Dryope

This article is about the female mythological character. For the people, see Dryopes.

In Greek mythology, Dryope^[1] (Δρυόπη) is the name attributed to several distinct figures.

Dryope, lover of Apollo

The most prominent Dryope was the daughter of Dryops, king of Oeta ("oak-man") or of Eurytus (and hence half-sister to Iole). She was sometimes thought of as one of the Pleiades (and hence a nymph). There are two stories of her metamorphosis into a black poplar. According to the first, Apollo seduced her by a trick. Dryope had been accustomed to play with the hamadryads of the woods on Mount Oeta. Apollo chased her, and in order to win her favours turned himself into a tortoise, of which the girls made a pet. When Dryope had the tortoise on her lap, he turned into a snake. She tried to flee, but he coiled around her legs and held her arms tightly against her sides as he raped her. The nymphs then abandoned her, and she eventually gave birth to her son Amphissus. She married Andraemon. Amphissus eventually built a temple to his father Apollo in the city of Oeta, which he founded. Here the nymphs came to converse with Dryope, who had become a priestess of the temple, but one day Apollo again returned in the form of a serpent and coiled around her while she stood by a spring. This time Dryope was turned into a poplar tree.^[2]

In Ovid's version of the story,^[3] Dryope was wandering by a lake, suckling her baby Amphissus, when she saw the bright red flowers of the lotus tree, formerly the nymph Lotis who, when fleeing from Priapus, had been changed into a tree. Dryope wanted to give the blossoms to her baby to play with, but when she picked one the tree started to tremble and bleed. She tried to run away, but the blood of the tree had touched her skin and she found her feet rooted to the spot. She slowly began to turn into a black poplar, the bark spreading up her legs from the earth, but just before the woody stiffness finally reached her throat and as her arms began sprouting twigs her husband Andraemon heard her cries and came to her. She had just enough time to warn her husband to take care of their child and make sure that he did not pick flowers.

In some accounts, Hermes fathered Pan upon Dryope, daughter of Dryops^[4], for whom he was tending kine, but according to 20th century author Robert Graves (1960), Pan was far older than Hermes. See below for another Dryope, consort of Faunus, who was seen as the Roman equivalent of Pan.

Other characters

The name Dryope may also refer to:

• Dryope, mother of Tarquitus by Faunus, the god of the woods. Tarquitus was slain by Aeneas^[5].

• Dryope, a nymph responsible for kidnapping Hylas, which she did in accord with Hera's will^[6]. Her name may have to do with the fact that Hylas was the son of Theiodamas, the king of the Dryopes.

• Dryope, a Theban woman of Phoenician origin, mother of Chromis. She joined the Maenads disregarding her pregnancy, and got into labor when she was dragging a sacrificial bull by the horns^[7].

• Dryope, a Lemnian^[8].

Notes

1. ^ Drys, "oak"; dryope "woodpecker" (Graves)
2. ^ Antoninus Liberalis, 32; Stephanus Byzantinus, "Dryope";
3. ^ Ovid, Metamorphoses, IX.325ff.
4. ^ Homeric Hymn 19 to Pan, line 34
5. ^ Virgil, Aeneid, 10. 551
6. ^ Valerius Flaccus, Argonautica, 3. 529 ff; Statius, Silvae, 1. 5. 22; 3. 4. 42
7. ^ Statius, Thebaid, 2. 614 ff
8. ^ Valerius Flaccus, Argonautica, 2. 174

References

• Graves, Robert, (1955) 1960. The Greek Myths. 21.j; 26.5; 56.2; 150.b, 1.
• Grimal, Pierre, The Dictionary of Classical Mythology, Wiley-Blackwell, 1996, ISBN 9780631201021. "Dryope" p. 142
• Kerenyi, Karl. 1951. The Gods of the Greeks 141, 173.
• Morford, Mark P. O., Robert J. Lenardon, Classical Mythology, Wiley-Blackwell, 1996, ISBN 9780631201021. "Pan" pp. 228–227
• Smith, William; Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London (1873). "Dry'ope"
• Realencyclopädie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft, Band V, Halbband 10, Donatio-Ephoroi (1905), s. 1746

See also

• Dryopia