Polyxo

Polyxo (/pəˈlɪksoʊ/; Ancient Greek: Πολυξώ Poluxṓ) is the name of several figures in Greek mythology:

  • Polyxo, one of the Oceanids.[1]
  • Polyxo, one of the Hyades.
  • Polyxo, a Naiad of the river Nile, presumably one of the daughters of the river-god Nilus. She was one of the wives of Danaus and bore him twelve daughters: Autonoe, Theano, Electra, Cleopatra, Eurydice, Glaucippe, Anthelea, Cleodora, Euippe, Erato, Stygne, and Bryce. They married twelve sons of Aegyptus and Caliadne, Polyxo's sister, and murdered them on their wedding nights.[2]
  • Polyxo, mother of Antiope and possibly Nycteis by Nycteus.[3]
  • Polyxo, mother of Actorion. She came to invite Triopas and Erysichthon to her son's wedding, but Erysichthon's mother had to answer that her own son was not coming, as he had been wounded by a boar during hunt. The truth was that Erysichthon was dealing with the insatiable hunger sent upon him by the angry Demeter.[4]
  • Polyxo, a Lemnian, nurse of Hypsipyle and a seeress. She advised that the Lemnian women conceive children with the Argonauts, as all the men on the island had previously been killed.[5][6][7]
  • Polyxo, a native of Argos, who married Tlepolemus and fled with him to Rhodes. Together they had a son, whose name is not known. Despite being already married, Tlepolemus was later among the suitors of Helen, and thus bound by the oath of Tyndareus, fought in the Trojan War and was killed by Sarpedon, leaving Polyxo to become queen of Rhodes. She received Helen after the latter had been driven out of Sparta by Megapenthes and Nicostratus (Menelaus, Helen's husband, was already dead by the time). Still, Polyxo blamed Helen for Tlepolemus' death and decided to take revenge on her. So when Helen was bathing, several handmaidens in the guise of the Erinyes, sent by Polyxo, seized her and hanged her from a tree.[8] In an alternate version, Menelaus and Helen landed at Rhodes on their way back from Egypt, whereupon Polyxo sent a crowd of armed islanders of both genders against them, hoping to avenge her husband's death on Helen. Menelaus hid Helen away under the deck and had a beautiful servant dressed up as the queen, which resulted in her, and not the real Helen, being killed.[9] Yet another source, which uses the name "Philozoe" rather than "Polyxo", informs that she held funeral games of Tlepolemus; youths competed in them, and the winners were crowned with white poplar leaves.[10][11]
  • Polyxo, a Maenad in the retinue of Dionysus who attempted to kill Lycurgus of Thrace.[12]
  • Polyxo (or Polyzo), a sister of Meleager.[13]
For the asteroid, see 308 Polyxo.
Greek deities
series
Nymphs

References
  1. Hyginus, Fabulae, Preface
  2. Pseudo-Apollodorus. Bibliotheca, 2.1.5
  3. Pseudo-Apollodorus. Bibliotheca, 3.10.1
  4. Callimachus, Hymn to Demeter, 77 ff
  5. Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, 1. 668
  6. Hyginus, Fabulae, 15
  7. Valerius Flaccus, Argonautica, 2. 315 ff
  8. Pausanias, Description of Greece, 3. 19. 9 - 10
  9. Polyaenus, Stratagems of War, 1. 13
  10. Tzetzes on Lycophron, 911
  11. Tzetzes on Lycophron, Alexandra 911
  12. Nonnus, Dionysiaca, 21. 69
  13. Scholia on Homer, Iliad, 9. 584
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