Salmoneus

Did You Know?

• Salmoneus was formerly a Thessalian prince as son of King Aeolus of Aeolia.
• His mother is variously identified as Enarete, Iphis, or Laodice.
• Salmoneus was the brother of Athamas, Sisyphus, Cretheus, Perieres, Deioneus, Magnes, Calyce, Canace, Alcyone, Pisidice, and Perimede.

Mythology

Salmoneus emigrated from Aeolis with a number of Aeolians and founded a city in Eleia on the banks of the river Alpheius, naming it Salmonia after himself. He married Alcidice, daughter of Aleus, and after her death took Sidero as his second wife, who treated Tyro, Salmoneus's beautiful daughter, unkindly. Salmoneus and his brother Sisyphus hated each other; Sisyphus learned from an oracle that if he married Tyro, her children would kill Salmoneus. Tyro married Sisyphus and bore a son, but killed the boy upon learning the prophecy. She later lay with Poseidon and bore Pelias and Neleus. Salmoneus, overbearing and impious, ordered his subjects to worship him as Zeus. He built a brass bridge and drove his chariot over it at full speed, trailing dried skins and cauldrons to imitate thunder and throwing torches to imitate lightning. For this hubris, Zeus struck him down with a thunderbolt and destroyed the town. In Virgil's Aeneid, Salmoneus is placed in Tartarus for eternal torment.

Inspiration

According to Frazer, early Greek kings, expected to produce rain for crops, imitated thunder and lightning in the character of Zeus. At Crannon in Thessaly, a bronze chariot was shaken during drought with prayers for rain. S. Reinach suggests the story that Salmoneus was struck by lightning arose from misinterpretation of a picture showing a Thessalian magician bringing down lightning and rain, leading to the idea that he was punished by Zeus.