In Greek mythology, the Teumessian fox was an enormous fox that was destined never to be caught.[1]

Mythology edit

It was said that the Teumessian fox had been sent by the gods (perhaps Dionysus) to prey upon the children of Thebes as a punishment for a national crime. Creon, then-Regent of Thebes, set Amphitryon the impossible task of destroying this beast. He discovered a supposedly perfect solution by using the magical dog Laelaps, who was destined to catch everything it chased, to catch the Teumessian fox. Zeus, faced with an inevitable contradiction due to the paradoxical nature of their mutually excluding abilities, turned the two beasts into stone. The pair were cast into the stars and remain as Canis Major (Laelaps) and Canis Minor (Teumessian Fox).

Naming edit

In reference to Cadmus, the legendary founder of Thebes, the Teumessian fox is referred to by the elegant variation Cadmean vixen in James George Frazer's 1921 translation of Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus),[2] though in the Greek texts the sex of the fox was not specified.[3] The terms Cadmeian vixen and Teumessian vixen are used by the Oxford Classical Dictionary (1948) and The New Encyclopædia Britannica (1985).[4][5]

Sources edit

Notes edit

  1. ^ Ancient Greek: Τευμησ(σ)ία ἀλώπηξ (Teumēs(s)íā alôpēx), gen.: Τευμησίας ἀλώπεκος, also known as ἀλώπηξ τῆς Τευμησσοῦ "fox of Teumessos"; Teumessos was an ancient city in Boeotia.
  2. ^ Apollodorus: The Library. Translated by Frazer, James George. 1921. OCLC 1005513.
  3. ^ The ungendered nouns ἀλώπηξ and άλώπεκος (fox) are used rather than the term for vixen, σκαφώρη
  4. ^ Oxford University Press (1948). Oxford Classical Dictionary. pp. 55, 222.
  5. ^ Encyclopaedia Britannica (1985). The new encyclopaedia Britannica. OCLC 11793850.

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