InGreek mythology,Phoenix orPhoinix (Ancient Greek: ΦοῖνιξPhoinix,gen.: Φοίνικος means "sun-red") was theeponym ofPhoenicia who together with his brothers were tasked to find their abducted sisterEuropa.
According to early accounts, Europa was not Phoenix's sister, but his daughter,[26][27] while Cadmus was identified as his son.[28] Otherwise, Europa was called one of his two daughters byPerimede, daughter ofOeneus, the other one beingAstypalaea;[29] she was also included on the list of Phoenix's children byTelephe, daughter ofEpimedusa, her siblings in this case beingPeirus and Astypale (apparently identical to the aforementioned Astypalaea).[30]
Telephe was probably the same as Telephassa, whomMoschus called Phoenix's wife and not his mother.[31] In another account, his children were Cadmus, Europa andThasus.[32]
When Europa was carried off byZeus, her three brothers were sent out by Agenor to find her, but the search was unsuccessful. Phoenix eventually settled in a country inAsia orAfrica, which he named Phoenicia after himself.[33] He was said to have foundedBithynia which was previously namedMariandyna.[34]
Malalas recounted following account about Phoenix and Heracles the Tyrian:
"Herakles the philosopher, called the Tyrian, lived in the reign of King Phoenix. It was he who discovered the purple-shell. He was wandering on the coastal part of Tyre city when he saw a shepherd dog eating the so-called purple-shell, which is a small maritime species like a sea snail. The shepherd thought the dog was bleeding, and took a clump of sheep’s wool and wiped off what was coming out of the dog’s mouth, and it dyed the wool. Herakles noticed that it wasn’t blood but the virtue of a strange dye, and wondered at it. Recognizing that the dye deposited on the wool came from the purple-shell, and having taken the wool from the shepherd as a great gift, he brought it to Phoenix, the King of Tyre. He too was surprised by the sight of the strange color of the dye. Admiring his discovery, he ordered that wool be dyed from this purple-shell dye and become a royal mantle for him. He was the first to wear this purple mantle, and everyone marveled at his royal raiment, as a foreign spectacle. From then, King Phoenix commanded that no one under his rule dare to wear such virtuous clothing on land or sea, except himself and those who ruled Phoenicia after him, so that they would recognize the King in the army and the crowd from his marvelous and strange clothing."[35]
^abHesiod (2007). Most, Glenn W. (ed.).The Shield, Catalogue of Women, Other Fragments. Cambridge, Massachuesetts; London, England: Harvard University Press. pp. 176–177.ISBN978-0-674-99623-6.
^Gomme, A. W. (1913). "The Legend of Cadmus and the Logographoi".JHS: 70.
^Hesiod,Ehoiai 89 (140 MW) = Scholium D on Homer,Iliad 12.397 (p. 392 van Thiel); cf. Scholia T Homer,Iliad 12.292 (III p. 359.49 Erbse cum apparatu); Apollodorus,3.1.1; Hyginus,Fabulae178; St. Jerome,ChroniconB1444;Malalas,2.30
^Hesiod (2007). Most, Glenn W. (ed.).The Shield, Catalogue of Women, Other Fragments. Cambridge, Massachuesetts; London, England: Harvard University Press. pp. 158–159.ISBN978-0-674-99623-6.
^Hesiod,Ehoiai 96 (138 MW) = Scholia on Apollonius Rhodius, 2.178 (p. 140.1–3 Wendel); FGrHist 4 F;Pseudo-Scymnos,Circuit de la terre 953 ff.
^Hesiod (2007). Most, Glenn W. (ed.).The Shield, Catalogue of Women, Other Fragments. Cambridge, Massachuesetts; London, England: Harvard University Press. pp. 168–169.ISBN978-0-674-99623-6.
^Hesiod (2007). Most, Glenn W. (ed.).The Shield, Catalogue of Women, Other Fragments. Cambridge, Massachuesetts; London, England: Harvard University Press. pp. 160–161.ISBN978-0-674-99623-6.
^Scholia on Homer,Iliad B, 494, p. 80, 43 ed. Bekk. as cited inHellanicus'Boeotica
Conon, Fifty Narrations, surviving as one-paragraph summaries in the Bibliotheca (Library) of Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople translated from the Greek by Brady Kiesling.Online version at the Topos Text Project.
Fowler, Robert. L. (2000),Early Greek Mythography: Volume 1: Text and Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2000.ISBN978-0198147404.
Gaius Julius Hyginus,Fabulae from The Myths of Hyginus translated and edited by Mary Grant. University of Kansas Publications in Humanistic Studies.Online version at the Topos Text Project.
