Broteas

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In Greek mythology, Broteas was the ugly son of Tantalus, whose other offspring were Niobe and Pelops. He carved the most ancient image of the Great Mother of the Gods (Cybele), an image that in Pausanias' day (2nd century CE) was still held sacred by the Magnesians. The sculpture was carved into the rock-face of the crag Coddinus, north of Mount Sipylus, whose daemon was one of the mythographers' candidates for Broteas' grandfather ^[1].

The rock-cut carving mentioned by Pausanias is still to be seen above the road about 6 or 7 km east of Manisa (the modern Magnesia ad Sipylum), though the head has partly cleaved away, from natural causes. The figure 8-10 metres high carved on a cliff-face a hundred meters above the marshy plain, has come to be confused with a nearby natural rock formation associated with Niobe, the "Niobe of Sipylus" (Suratlu Tash), also mentioned by Pausanias^[2].

Apart from the badly damaged head, the sitting figure is clear enough to be made out by a non-professional. The goddess with the polos headgear holds her breasts with her hands; a vague trace of four Hittite hieroglyphics could be seen on a squared section to the right of her head. The site is Hittite, second millennium BCE.

Nearby, other archaeological sites traditionally associated with the House of Tantalus since Antiquity are also in fact Hittite. Some 2 km E of Akpınar there are another two monuments on Mount Sipylus, which are also mentioned by Pausanias: the tomb of Tantalus (Christianized as "Saint Charalambos' tomb") and the "throne of Pelops", in fact a rocky altar.

Broteas was consumed on a pyre as a propitiating sacrifice. The mythic rationale, that he was a famous hunter who refused to honor Artemis. Artemis then drove him mad, causing him to to immolate himself. This combines three familiar mythemes. Compare the hunter Actaeon, whose sacrifice is also justified as retribution.

The heir of Broteas was named Tantalus, like his grandfather.

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Pausanias: "the Magnesians, who live to the north of Mount Sipylus, have on the rock Coddinus the most ancient of all the images of the Mother of the gods. The Magnesians say that it was made by Broteas the son of Tantalus."
2. ^ Pausanias, i.21.2: "this Niobe I myself saw when I had gone up to Mount Sipylus. When you are near it is a beetling crag, with not the slightest resemblance to a woman, mourning or otherwise; but if you go further away you will think you see a woman in tears, with head bowed down".

[edit] References

• Robert Graves, 1960. The Greek Myths section 108.
• Pausanias, Greece, iii.22.4.
• Apollodorus, Epitome, i.24; ii.2.
• Ovid, Ibis, line 517 (with scholiast noted by Graves).
• 168. Manisa / Magnesia on Sipylus. Archaeological Atlas of the Aegean, map 168. Retrieved March 10, 2006.