Tmolus (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Tmolus (/ˈmləs/; Ancient Greek: Τμῶλος, Tmōlos) may refer to the following figures:

  • Tmolus, a king of Lydia, and the husband of Omphale to whom he bequeathed his kingdom.[1]
  • Tmolus, the god of Mount Tmolus in Lydia, who was the judge of a musical contest between the gods Apollo and Pan (or the satyr Marsyas). When Tmolus awarded the victory to Apollo, Midas the king of Phrygia disagreed, Apollo transformed Midas' ears into the ears of an ass.[2]
  • Tmolus, the father of Tantalus by Pluto.[3] However the father of Tantalus (by Pluto) was usually said to be Zeus.[4]
  • Tmolus, a son of Ares and Theogone, was a king of Lydia. While hunting on a mountain, Tmolus raped a companion of Artemis, who then hung herself. Angry, Artemis caused Tmolus to be killed by a raging bull. Theoclymenus, Tmolus' son, buried his father on the mountain, after which the mountain was call Mount Tmolus.[7]
  1. ^ Hard, p. 274; Gantz, p. 440; Grimal, s.vv. Omphale, Tmolus 1; Tripp, s.v. Omphale; Apollodorus, 2.6.3; Parada, s.vv. Omphale, Tmolus. Kaletsch, s.v. Tmolus 1 and Parada, s.v. Tmolus treat this Tmolus as the same as the god of Mount Tmolus.
  2. ^ Hard, pp. 157–158; Oxford Classical Dictionary, s.v. Tmolus; Ovid, Metamorphoses 11.146–193; Hyginus, Fabulae 191; Vatican Mythographers, 1.89. Kaletsch, s.v. Tmolus 1 and Parada, s.v. Tmolus treat this Tmolus as the same as the Tmolus who was the husband of Omphale, while Smith, s.v. Tmolus 1 treats this Tmolus as the same as the father of Tantalus by Pluto.
  3. ^ Junk, s.v. Pluto 1, and Gantz, p. 536, both citing a scholion to Euripides, Orestes 5. Smith, s.v. Tmolus 1 treats this Tmolus as the same as the god of Mount Tmolus.
  4. ^ Gantz, p. 536; Grimal, s.v. Tantalus 1; Parada, s.v. Pluto 3.
  5. ^ Smith, s.v. Tmolus 2; Lycophron, Alexandra 124, with Mair's notes a and c; Tzetzes, John, Chiliades, 320–321, Scholia eis Lycophrona 124.
  6. ^ Grimal, s.v. Polygonus; Tripp, s.v. Polygonus and Telogonus; Apollodorus, 2.5.9.
  7. ^ Grimal, s.v. Tmolus 2; Pseudo-Plutarch, De fluviis 7.5.