Busiris (Greek mythology)

Busiris is the Greek name of a place in Egypt, which in Egyptian, was named "djed" (also spelt "djedu"). The location was a centre for the cult of Osiris, thus the reason for the Greeks choosing the name. The word "Busiris" was also used to refer to "chief god of Busiris", an attribute of Osiris.

In Greek mythology, Isocrates, in his witty declamation "Busiris" recounts "the false tale of Heracles and Busiris" (11.30-11.40), which was a comic subject represented almost entirely in the repertory of early 5th century BC Athenian vase-painters: [And in Magna Graecia, according to Livingstone, who notes that there are no vase-paintings of this subject in mainland Greece aside from Athens; for another comic episode, compare the mytheme of Heracles and the Cercopes.] the theme has a narrow narrative range, according to Niall Livingstone: Heracles being led to sacrifice; his escape; the killing of Busiris; the rout of his entourage. [Livingstone 2001:87.]

The brief synopses concerning Busiris in pseudo-Apollodorus' "Bibliotheke" are at II.1.5 and II.5.11: Busiris there is one of the fifty sons of Aegyptus, betrothed to a Danaid. ["Clearly this latter Busiris, for whom a different fate lies in store, is not to be identified with Heracles' adversary," Neall Livingstone remarks (2001:86); he notes, however, that Aegyptus is the son of Belus, who is given the same genealogy as that which Isocrates gives Busiris: a son of Poseidon and Libya, a personification of Libya.] In Isocrates' rhetorical use of a theme that he considers unworthy of serious treatment, [Niall Livingstone surveys the sketchy previous literary references.] the villainous king of Egypt named Busiris, a son of Poseidon and Anippe, [Anippe plays no other role in Greek mythology.] daughter of the river-god Nilus, [According to a fragment of Pherecydes; In Isocates, "Busiris" 10, a genealogy that adds Libye for mother may be invented, Neall Livingstone suggests (2001:86), as part of Isocrates' mock encomium.] was the ancient founder of Egyptian civilization, with an imagined "model constitution" that Isocrates sets up as a parodic contrast to the "Republic" by Plato. The monstrous Busiris sacrificed all visitors to his gods. Heracles defied him, broke his shackles at the last minute and killed Busiris.

This part of the mythology concerning Herakles appears to have origins in a corruption of an Egyptian myth concerning Osiris' sacrifice by Set, and subsequent resurrection (see Legend of Osiris and Isis).

The fictional king Busiris also appears, as the leader of a revolt, in the ironically-titled "True History" (2.23) by Lucian, written in the 2nd century CE.

Notes

Further reading

*Livingstone, Niall "A Commentary on Isocrates' Busiris" (Brill) 2001. The first scholarly commentary devoted to "Busiris".

External links