Galaxy/The codex of Cleopatra (Boreas)

Daughter of Boreas the North Wind and Orithyia, and sister of the winged Argonauts Zetes and Calais; she became the first wife of Phineus the Thracian seer, to whom she bore two sons.1

I

When Boreas carried off Orithyia as she played by the river Ilissus, she bore him daughters, Cleopatra and Chione, and winged sons, Zetes and Calais. So Apollodorus sets Cleopatra among the children of the North Wind, sister to the Boreads who afterward sailed with Jason.2

II

Cleopatra was married to Phineus, and bore him two sons, Plexippus and Pandion. But Phineus afterward took a second wife, Idaea the daughter of Dardanus, who falsely charged her stepsons with assailing her virtue; believing her, Phineus blinded both his sons by Cleopatra. When the Argonauts later sailed past with Boreas, they punished him for the deed.3

III

Hyginus likewise makes Cleopatra the mother of the two sons whom Phineus, the Thracian son of Agenor, blinded at their stepmother's charges — the same cruelty Apollodorus names, told without the boys' names.4

IV

Apollonius too counts her the sister of the Boreads: Phineus, son of Agenor, declares that when he ruled among the Thracians he brought home their sister Cleopatra by his bridal gifts to be his wife — a kinship that binds the blinded seer to the very heroes who would relieve his torment.5

the spine ignites as you read · hover a bond on the card — every mention of them lights in the story

BEYOND THE POETS

How the centuries since have seen Cleopatra (Boreas) — art, artifacts and echoes.

The Boreads Rescuing Phineus from the Harpies (Attic red-figure hydria, Louvre G364)
Phineas and the Sons of Boreas
Calaïs and Zetes Deliver Phineus from the Harpies
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