Talk:Tereus

Comments
I read this in another site of internet:

"The Olympic Gods transformed Prokne into a swallow, Philomela into a nightingale (birds that remain silent except during spring) and Tereus into a flesh eating hawk."

But the article says another thing. Who are right?

Expanded

Yes this article is in need of some serious re-vamping. There are several important events left out. Which make characters' actions much more sensible. I will do my best to flesh out this article.

Sudden Redirect to Philomela (princess of Athens)
I think User:Pairadox was too hasty to delete the content on the Tereus article and redirect to Philomela (princess of Athens) instead. There hasn't been any discussion about this for more than 6 months and the article has developed a bit since then: it had seven Interwikilinks, 1 1/2 dozen links from other pages, and the Category:Fictional rapists. The links show the interest in this character, disputing the above assertion of unnotability. If the guy is notable for only one thing (the rape of his wife's sister and his subsequent treatment by the women), that left enough of an impression in Western mythology to warrant his own article. Also, the removal of the article on Tereus himself removed the Category:Fictional rapists - which can hardly be applied to Philomela's article. I suggest to undo the Redirect on Tereus and discussing it here. Michael Bednarek 01:57, 28 August 2007 (UTC)


 * If you wish to undo the merge, feel free; I really have no opinion one way or the other and won't oppose it. I just looked at the discussion, the fact that it had previously been merged then restored with no comment, and the duplication of the links (all meaningful ones are present in both articles). Pairadox 02:04, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

This is wrong
Ok, I haven't stepped in to fix this page myself because the discussion page indicates someone else intends to rewrite the article. But, yes, to follow up on the question posted here, the entry gets the basic facts wrong. Philomela is the sister turned into a nightingale, Procne is turned into the swallow. Thus, the abundant use of the epithet "Philomela" in poetry refers back to the NIGHTINGALE not to the swallow. See Ralegh, "The Nymph's Reply" for example. Also, Tereus turns into a hoopoe, which is not a flesh eating hawk.
 * According to the article Philomela (princess of Athens), it doesn't seem as clear-cut as you put it. Michael Bednarek 07:51, 25 September 2007 (UTC)

Is Niobe supposed to NOT be here?
In the sentence "In revenge, Procne killed Niobe and Tereus' son Itys and served his flesh in a meal to his father Tereus" - should "Niobe and" be deleted? Niobe is not otherwise mentioned in this article, and in the article in Niobe herself there doesn't seem to be any connection to Tereus. I'm certainly not an expert on greek mythology / literature. But, just from internal consistency, Procne killing Itys (her son, but also the son of her husband Tereus, the same Tereus who had raped and mutilated her sister Philomela) as a way of 'getting back at' Tereus, makes sense, but killing this otherwise unrelated person Niobe, not previously mentioned, makes no sense at all. Is there something here I'm not seeing? Whenever somebody re-edits this article, please consider. thanks. Lanephil (talk) 03:58, 24 November 2011 (UTC)
 * I think you're right; according to The Love of the Nightingale, Niobe is Philomele's servant (unreleated to Niobe, daughter of Tantalus and Dione), and there is no mention in that article that Procne killed her, which, as you point out, wouldn't make any sense. For the record: "Niobe" was inserted in on 24 September 2011 by 82.43.232.171; it just goes to show how subtle vandalism slips by most editors' attention, including me. I have now reverted that edit. -- Michael Bednarek (talk) 05:27, 24 November 2011 (UTC)