Tenes

Mythology

Cycnus’s second wife, Philonome, was the daughter of either Tragasus or Cragasus. She falsely accused her stepson Tenes of rape, and brought a flutist named Eumolpus as a false witness. Believing her, Cycnus tried to kill Tenes and his sister Hemithea by sealing them in a chest and casting it into the sea. The chest washed ashore on the island of Leucophrys, later renamed Tenedos, and both survived. The islanders made Tenes their king. When Cycnus later learned the truth, he killed Eumolpus, buried Philonome alive, and sought reconciliation with his children. Tenes refused: when Cycnus’s ship arrived at Tenedos, Tenes cut its moorings with an axe.

Plutarch records that the people of Tenedos banned aulos-players from entering Tenes’ sanctuary and forbade the mention of Achilles’ name inside it. In that tradition, a flutist named Molpus gave false testimony that Tenes had tried to seduce his stepmother, forcing Tenes and his sister to flee to Tenedos. Later, Thetis warned Achilles not to kill Tenes, who was especially favored by Apollo, and ordered a servant to remind Achilles of this. But Achilles unknowingly killed Tenes while Tenes defended his sister. Realizing his mistake only after Tenes fell, Achilles slew the servant who had failed to remind him and buried Tenes on the spot where his sanctuary later stood. The servant’s name, according to Tzetzes, was Mnemon.

Diodorus Siculus tells a similar story, also explaining that aulos-players were barred from Tenes’ sacred precinct because one had falsely testified against him, and that Achilles’ name was forbidden because he killed Tenes. Unlike Plutarch, Diodorus says Tenes reached the island after his father cast him into the sea in a chest, having believed his wife’s lies, and he omits Thetis’ warning and the servant.

Pseudo-Apollodorus combines elements from both versions. Like Diodorus, he says Tenes and his sister were set adrift in a chest after Cycnus believed his wife’s false accusation, though he names the lying flutist Eumolpus rather than Molpus. Like Plutarch, he includes Thetis’ warning that Achilles must not kill Tenes, but adds that if Achilles did so, he himself would later die at Apollo’s hands.