User:Paul August/Perdix (mythology)

Perdix (mythology)

New text

References

• Apollodorus, Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Smith, William; Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London (1873). Online version at the Perseus Digital Library

Sources

Ancient

Apollodorus

3.15.8

The labyrinth was constructed by Daedalus, whose father was Eupalamus, son of Metion, and whose mother was Alcippe;6 for he was an excellent architect and the first inventor of images. He had fled from Athens, because he had thrown down from the acropolis Talos, the son of his sister Perdix;⁷ for Talos was his pupil, and Daedalus feared that with his talents he might surpass himself, seeing that he had sawed a thin stick with a jawbone of a snake which he had found.8 But the corpse was discovered; Daedalus was tried in the Areopagus, and being condemned fled to Minos.

⁷ As to Daedalus's murder of his nephew, his trial, and flight, compare Diod. 4.76.4-7; Paus. 1.21.4; Paus. 1.26.4; Paus. 7.4.5; Tzetzes, Chiliades i.490ff.; Suidas and Photius, Lexicon, s.v. Πέρδικος ἱερόν; Apostolius, Cent. xiv.17; Scholiast on Eur. Or. 1648; Ov. Met. 8.236-259; Hyginus, Fab. 39, 244; Serv. Verg. G. 1.143 and Serv. Verg. A. 6.14; Isidore, Orig. xix.19.9. The name of the murdered nephew is commonly given as Talos, but according to Paus. 1.21.4 and Suidas and Photius, Lexicon, s.v. Πέρδικος ἱερόν; it was Calos. On the other hand Sophocles, in his lost play The Camicians （cited by Suidas and Photius,ll.cc.） called him Perdix, that is, Partridge; and this name is accepted by Ovid, Hyginus, Servius, and Isidore. But according to a different tradition, here followed by Apollodorus, Perdix （“Partridge”） was the name, not of the murdered nephew, but of his mother, the sister of Daedalus, who hanged herself in grief at the death of her son; the Athenians worshipped her and dedicated a sanctuary to her beside the acropolis （so Apostolius, Suidas and Photius, ll.cc.）. The grave of Talos or Calos was shown near the theatre, at the foot of the acropolis, probably on the spot where he was supposed to have fallen from the battlements （Paus. 1.21.4）. The trial of Daedalus before the Areopagus is mentioned by Diodorus Siculus and the Scholiast on Euripides l.c..

Modern

Smith

s.v. Perdix

Perdix

Πέρδιξ), the sister of Daedalus, and mother of Talos, or according to others, the sister's son of Daedalus, figures in the mythological period of Greek art, as the inventor of various implements, chiefly for working in wood. Perdix is sometimes confounded with Talos or Calos, and it is best to regard the various legends respecting Perdix, Talos, and Calos, as referring to one and the same person, namely, according to the mythographers, a nephew of Daedalus. The inventions ascribed to him are : the saw, the idea of which is said to have been suggested to him by the back-bone of a fish, or the teeth of a serpent; the chisel; the compasses; the potter's wheel. His skill excited the jealousy of Daedalus, who threw him headlong from the temple of Athena on the Acropolis, but the goddess caught him in his fall, and changed him into the bird which was named after him, perdix, the partridge. (Paus. 1.21.6, 26.5; Diod. 4.76, and Wesseling's note; Apollod. 3.15.9; Ovid. Met. 8.241; Senec. Epist. 90; Ilygin. Fab. 39, 244; Serv. ad Viry. Aen. 6.14, Georg. 1.143 ; Suid. s. v. Πέρδικος ἱερόν ; AEDALUS.)