Galaxy/The codex of Thamyris

In Greek mythology, Thamyris was a Thracian bard, the son of the singer Philammon and the nymph Argiope. Renowned for beauty and minstrelsy, he boasted that he could outsing the Muses and was punished with blindness and the loss of his art. Homer places the encounter at Dorium; later writers link his mother to Parnassus and his father's line to Apollo and Chione.

Adapted from Wikipedia, "Thamyris" · CC BY-SA 4.0

I.The contest

In the Iliad's catalogue of ships, Homer recalls how the Muses met Thamyris at Dorium while he was travelling from Oechalia and ended his singing because he vaunted he would defeat them.

Apollodorus adds that he lost both sight and song in the musical contest.

II.Family

He was the son of Philammon and the nymph Argiope. Pausanias tells how Argiope left Parnassus for Thrace when Philammon refused to house her during her pregnancy.

Apollodorus also records that Thamyris was the first man said to have loved males, naming Hyacinth son of Clio.

AT A GLANCE

Greek nameThamyris (Θάμυρις)
Typemortal
DomainsThracian minstrel · son of Philammon · blinded by the Muses
ParentagePhilammon · Argiope
READ MOREWikipedia