Orithyia of Athens

In Greek mythology, Orithyia or Oreithyia (/ɒrɪˈθaɪ.ə/; Ancient Greek: Ὠρείθυια Ōreithuia; Latin: Ōrīthyia) was an Athenian princess who was raped by Boreas, the north wind, and gave birth to the twin Boreads, Zetes and Calaïs.

For other uses, see Orithyia (mythology).
Boreas & Oreithyia Louvre

Family

Orithyia was the fifth daughter of King Erechtheus of Athens and his wife, Praxithea, daughter of Phrasimus and Diogeneia.[1] She was sister to Cecrops, Pandorus, Metion, Protogeneia, Pandora, Procris, Creusa, and Chthonia.[2] Her other possible siblings were Merope,[3] Orneus,[4] Thespius,[5] Eupalamus[6] and Sicyon.[7]

Orithyia gave Boreas two daughters, Chione and Cleopatra (the wife of Phineus) and two sons, Calais and Zetes, both known as the Boreads.[8] These sons grew wings like their father and joined the Argonauts in the quest for the golden fleece.[9]

Legends

Boreas, the north wind, fell in love with Orithyia. At first he attempted to woo her, but after failing at that he decided to take her by force, as violence felt more natural to him.[10] While she was playing by the Ilissos River[11] she was carried off to Sarpedon's Rock, near the Erginos River in Thrace. There she was wrapped in a cloud and raped.[12] Aeschylus wrote a satyr play about the abduction called Orithyia which has been lost.

Plato writes somewhat mockingly that there may have been a rational explanation for her story. She may have been killed on the rocks of the river when a gust of northern wind came, and so she was said to have been 'taken by Boreas'. He also mentions in another account she was taken by Boreas not along the Ilissos, but from the Areopagus, a rock outcropping near the Acropolis where murderers were tried.[13] However, many scholars regard this as a later gloss.[14]

Plato also mentions that Orithyia was playing with a companion nymph Pharmacea.[15]

Because she was in Thrace with Boreas, she did not die when her sisters either committed suicide or were sacrificed so that Athens could win a war against Eleusis.

Orithyia was later made into the goddess of cold mountain winds. It is said that prior to the destruction of a large number of barbarian ships due to weather during the Persian War, the Athenians offered sacrifices to Boreas and Oreithyia, praying for their assistance.[16]

In art

Notes
  1. Apollodorus, 3.15.1
  2. Apollodorus, 3.15.1; Suida, Suda Encyclopedia s.v. Maidens, Virgins (Παρθένοι)
  3. Plutarch, Theseus 19.5
  4. Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio 2.25.6; Plutarch, Theseus 32.1; Stephanus of Byzantium, Ethnica s.v. Orneiai
  5. Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca historica 4.29.2
  6. Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca historica 4.76.1
  7. Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio 2.6.5, citing Hesiod (Ehoiai fr. 224) for Erechtheus
  8. Scholiast on Homer, Odyssey 14.533
  9. Pindar, Pythian Odes 4.8
  10. Ovid, Metamorphoses 6.683
  11. Apollodorus, 3.15.2
  12. Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 1.212
  13. Plato, Phaedrus 229
  14. See Fowler's translation of Plato, Phaedrus 229d
  15. Plato, Phaedrus 229c
  16. Herodotus, Histories 7.189
  17. artothek.de
  18. nationalmuseum.az
  19. Walters Art Museum
  20. Art Gallery of Ontario
  21. "The Rape of Orithyia by Boreas".

References
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