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...

, Eumolpus (also Eumolpos) was the son of Poseidon

Poseidon

Poseidon was the god of the sea, and, as "Earth-Shaker," of the earthquakes in Greek mythology. The name of the sea-god Nethuns in Etruscan was adopted in Latin for Neptune in Roman mythology: both were sea gods analogous to Poseidon...

 and Chione

Chione (daughter of Boreas)

In Greek mythology Chione, or Khione, , the nymph or minor goddess of snow, was the daughter of Boreas, the North Wind, and Oreithyia, an Athenian princess whom he abducted. Her siblings included Zetes, Calaides and Cleopatra. She was loved by Poseidon and had with him a son Eumolpus...

. According to Apollodorus

Apollodorus

Apollodorus of Athens son of Asclepiades, was a Greek scholar and grammarian. He was a pupil of Diogenes of Babylon, Panaetius the Stoic, and the grammarian Aristarchus of Samothrace...

, Chione, daughter of Boreas and Oreithyia

Oreithyia

Orithyia ; ) was the daughter of King Erechtheus of Athens and his wife, Praxithea, in Greek mythology. Her brothers were Cecrops, Pandorus, and Metion, and her sisters were Procris, Creusa, and Chthonia....

, pregnant with Eumolpus by Poseidon, was frightened of her father's reaction so she threw the baby into the ocean. Poseidon looked after him and brought him to shore in Ethiopia

Ethiopia

Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...

, where Benthesikyme

Benthesikyme

Benthesikyme in Greek mythology, according to Apollodorus, was a daughter of Poseidon and Amphitrite and wife of Enalos, by whom she had two daughters. She raised Eumolpus, son of Chione and Poseidon....

, a daughter of Poseidon and Amphitrite

Amphitrite

In ancient Greek mythology, Amphitrite was a sea-goddess and wife of Poseidon. Under the influence of the Olympian pantheon, she became merely the consort of Poseidon, and was further diminished by poets to a symbolic representation of the sea...

, raised the child, who then married one of Benthesikyme's two daughters by her Ethiopian husband. Eumolpus however loved a different daughter and was banished because of this. He went with his son Ismarus (or Immaradus) to Thrace

Thrace

Thrace is a historical and geographic area in southeast Europe. As a geographical concept, Thrace designates a region bounded by the Balkan Mountains on the north, Rhodope Mountains and the Aegean Sea on the south, and by the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara on the east...

. There, he was discovered in a plot to overthrow King Tegyrios

Tegyrios

In Greek mythology, King Tegyrios of Thrace welcomed the exiled Eumolpus and married his daughter to Eumolpus' son Ismarus. Eumolpus then planned to overthrow him. Tegyrios banished him, but later, after the death of Ismarus, Tegyrios forgave Eumolpus and pronounced him his successor....

 and fled to Eleusis.

In Eleusis, Eumolpus became one of the first priests of Demeter

Demeter

In Greek mythology, Demeter is the goddess of the harvest, who presided over grains, the fertility of the earth, and the seasons . Her common surnames are Sito as the giver of food or corn/grain and Thesmophoros as a mark of the civilized existence of agricultural society...

 and one of the founders of the Eleusinian Mysteries

Eleusinian Mysteries

The Eleusinian Mysteries were initiation ceremonies held every year for the cult of Demeter and Persephone based at Eleusis in ancient Greece. Of all the mysteries celebrated in ancient times, these were held to be the ones of greatest importance...

. He initiated Heracles

Heracles

Heracles ,born Alcaeus or Alcides , was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, foster son of Amphitryon and great-grandson of Perseus...

 into the mysteries. When Ismarus died, Tegyrios sent for Eumolpus, they made peace and Eumolpus inherited the Thracian kingdom. Eumolpus was an excellent musician and singer; he played the aulos

Aulos

An aulos or tibia was an ancient Greek wind instrument, depicted often in art and also attested by archaeology.An aulete was the musician who performed on an aulos...

 and the lyre

Lyre

The lyre is a stringed musical instrument known for its use in Greek classical antiquity and later. The word comes from the Greek "λύρα" and the earliest reference to the word is the Mycenaean Greek ru-ra-ta-e, meaning "lyrists", written in Linear B syllabic script...

. He won a musical contest in the funereal games of Pelias

Pelias

Pelias was king of Iolcus in Greek mythology, the son of Tyro and Poseidon. His wife is recorded as either Anaxibia, daughter of Bias, or Phylomache, daughter of Amphion. He was the father of Acastus, Pisidice, Alcestis, Pelopia, Hippothoe, Asteropia, and Antinoe.Tyro was married to Cretheus...

. He taught music to Heracles

Heracles

Heracles ,born Alcaeus or Alcides , was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, foster son of Amphitryon and great-grandson of Perseus...

. During a war between Athens and Eleusis, Eumolpus sided with Eleusis. His son, Himmarados

Himmarados

In Greek mythology, Himmarados was a son of King Eumolpus of Thrace. During the war between Eleusis and Athens, Himmarados led the Thracian armies on the side of Eleusis. He was killed by Erechtheus....

, was killed by King Erechtheus. In some sources, Erechtheus also killed Eumolpus and that Poseidon asked Zeus

Zeus

In the ancient Greek religion, Zeus was the "Father of Gods and men" who ruled the Olympians of Mount Olympus as a father ruled the family. He was the god of sky and thunder in Greek mythology. His Roman counterpart is Jupiter and his Etruscan counterpart is Tinia.Zeus was the child of Cronus...

 to avenge his son's death. Zeus killed Erechtheus with a lightning bolt or Poseidon made the earth open up and swallow Erechtheus. Eleusis lost the battle with Athens but the Eumolpides and Kerykes

Kerykes

The Kerykes were one of the sacred Eleusinian families of priests that ran the Eleusinian Mysteries during the Hellenic era. They popularized the cult and allowed many more to be initiated into the great secrets of Demeter and Persephone. Starting about 300 BC, the state took over control of the...

, two families of priests to Demeter, continued the Eleusinian mysteries. Eumolpus' youngest son, Herald-Keryx founded the lines. According to Diogenes Laertius

Diogenes Laertius

Diogenes Laertius was a biographer of the Greek philosophers. Nothing is known about his life, but his surviving Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers is one of the principal surviving sources for the history of Greek philosophy.-Life:Nothing is definitively known about his life...

 Eumolpus was the father of Musaeus

Musaeus

Musaeus or Musaios was the name of three Greek poets.-Musaeus of Athens:Musaeus was a legendary polymath, philosopher, historian, prophet, seer, priest, poet, and musician, said to have been the founder of priestly poetry in Attica...

.

Sources

• Anonymous, The Homeric Hymns
  Homeric Hymns
  The Homeric Hymns are a collection of thirty-three anonymous Ancient Greek hymns celebrating individual gods. The hymns are "Homeric" in the sense that they employ the same epic meter—dactylic hexameter—as the Iliad and Odyssey, use many similar formulas and are couched in the same dialect...
  
   and Homerica, with an English translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White. Homeric Hymns. Cambridge, MA.,Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. ISBN 0-674-99063-3  
• Apollodorus
  Apollodorus
  Apollodorus of Athens son of Asclepiades, was a Greek scholar and grammarian. He was a pupil of Diogenes of Babylon, Panaetius the Stoic, and the grammarian Aristarchus of Samothrace...
  
  , Apollodorus, The Library, Sir James George Frazer (translator), two volumes: Loeb Classical Library, #121, Books I-III and #122, Book III; Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; (1921) ISBN 0-674-99135-4, ISBN 0-674-99136-2  
• Graves, Robert. The Greek Myths. Volume 1, Penguin Books, Revised Edition (1960), Reprinted 1986.
• 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...
  
  , Description of Greece, Books I-II, (Loeb Classical Library
  Loeb Classical Library
  The Loeb Classical Library is a series of books, today published by Harvard University Press, which presents important works of ancient Greek and Latin Literature in a way designed to make the text accessible to the broadest possible audience, by presenting the original Greek or Latin text on each...
  
  ) translated by W. H. S. Jones; Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. (1918) ISBN 0-674-99104-4