Tereus of Thrace, son of Ares, won Procne of Athens for helping Pandion in war — then lusted after her sister Philomela, cut out her tongue, and kept the crime hidden until the women wove the truth into a robe, killed Itys, and served the boy to his father; the gods turned them all to birds.1
The Thracian alliance
Apollodorus tells how war with Labdacus over boundaries drove Pandion to call Tereus, son of Ares, from Thrace. Their joined arms ended the war, and Pandion gave Procne to the victor in marriage. By her Tereus had a son, Itys. Ovid adds that no Hymenaeus attended — no wedding grace, only the Thracian's might.2
The severed tongue
Tereus fell in love with Philomela and, pretending Procne was dead, fetched her to Thrace. When he had violated her he cut out her tongue so she could not accuse him. Voiceless, she wove the crime into a robe and sent it to her sister. Apollodorus agrees on the seduction and mutilation; Hyginus says Pandion granted the second daughter because Tereus claimed Procne had died.3
The table and the birds
Procne killed Itys and served him to Tereus at supper. When he learned what he had eaten he pursued the sisters with an axe. The gods changed them all: Ovid makes Procne a swallow and Philomela a nightingale, Tereus a hoopoe with crested head. Apollodorus also turns them to birds but swaps which sister becomes which. Hyginus makes Tereus a hawk.4
Daulis and the Daulian birds
Pausanias localizes the whole horror in Phocis. The Megarians claimed Tereus had ruled around the Springs of Megaris, but the traveler judged from the evidence that he reigned over Daulis beyond Chaeronea. There the women served Tereus his own son at the table — the first pollution of the dining-table among men — and the Daulians said Procne carried Athena's ancient wooden image from Athens to the city's sanctuary. Even as birds, Philomela kept away from Phocis: swallows neither hatch nor lay eggs at Daulis, the Phocians say, because she still feared Tereus in bird-form.5
· EXEUNT ·
How the centuries saw it
In play
Metamorphoses
Ovid
Book VI — the tongue cut out, the woven tale, Itys served at the feast, and the three birds rising from the crime.
Titus Andronicus
William Shakespeare
Shakespeare's revenge tragedy rests on Philomela's loom — Lavinia's mutilation and the pie that answers Tereus.
Philomela
The silenced sister who weaves the truth remains Western literature's emblem of speech stolen and recovered in song.
Procne
The Athenian wife who becomes the nightingale — sisterhood, vengeance, and the feast of Itys.