Cleostratus (mythology)
In Greek mythology, Cleostratus (Ancient Greek: Κλεόστρατος, romanized: Kleóstratos, lit. 'glorious army') is a teenage boy from Thespiae, a town in Boeotia, who is chosen to be offered to a dragon in a yearly sacrifice to the monster, until he is saved by his lover Menestratus. His and Menestratus's myth is known thanks to Description of Greece, a second-century work by Greek traveller and geographer Pausanias. Cleostratus' myth is an early example of the hero-tale where the hero saves a damsel or princess from a vicious dragon.
Mythology
[edit]Cleostratus lived in Thespiae, a town in Boeotia; no family or lineage of his is recorded. He was the young eromenos of a man named Menestratus. Their homeland was attacked by a dragon, which ravaged Thespiae and caused great destruction.[1] The horrified people of Thespiae asked their god for guidance on how to get rid of it,[a] and he told them they needed to sacrifice each year a youth (ephebos) to the dragon.[b][5] The Thespians did as told, and after an unspecified amount of years and sacrifices, Cleostratus was chosen by lot to be the next sacrifical victim.[6][7]
Menestratus however, who would not allow Cleostratus to suffer death at the jaws of the dragon, came up with a plan to save him.[8] Although he was probably not a teenager at the time and thus ineligible,[2] he volunteered to take Cleostratus' place nevertheless and entered the dragon's den on his own volition, clad in a bronze breastplate that had an upward-pointing fish-hook fastened on its plate,[9] hoping the sharp points would kill the dragon once it swallowed it.[10] His plan was successful and the dragon perished, but so did Menestratus himself in the process, whose sacrifice saved both Cleostratus and the other Thespians.[11][5]
Following the deaths of the dragon and Menestratus, the people of Thespiae would erect a bronze statue to honour Zeus, thereafter worshipped in the town under the epithet 'Saviour'; although it had not been Zeus who actually saved the city, it is not always possible to find coherent explanations for all aspects of Greek myths and legends.[12]
Interpretation
[edit]The second-century Greek traveller Pausanias is the sole source for this tale, however the myth can be assumed to be of at least Hellenistic origin (323 BC–30 BC).[3]
The Thespian myth is an example of the common heroic trope where a young person is supposed to be sacrificed to a monster, and then saved; the most famous of these in Greek mythology is the story of Perseus saving Andromeda from Poseidon's sea-monster.[5] Another example is how Heracles allowed himself to be swallowed by the sea-beast Cetus and then hacked it from the inside in order to save the Trojan princess Hesione.[13] Other stories of monster-slaying were prevalent all over ancient Greece.[7]
Cleostratus' story is particularly similar to that of Alcyoneus and Eurybarus of Crissa, with Cleostratus' role paralleling that of Alcyoneus'. In both stories there is a theme of a horrifying, and apparently serpentine,[4] beast that savagely ravages a town; the Thespian dragon causes undefined damage, while Sybaris specifically targets livestock and humans. A man then decides to confront it once and for all, willingly taking the place of a young man or boy they have fallen in love with, who is supposed to be sacrificed to the beast after being chosen by the community.[14][5] Differences include that Cleostratus and Menestratus are an established couple, whereas Eurybarus only met Alcyoneus on the day the youth was about to die.[15] Also, unlike Eurybarus, Menestratus does not survive the encounter with the beast. The stories of Cleostratus and Alcyoneus bear the most pressing parallels to the myths of Andromeda and Hesione, only with land-based monsters supplanting marine ones.[16]
Another tale of the same type is a legend said about Euthymos, an Olympic victor of the fifth century BC from Locri Epizephyrii, who killed a beast and saved a beautiful woman from it, then married her.[17] Unlike that legend, and more in line with the Alcyoneus-Eurybarus story, the lovers of Thespiae are of the same sex, a rather rare variant of the fairytale trope where the hero saves the damsel in distress from a dragon.[18]
The use of a hooked or bladed armour to slay the monster is also a common motif in dragon-slaying tales around the globe; in the Persian Shahnameh (written circa 1000 AD) a chariot covered by a box from which swords protrude is used to kill the dragon, while in the British legend of the Blacksmith of Kirkudbright the eponymous hero kills the White Snake by wearing a suit of armour with retractable spikes and allowing the beast to swallow him.[3]
See also
[edit]
Footnotes
[edit]- ^ The identity of the god who ordered the annual sacrifices is disputed; it seems that it was the king of the gods Zeus,[2] who is introduced in the preceeding sentence in the original Greek text, but it could also be Apollo, the oracular god who handed out prophecies.[3]
- ^ Cleostratus would have been around the ages of 18-20.[4]
References
[edit]- ^ Felton 2021, pp. 148.
- ^ a b Felton 2021, pp. 150.
- ^ a b c Daniel, Ogden (May 2013). "Drakōn Fights: Drakontes Pure". Drakōn: Dragon Myth and Serpent Cult in the Greek and Roman Worlds. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199557325.003.0002. Retrieved October 12, 2024.
- ^ a b Ogden 2021, p. 78.
- ^ a b c d Celoria 1992, p. 128.
- ^ Pausanias 9.26.7
- ^ a b Baring-Gould 1897, p. 302.
- ^ Grimal 1987, s.v. Cleostratus.
- ^ Käppel, Lutz (October 1, 2006). "Menestratus". In Cancik, Hubert; Schneider, Helmuth (eds.). Brill's New Pauly. Kiel: Brill Reference Online. doi:10.1163/1574-9347_bnp_e732750. ISSN 1574-9347. Retrieved September 30, 2024.
- ^ March 2014, s.v. Menestratus.
- ^ Pausanias 9.26.8
- ^ Felton 2021, pp. 148–149.
- ^ Ogden 2008, pp. 93–4.
- ^ Felton 2021, pp. 151–152.
- ^ Antoninus Liberalis 8
- ^ Ogden 2008, p. 96.
- ^ Fontenrose 1959, pp. 101-102.
- ^ Hansen 2002, p. 128.
Bibliography
[edit]- Antoninus Liberalis, The Metamorphoses of Antoninus Liberalis translated by Francis Celoria (Routledge 1992). Online version at the Topos Text Project.
- Baring-Gould, Sabine (1897). Curious Myths of the Middle Ages. Longmans, Green, and Co.
- Celoria, Francis (1992). The Metamorphoses of Antoninus Liberalis: A Translation with a Commentary. Canada, USA: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-06896-7.
- Felton, Debbie (2021). Monsters and Monarchs: Serial Killers in Classical Myth and History. Austin, US: University of Texas. ISBN 978-1-4773-0379-5.
- Fontenrose, Joseph Eddy (1959). Python: A Study of Delphic Myth and Its Origins. Los Angeles: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-04091-0.
- Grimal, Pierre (1987). The Dictionary of Classical Mythology. Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-13209-0.
- Hansen, William F. (2002). Ariadne's Thread: A Guide to International Oral Narratives in Classical Literature. Cornell University Press. ISBN 0-8014-3670-2.
- March, Jennifer R. (May 31, 2014). Dictionary of Classical Mythology. Oxbow Books. ISBN 978-1-78297-635-6.
- Ogden, Daniel (February 19, 2008). Perseus. Oxford, New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-203-93213-7.
- Ogden, Daniel (September 9, 2021). The Dragon in the West: From Ancient Myth to Modern Legend. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-883018-4.
- Pausanias, Pausanias Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.