Mestra

In Greek mythology, Mestra (Ancient Greek: Μήστρα, Mēstra)[1] was a daughter of Erysichthon of Thessaly.[2] Antoninus Liberalis called Mestra as Hypermestra while Erysichthon as Aethon.[3]

For the butterfly genus, see Mestra (butterfly).
Erysichthon sells his daughter Mestra. An engraving from among Johann Wilhelm Baur's illustrations of Ovid's Metamorphoses. Poseidon can be seen in the lower-left background.

Family

Mestra was the mother of King Eurypylus of Cos by Poseidon.[4] According to Ovid, she was married to the thief Autolycus.[5]

Mythology

Mestra had the ability to change her shape at will, a gift of her lover Poseidon according to Ovid.[6] Erysichthon exploited this gift in order to sate the insatiable hunger with which he had been cursed by Demeter for violating a grove sacred to the goddess.[7] The father would repeatedly sell his daughter to suitors for the bride prices they would pay, only to have the girl return home to her father in the form of various animals.[8] Mestra's great-granduncle Sisyphus also hoped to win her as a bride for his son Glaucus although that marriage did not take place.[9][10]

Ultimately, Poseidon carried away Mestra to the island of Cos.[11]

"And earth-shaking Poseidon overpowered her
far from her father, carrying her over the wine-dark sea
in sea-girt Cos, clever though she was;
there she bore Eurypylus, commander of many people."

Notes
  1. She is also occasionally referred to as Mnestra in modern sources, though the form is not anciently attested; cf. Clytemnestra, whose name does appear with and without the n in ancient authors. The Pseudo-Apollodoran Bibliotheca (2.1.5) uses the form Mnestra for one of Danaus' daughters who marries and then murders Aegius, son of Aegyptus.
  2. Ovid, Metamorphoses 8.739; cf. Hesiod, Ehoiai fr. 43a
  3. Antoninus Liberalis, Metamorphoses 17
  4. Hesiod, Ehoiai 43a.79(55)–82(58)
  5. Ovid, Metamorphoses 8.739
  6. Ovid, Metamorphoses 8.850–54
  7. Ovid, Metamorphoses 8.741–842; cf. Callimachus, Hymn to Demeter 24–69
  8. Hesiod, Ehoiai fr. 43a (Berlin papyrus 7497); Ovid, Metamorphoses 8.871–74; Tzetzes on Lycophron, 1395
  9. Hesiod, Ehoiai fr. 43a.2–83; cf. West (1985a, p. 64)
  10. Hard, Robin (2004). The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology. New York: Taylor & Francis Group. pp. 433, 663. ISBN 0-203-44633-X.
  11. Hesiod, Ehoiai 43a.79(55)–82(58)

References

Further reading
  • Fantham, E. (1993), "Sunt quibus in plures ius est transire figuras: Ovid's Self-Transformers in the Metamorphoses", CW, 87 (2): 21–36, doi:10.2307/4351453, JSTOR 4351453.
  • Hopkinson, N. (1984), Callimachus: Hymn to Demeter, Cambridge, ISBN 978-0-521-60436-9{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link).
  • Ormand, K. (2004), "Marriage, Identity, and the Tale of Mestra in the Hesiodic Catalogue of Women", American Journal of Philology, 125 (3): 303–38, doi:10.1353/ajp.2004.0030, JSTOR 1562169, PMID 21966749, S2CID 36204915.
  • Robertson, N. (1983), "Greek Ritual Begging in Aid of Women's Fertility and Childbirth", TAPA, 113: 143–69, doi:10.2307/284008, JSTOR 284008.
  • Robertson, N. (1984), "The Ritual Background of the Erysichthon Story", American Journal of Philology, 105 (4): 369–408, doi:10.2307/294833, JSTOR 294833.
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