Rhesus of Thrace

Rhesus (/ˈriːsəs/; Ancient Greek: Ῥῆσος Rhêsos) is a mythical king of Thrace in The Iliad who fought on the side of Trojans. Rhesus arrived late to the battle and while asleep in his camp, Diomedes and Odysseus stole his team of horses during a night raid on the Trojan camp.

Rhesus
King of Thrace
17th century engraving depicting Diomedes killing Rhesus while Odysseus steals his horses.
Genealogy
Parents	Strymon (Eioneus) and Euterpe/Calliope/Terpsichore or Heracles and Bolbe
Siblings	Olynthus, Brangas, Sete

Etymology

His name (a Thracian anthroponym) probably derives from PIE *reg-, 'to rule',^[1][2] showing a satem-sound change.

Family

According to Homer, his father was Eioneus who may be connected to the historic Eion in western Thrace, at the mouth of the Strymon, and the port of the later Amphipolis. Later writers provide Rhesus with a more exotic parentage, claiming that his mother was one of the Muses^[3] (Euterpe,^[4] Calliope^[5] or Terpsichore^[6]) and his father, the river god Strymon. Stephanus of Byzantium mentions the name of Rhesus' sister Sete, who had a son Bithys with Ares.^[7] In one account, Rhesus' brothers are called Olynthus and Brangas.^[8]

Mythology

Odysseus and Diomedes stealing Rhesus' horses, red-figure situla by the Lycurgus Painter, c. 360 BC

Rhesus was raised by fountain nymphs and died without engaging in battle.^[9] Due to Thrace being attacked by Scythia, Rhesus lead his army to Troy later than the other allied armies. Dolon, who had gone out to spy on Agamemnon’s army for Hector, was caught by Diomedes and Odysseus and proceeded to tell the two about the new arrival of the Thracians. Dolon explained that Rhesus had the finest horses, as well as huge, golden armor that was suitable for gods rather than mortals. While the Thracians were sleeping, Diomedes and Odysseus infiltrated the camp in the dead of night, killing a number of Thracians and Rhesus in his tent while also stealing his famous steeds.^[10]

The event portrayed in the Iliad also provides the action of the play Rhesus, transmitted among the plays of Euripides. The mother of Rhesus, one of the nine muses, then arrived and laid blame on all those responsible: Odysseus, Diomedes, and Athena. She also announced the imminent resurrection of Rhesus, who will become immortal but will be sent to stay in a cave. Scholia to the Iliad episode and the Rhesus agree in giving Rhesus a more heroic stature, incompatible with Homer's version.^[11]

Rhesus is also named as one of the eight rivers that Poseidon raged from Mount Ida to the sea in order to knock down the wall that the Achaeans built.^[12]

There was also a river in Bithynia named Rhesus, with Greek myth providing an attendant river god of the same name. Rhesus the Thracian king was himself associated with Bithynia through his love with the Bithynian huntress Arganthone, in the Erotika Pathemata ["Sufferings for Love"] by Parthenius of Nicaea, chapter 36.

Namesake

• Rhesus Glacier on Anvers Island in Antarctica is named after Rhesus of Thrace,^[13] as is the Jovian asteroid 9142 Rhesus.

Notes

1. Duridanov, Ivan [in Bulgarian] (1985). Die Sprache der Thraker. Bulgarische Sammlung (in German). Vol. 5. Hieronymus Verlag. p. 63. ISBN 3-88893-031-6.
2. Georgiev, Vladimir I.. "Thrakisch und Dakisch". Band 29/2. Teilband Sprache und Literatur (Sprachen und Schriften [Forts.]), edited by Wolfgang Haase, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 1983. p. 1166. doi:10.1515/9783110847031-016
3. Euripides, Rhesus 347
4. Servius, Commentary on Virgil's Aeneid 1.469
5. Apollodorus, 1.3.4
6. Eustathius on Homer, Iliad p. 817
7. Stephanus of Byzantium, s.v. Bithyai
8. Conon, 4
9. Rhesus Rhesus is chiefly remembered because he came from Thrace to defend Troy with great pomp and circumstance, but died on the night of his arrival, without ever engaging in battle.
10. Homer, Iliad 10.430-503
11. See Bernard Fenik, Iliad x and the Rhesus: The Myth (Brussels: Latomus) 1964, who makes a case for pre-Homeric epic materials concerning Rhesus.
12. Homer, Iliad 12.19-21
13. Composite Gazetteer of Antarctica: Rhesus Glacier.

References

• Apollodorus, The Library with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. ISBN 0-674-99135-4. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website.
• 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.
• Euripides, The Rhesus of Euripides translated into English rhyming verse with explanatory notes by Gilbert Murray, LL.D., D.Litt, F.B.A., Regius Professor of Greek in the University of Oxford. Euripides. Gilbert Murray. New York. Oxford University Press. 1913. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Euripides, Euripidis Fabulae. vol. 3. Gilbert Murray. Oxford. Clarendon Press, Oxford. 1913. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Homer, The Iliad with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, Ph.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924. ISBN 978-0674995796. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Homer, Homeri Opera in five volumes. Oxford, Oxford University Press. 1920. ISBN 978-0198145318. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Maurus Servius Honoratus, In Vergilii carmina comentarii. Servii Grammatici qui feruntur in Vergilii carmina commentarii; recensuerunt Georgius Thilo et Hermannus Hagen. Georgius Thilo. Leipzig. B. G. Teubner. 1881. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Stephanus of Byzantium, Stephani Byzantii Ethnicorum quae supersunt, edited by August Meineike (1790-1870), published 1849. A few entries from this important ancient handbook of place names have been translated by Brady Kiesling. Online version at the Topos Text Project.

Further reading

• Fol, Valeria (2017). "РЕЗОС – ЛИТЕРАТУРЕН ОБРАЗ ИЛИ ЛИТЕРАТУРИЗИРАНА ПРЕДСТАВА ЗА КОННИКА ХЕРОЙ НА ТРАКИТЕ" [RHESUS – LITERARY IMAGE OR LITERATURE-LIKE NOTION ABOUT THE HORSEMAN HERO OF THE THRACIANS]. Thracia (in Bulgarian). 22. Институт за балканистика с Център по тракология - Българска академия на науките: 205–221.
• Ivanov, Milen (2018). "Цар Резос и Орфей в планината Пангей" [King Rhesus and Orpheus in the Mountain Pangaion]. Thracia (in Bulgarian) (23): 173–180.
• Jordanova, Michaela (2014). "Immortal Mortal: Heroic Ideology in the Thracian Myth and Cult". ORPHEUS. Journal of Indo-European and Thracian Studies (21). Институт за балканистика с Център по тракология - Българска академия на науките: 65–74.
• Lazova, Tsvete (2006). "Rhesos of Thrace: The Transfer of Hero's Bones. Its Political Implications and the Making of "History" in the Greek Polis". Journal: ORPHEUS. Journal of Indo-European and Thracian Studies (16). Институт за балканистика с Център по тракология - Българска академия на науките: 61–67.

External links

• Media related to Rhesus (Thrace) at Wikimedia Commons