Alectryon (mythology)

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For other uses, see Alectryon (Greek myth).

Alectryon (from Ancient Greek: ἀλεκτρυών for "rooster") or Alectryo, in Greek mythology, was a young soldier who was assigned by Ares to stand guard outside his door while the god indulged in a love affair with Aphrodite.

Mythology[]

Ares, fearing that his illicit liaison with Aphrodite would be discovered and being especially suspicious of Helios, tasked Alectryon (according to Lucian, Alectryon was said to have been 'an adolescent boy, beloved of Ares, who kept company with the god at drinking parties, caroused with him, and was his companion in lovemaking') with standing guard outside of his room as the two gods made love. Alectryon fell asleep on guard duty and Helios discovered them the following morning. The sun-god then alerted Hephaestus, Aphrodite's husband, to the actions of the two, prompting the god of fire to create a net to ensnare and shame them. Furious, Ares punished Alectryon by turning him into a rooster which never forgets to announce the arrival of the sun in the morning by its crowing, his own way of apologizing to Ares for falling asleep, however this failed to make amends.[1][2][3][4][5]

According to Pausanias, the rooster is Helios' sacred animal, always crowing when he is about to rise.[6]

Interpretation[]

Both the words Alectryon and Halcyon might have been corrupted from Halaka, one of the old Persian appellations of the sun. In the 'Vendidad' it is said that the sacred bird Parodars, called by men kahrkatak, raises its voice at the dawn; and in the Bundahishn, the sun is spoken of as Halaka, the cock, the enemy of darkness and evil, which flee before his crowing.[7]

Notes[]

  1. ^ Lucian, Gallus 3
  2. ^ Scholiast on Aristophanes' Aves 835
  3. ^ Eustathius ad Homer, Odysseam 1.300
  4. ^ Ausonius, 26.2.27
  5. ^ Libanius, Progymnasmata 2.26
  6. ^ Pausanias, Description of Greece 5.25.9
  7. ^ Norman MacColl, ed. (1899). The Athenaeum: A Journal of Literature, Science, the Fine Arts, Music, and the Drama. J. Francis. p. 526.

References[]

  • Lucian, The Dream or the Cock in The Downward Journey or The Tyrant. Zeus Catechized. Zeus Rants. The Dream or The Cock. Prometheus. Icaromenippus or The Sky-man. Timon or The Misanthrope. Charon or The Inspectors. Philosophies for Sale. Translated by A. M. Harmon. Loeb Classical Library 54. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1915.
  • Pausanias, Pausanias Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
  • Aken, Dr. A.R.A. van. (1961). Elseviers Mythologische Encyclopedie. Amsterdam: Elsevier.
  • Bartelink, Dr. G.J.M. (1988). Prisma van de mythologie. Utrecht: Het Spectrum.
  • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology
  • Vollmer, Wilhelm. (1874). Wörterbuch der Mythologie. Stuttgart, S. 27-28.
  • Pierer's Universal-Lexikon, Band 1. (1857). Altenburg, p. 284.


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