In Greek mythology, Tereus was a Thracian king, the son of the war god Ares and the naiad Bistonis, and brother of Dryas of Calydon. He married the Athenian princess Procne and fathered Itys. He is best known for the brutal myth in which he raped his wife's sister Philomela and cut out her tongue; in revenge Procne killed their son and served his flesh to Tereus, after which all three were transformed into birds.
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I.Mythology
Tereus desired his wife's sister, Philomela. He traveled to Athens claiming that Procne had died, and asked for her sister in marriage. After King Pandion granted permission, Tereus murdered the guards who accompanied Philomela, assaulted her on a mountain, and severed her tongue so that she could not reveal what he had done. He then gave her into the keeping of King Lynceus and told Procne that her sister had perished.
Unable to speak, Philomela communicated by weaving the crime into a tapestry. Lynceus's wife Lathusa, a friend of Procne, recognized the message and brought the two sisters back together.
When she learned of Tereus's crime, Procne joined with Philomela to plot revenge. Tereus had received a prophecy that his son would die at the hand of a relative; believing his brother Dryas was conspiring against Itys, he killed the innocent man. Procne then killed her own son Itys, served his flesh to Tereus at dinner, and fled with Philomela.
When Tereus discovered what had been done and pursued the sisters, the Olympian gods, out of pity, transformed all three into birds: Tereus became a hoopoe (in some accounts a hawk), Procne became the swallow with its mournful song, and Philomela became the nightingale — though notably it is the male nightingale, not the female, that sings.
II.Other usage
Tereus was a common Thracian given name. Both Sophocles and Philocles wrote tragedies titled Tereus. Sophocles' play led some Athenians to confuse the mythological Tereus with Teres I, a historical Thracian king involved in an alliance dated to 431 BC.
Aristophanes featured the transformed Tereus, now a hoopoe, in his comedy The Birds. John Gower retold the story in his Confessio Amantis (The Lover's Confession). Shakespeare alludes to Tereus in Titus Andronicus, in connection with the assault on Lavinia, and in Cymbeline, where Iachimo spies on the sleeping Imogen.
III.Modern adaptations
The myth of Tereus, Procne and Philomela has been retold in modern works, including The Love of the Nightingale, a play by Timberlake Wertenbaker, and The Love of the Nightingale, an opera by Richard Mills.