Chrysothemis (daughter of Carmanor)

Chrysothemis or Khrysothemis (Ancient Greek: Χρυσόθεμις, Chrysothemis, "golden law") was a character in Greek mythology, daughter of Carmanor, priest of Crete.

Mythology

Chrysothemis was the daughter of Carmanor of Crete, the priest who purified Apollo and Artemis after the killing of Python. According to some versions, she was the sister of Eubuleus and her mother was the goddess Demeter.[1]

She is considered the inventress and first winneress of the Agon or the Pythian Games and the demigoddess of agriculture.[1]

According to Diodorus Siculus, she married Staphylus, son of Dionysus and Ariadne, and had three daughters by him: Parthenos, Rhoeo and Molpadia. Rhoeo became Apollo's lover and confided it to her sisters: while Parthenos and Molpadia talked about this, the pigs drank the wine they had been charged with guarding. Fearing their father's wrath, they attempted suicide jumping into the sea but were saved by Apollo, who hid them in Chersonesus, where they became local goddesses. There Molpadia changed her name in Hemithea. Later, Staphylus threw Rhoe into the sea when he discovered she was pregnant, but also she was saved by Apollo, father of the child.[2][3][4]

According to Hyginus, Chrysothemis was herself the Apollo's lover, from whom she had the daughter Parthenos, who died young and was transformed into the Virgo constellation by Apollo for remembered her.[5]

Finally, according to Pausanias, Chrysothemis had a son by Apollo, Philammon.[6]

References
  1. Pausanias, 10.7.2
  2. Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca historica, V, 62.
  3. Marguerite Rigoglioso, The Cult of Divine Birth in Ancient Greece, p. 113.
  4. Smith, William (1849). Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. New York Public Library. Boston, C.C. Little and J. Brown; [etc., etc.]
  5. Hyginus, De astronomia, II, 25
  6. Pausanias, Description of Greece, X, 7, 2.
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