- Broteas
In
Greek mythology , Broteas was the ugly son ofTantalus , whose other offspring wereNiobe andPelops . He carved the most ancient image of theGreat Mother of the Gods (Cybele ), an image that in Pausanias' day (2nd century CE) was still held sacred by the Magnesians. The sculpture was carved into the rock-face of the crag Coddinus, north of Spil Mount-Mount Sipylus, whose "daemon " was one of the mythographers' candidates for Broteas' grandfather [Pausanias, "Greece" iii.22.4: "the Magnesians, who live to the north of Mount Sipylus (Spil Mount), have on the rock Coddinus the most ancient of all the images of the Mother of the gods. The Magnesians say that it was made by Broteas the son of Tantalus."] .The rock-cut carving mentioned by Pausanias is still to be seen above the road about 6 or 7 km east of
Manisa (the modernMagnesia ad Sipylum ), though the head has partly cleaved away, from natural causes. The figure 8-10 metres high carved on a cliff-face a hundred meters above the marshy plain, has come to be confused with a nearby natural rock formation associated withNiobe , the "Niobe of Sipylus" ("Suratlu Tash"), also mentioned by Pausanias [Pausanias, "Greece" i.21.3: "this Niobe I myself saw when I had gone up to Mount Sipylus (Spil Mount). When you are near it is a beetling crag, with not the slightest resemblance to a woman, mourning or otherwise; but if you go further away you will think you see a woman in tears, with head bowed down".] .Apart from the badly damaged head, the sitting figure is clear enough to be made out by a non-professional. The goddess with the
polos headgear holds her breasts with her hands; a vague trace of four Hittite hieroglyphics could be seen on a squared section to the right of her head. The site is Hittite, second millennium BCE.Nearby, other archaeological sites traditionally associated with the House of Tantalus since Antiquity are also in fact Hittite. Some 2 km E of Akpınar there are another two monuments on Spil Mount, which are also mentioned by Pausanias: the tomb of
Tantalus (Christianized as "Saint Charalambos' tomb") and the "throne of Pelops", in fact a rocky altar.Broteas was consumed on a
pyre as a propitiating sacrifice. The mythic rationale, that he was a famous hunter who refused to honorArtemis . Artemis then drove him mad, causing him toimmolate himself. This combines three familiarmytheme s. Compare the hunterActaeon , whose sacrifice is also justified as retribution.The heir of Broteas was named Tantalus, like his grandfather.
Notes
References
*
Robert Graves , 1960. "The Greek Myths" section 108.
*Pausanias, "Greece", iii.22.4.
*Apollodorus, "Epitome", i.24; ii.2.
*Ovid , "Ibis", line 517 (withscholiast noted by Graves).
* [http://www.ypai.gr/atlas/thesi_uk.asp?idthesis=168 168. Manisa / Magnesia on Sipylus] . "Archaeological Atlas of the Aegean", map 168. Retrieved March 10, 2006.
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