Absyrtus

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Absyrtus, or Apsyrtus (Ancient Greek: Άψυρτος), was in Greek mythology the son of Aeëtes and a brother of Medea and Chalciope. His mother is variously given: Hyginus calls her Ipsia,[1] Apollodorus calls her Idyia,[2] Apollonius calls her Asterodeia,[3] and others Hecate, Neaera, or Eurylyte.[4]

When Medea fled with Jason, she took her brother Absyrtus with her, and when she was nearly overtaken by her father, she murdered her brother, cut his body into pieces and strewed them on the road, so that her father might thus be delayed by gathering the limbs of his child. Tomi, the place where this occurred, was believed to have derived its name from temno (τέμνω, "cut").[5]

According to another tradition, Absyrtus was not taken by Medea, but was sent out by his father in pursuit of her. He overtook her in Corcyra, where she had been kindly received by King Alcinous, who refused to surrender her to Absyrtus. When he overtook her a second time in the island of Minerva, he was slain by Jason.[6] A tradition followed by Pacuvius,[7] Justin,[8], and Diodorus,[9] called the son of Aeëtes, who was murdered by Medea, Aegialeus.[10]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Gaius Julius Hyginus. Fabulae, 13.
  2. ^ Apollodorus, i. 9. §23.
  3. ^ Apollonius of Rhodes, iii. 241.
  4. ^ Schol. ad Apollon. I. c.
  5. ^ Apollodorus i. 9. §24; Ovid, Tristia iii. 9; compare Apollonius iv. 338, &c. 460, &c.
  6. ^ Gaius Julius Hyginus. Fabulae, 23.
  7. ^ Cicero, De Natura Deorum iii. 19.
  8. ^ Junianus Justinus, xlii. 3.
  9. ^ Diodorus Siculus, iv. 45
  10. ^ Schmitz, Leonhard (1849). "Absyrtus". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology 1. 3-4. 

[edit] External links

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology by William Smith (1870).

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