Arethusa (Ithaca)
Ithacan woman who died of grief after her son's fall.
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Arethusa is a minor figure from Greek mythology associated with Ithaca. She is known for a story preserved in later scholia on Homer's Odyssey, though she does not appear in the epic itself. A fountain on Ithaca bears her name.
Quick Facts
- Son's occupation
- Hunter
- Cause of son's death
- Fell off a cliff while hunting a hare
- Cause of arethusa's death
- Suicide by hanging
- Location of death
- Next to a fountain near where her son died
- Named after her
- A fountain on Ithaca
Facts from the source article.
Mythology
According to an anonymous scholiast on Homer, Arethusa had a son named Corax, a hunter. While chasing a hare, Corax accidentally fell off a cliff and died.
Overcome with grief, Arethusa hanged herself beside a fountain near the spot. The spring was thereafter called Arethusa, and the rock took the name Corax. In the Odyssey, the disguised Odysseus finds the swineherd Eumaeus tending pigs near the rock of Corax and the fountain of Arethusa.
Did You Know?
- Arethusa was a common name for springs in antiquity, with several others across Greece.
- A spring in Pera Pigadi on Ithaca may be the mythological one, but this is speculative.
More in Characters in the Odyssey
Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Arethusa (Ithaca) (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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