Carmanor (of Crete)

In Greek mythology, Carmanor or Karmanor (Ancient Greek: Καρμάνωρ Karmánōr) was a Cretan priest who purified Apollo after he killed the Delphic dragon Python.[1] He was the father of two children Euboulus and Chrysothemis. According to Walter Burkert the name Carmanor "does not appear to be Greek".[2]

Mythology

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According to second-century geographer Pausanias, when Apollo and Artemis had killed Python, the dragon at Delphi, they came to Carmanor in Crete to be purified,[3] and it was in Carmanor's house in Tarrha that Apollo mated with Acacallis, producing the offspring Phylacides and Philander.[4]

Carmanor had two sons, according to Pausanias, Euboulus, whose daughter Carme was the mother, by Zeus, of Britomartis,[5] and the poet Chrysothemis, who was said to have won the victory in the first competition—the singing of a hymn to Apollo—held at the Pythian games at Delphi.[6]

He had another daughter named Chrysothemis, which may refer to known as the attributes of the golden harvest as an agricultural demi-goddess.[7]

Notes

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  1. ^ Grimal, p. 89 s.v. Carmanor; Cook, p. 190; Smith, s.v. Carmanor, s.v. Chrysothemis, s.v. Eubulus.
  2. ^ Burkert, p. 63. For the root krm as West Semitic "vineyard", see Stanislav Segert, A Basic Grammar of the Ugaritic Language, s.v. "krm", with comparisons in Hebrew, Syrian and Arabic.
  3. ^ Pausanias, 2.7.7, 2.30.3 & 10.7.2
  4. ^ Pausanias, 10.16.5
  5. ^ Smith, s.v. Eubulus; Pausanias, 2.30.3. Compare with Diodorus Siculus, 5.76.3, which says that Euboulus was the son of Demeter, and compare with Antoninus Liberalis, 40 (Celoria, p. 100), which says that Carme, the mother of Britomartis, was the daughter of Cassiepia, the daughter of Arabius, and Phoenix, the son of Agenor.
  6. ^ Cook, p. 190; Smith, s.v. Chrysothemis; Pausanias, 10.7.2.
  7. ^ Pausanias, 10.7.2

References

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  • Burkert, Walter, The Orientalizing Revolution: Near Eastern Influence on Greek Culture in the Early Archaic Age, translated by Walter Burkert, Margaret E. Pinder, Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-64364-X.
  • Celoria, Francis, The Metamorphoses of Antoninus Liberalis: A Translation with a Commentary, Routledge 1992. ISBN 978-0-415-06896-3.
  • Cook, Arthur Bernard, Zeus: A Study in Ancient Religion, Volume II: Zeus God of the Dark Sky (Thunder and Lightning), Part I: Text and Notes, Cambridge University Press 1925. Internet Archive
  • Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, Volume III: Books 4.59-8. Translated by C. H. Oldfather. Loeb Classical Library No. 340. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1939. ISBN 978-0-674-99375-4. Online version by Bill Thayer
  • Grimal, Pierre, The Dictionary of Classical Mythology, Wiley-Blackwell, 1996. ISBN 978-0-631-20102-1.
  • Pausanias, Pausanias Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
  • Smith, William; Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London (1873). Online version at the Perseus Digital Library