Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Aphareus.
The gallery
Idas and Marpessa Separated from Apollo by Zeus (Attic red-figure psykter)
The Pan Painter, c. 480 BC
Aphareus, King of Messene, is best known in myth as the father of the Apharetid brothers Idas and Lynceus, and it is his son Idas who gives this celebrated vase its drama. On this Attic red-figure psykter (a wine-cooling vessel) from Agrigento, attributed to the Pan Painter and dated to about 480 BC, the mortal Idas (right, bow in hand) and the princess Marpessa stand opposite the god Apollo, while a bearded, staff-bearing Zeus intervenes between the rivals. Both Apollo and Idas had sought Marpessa, and Zeus let her choose; she chose the mortal son of Aphareus, reasoning that a god would abandon her once she grew old. The vase is held in the Staatliche Antikensammlungen, Munich (Inv. 2417).
The Judgment of Jupiter
Samuel Finley Breese Morse, 1814–1815
Painted in London by the American artist Samuel F. B. Morse (later famous as the inventor of the telegraph) around 1814–1815, this large oil canvas stages the contest at the heart of the Apharetid story. Aphareus's son Idas, the Messenian prince, stands with his beloved Marpessa as the god Apollo presses his rival claim, and the enthroned Jupiter (Zeus) delivers his judgment, leaving the choice to Marpessa herself. The picture treats the very episode that defines Aphareus's lineage in art, since Aphareus is rarely shown in his own right but lives on through his son's celebrated love-contest. The work is in the Yale University Art Gallery (accession 1941.117).
Idas and Marpessa (illustration for A Book of Myths)
Helen Stratton, 1915
This Art Nouveau-tinged book illustration by Helen Stratton appeared in Jeanie Lang's A Book of Myths (1915, G. P. Putnam's Sons / T. C. & E. C. Jack). It depicts Idas, son of Aphareus of Messene, with the Aetolian princess Marpessa, whom he carried off in a winged chariot and won away from the god Apollo. As Aphareus himself was seldom portrayed alone in art, his dynastic legacy is carried by images such as this, which keep alive the famous suit of his son for the woman who preferred a mortal husband to an immortal one.