- Taphians
In Homeric Greece, the islands of Taphos (Τάφος) lay in the
Ionian Sea off the coast ofAcarnania in northwestern Greece, home of sea-going and piratical inhabitants, the Taphians (Τάφιοι). Penelope mentions the Taphian sea-robbers when she rebukes the chief of her suitors, [Homer. "Odyssey ", Book XVI] and it is disguised asMentes , "lord of the Taphian men who love their oars," thatAthena accepts the hospitality ofTelemachus and speeds him on his journey fromIthaca toPylos . [Homer. "Odyssey", Book I.] The Taphians dealt in slaves. [Homer. "Odyssey", Book XV.]By the time of
Euripides , the islands were identified with theEchinades : in Euripedes' "Iphigeneia at Aulis " (405 BCE ), the chorus of women from Chalcis have spied the Hellenes' fleet and seen Eurytus who "led the Taphian warriors with the white oar-blades, the subjects of Meges, son of Phyleus, who had left the isles of the Echinades, where sailors cannot land." [ [http://www.zona-pellucida.com/texts/iphenigea.html Iphenigea] ] Modern scholars, such as the editors of theBarrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World , identify the island of Taphos as the island ofMeganissi (Meganísi) just east of the larger islandLefkada (Leucas).The Taphians accounted themselves the descendants of
Perseus , for the mother ofTaphius , theireponym ous colonizer, was a granddaughter of Perseus and lay withPoseidon to beget the heroic founder. Another tradition holds that Taphius was one of theLeleges , and grandson ofLelex . Their most noted king wasPterelaos , rendered immortal by Poseidon by the single golden hair among the hairs of his head, but undone by his faithless daughter (Comaetho ) who plucked it while he slept, so that the Mycenaean adventurerAmphitryon ofTiryns could overcome and kill him and retrieve the cattle Pterelaos' sons had rustled from Mycenae, with much spoils besides. As he was returning with his spoils to his bride at Thebes,Zeus preceded him by one night: taking Amphitryon's shape, and brandishing a Taphian cup as a sign of his success, the king of gods fatheredHeracles .References
ources
*
Richard Talbert .Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World , p. 54. ISBN 0-691-03169-XExternal links
* [http://www.sporadestours.com/argolis.html Dick Caldwell, "The myths of Argos":] Amphitryon and Pterelaos
----"Pla taphian" are the fish ("pla") of plaited bamboo with which the Thais traditionally celebrate the birth of a child.
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