary of the English Language
Published on 15 April 1755 and written by Samuel Johnson, A Dictionary of the English Language, sometimes published as Johnson's Dictionary, is among the most influential dictionaries in the history of the English language....
specify that Brotheus "threw himself into Mount Ætna."
21st-century Brotheus
Broteas, under the RenaissanceRenaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
spelling Brotheus, is also a character in "Anakhronismos," a long-form poem with mock annotations by Mike Ladd
Mike Ladd (poet)
Mike Ladd is an Australian poet and radio presenter.Mike Ladd was born in Berkeley, California while his Australian parents were living and working in America, but he returned to Australia when he was one year old, and grew up in the Adelaide Hills...
. In the poem, Brotheus is called a philosopher and attends the cinema with the poem's speaker, the fictional Aponius Maso. The note identifies Brotheus as the "deformed son of Vulcan and Minerva who burned himself because of the ridicule he suffered."
Sources
- Robert GravesRobert GravesRobert von Ranke Graves 24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985 was an English poet, translator and novelist. During his long life he produced more than 140 works...
, 1960. The Greek Myths (Section 108). - PausaniasPausanias (geographer)Pausanias was a Greek traveler and geographer of the 2nd century AD, who lived in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. He is famous for his Description of Greece , a lengthy work that describes ancient Greece from firsthand observations, and is a crucial link between classical...
, Greece, iii.22.4. - ApollodorusBibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)The Bibliotheca , in three books, provides a comprehensive summary of traditional Greek mythology and heroic legends, "the most valuable mythographical work that has come down from ancient times," Aubrey Diller observed, whose "stultifying purpose" was neatly expressed in the epigram noted by...
, Epitome, i.24; ii.2. - OvidOvidPublius 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...
, Ibis, line 517 (with scholiast noted by Graves). - 168. Manisa / Magnesia on Sipylus. Archaeological Atlas of the Aegean, map 168. Retrieved: March 10, 2006.