Mestra

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.

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

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 rapist 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]^[AI-generated source?] 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, 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, 1393
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

• Antoninus Liberalis, The Metamorphoses of Antoninus Liberalis translated by Francis Celoria (Routledge 1992). Online version at the Topos Text Project.
• Apollodorus, The Library with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. ISBN 0-674-99135-4. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website.
• Callimachus, Callimachus and Lycophron with an English translation by A. W. Mair; Aratus, with an English translation by G. R. Mair, London: W. Heinemann, New York: G. P. Putnam 1921. Internet Archive
• Callimachus, Works. A.W. Mair. London: William Heinemann; New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. 1921. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Hesiod, Catalogue of Women from Homeric Hymns, Epic Cycle, Homerica translated by Evelyn-White, H G. Loeb Classical Library Volume 57. London: William Heinemann, 1914. Online version at theio.com
• Publius Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoses translated by Brookes More (1859-1942). Boston, Cornhill Publishing Co. 1922. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Publius Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoses. Hugo Magnus. Gotha (Germany). Friedr. Andr. Perthes. 1892. Latin text available at the Perseus Digital Library.

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.
• 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.