Carmanor

Carmanor or Karmanor (Greek: Καρμάνωρ) was a Cretan demi-god related to the harvest; his name might derive from keiro, "to cut/shear" (but see below). He was the Lord of Tarrha, Crete (in the Greek Aegean) and the Cretan consort to Demeter in Greek mythology,[1] with whom he had a son, Euboulos, the patron of ploughing, and another son Chrysothemis, a singer. He was later killed by a jealous Zeus with a lightingbolt.

Carmanor's granddaughter, who shares the same powers and function and name origin, was named Karme (Carme). The name Karmanor could contain a reference to her name, simply meaning "the man of Karme", an epithet with the masculine -or suffix[2] describing his role; Karmanor was a double of Iacchus, the consort of Demeter, and was the purifier of Apollo after he had slain the earth-dragon Pytho, that possessed Delphi. "The name does not appear to be Greek", observed Walter Burkert of Karmanor.[3]

Carmanor is considered by some to be identified with Iasion, another consort of Demeter who is located in Crete.

Carmanor is also the name of a probably unrelated character only known from a very late story, the son of Dionysus and Alexirrhoe. He was said to have been killed by a boar during hunt, and the Lydian mountain Tmolus had allegedly been named "Carmanorium" after him before receiving its newer name.[4]

Notes

  1. ↑ Kerenyi 1970, p. 412.
  2. ↑ Compare Antenor etc.
  3. ↑ Burkert, The Orientalizing Revolution: Near Eastern Influence on Greek Culture in the Early Archaic Age Harvard University Press (1992:63); for the root krm as West Semitic "vineyard", see Stanislav Segert, A Basic Grammar of the Ugaritic Language, s.v. "krm", with comparisons in Hebrew, Syrian and Arabic.
  4. ↑ Pseudo-Plutarch, On Rivers, 7. 5

References