thumb|Oenone holding [[pan pipes, behind Paris and Eros – a detail from a sarcophagus with the Judgement of Paris, Roman, Hadrianic period (Palazzo Altemps, Rome)]]

In Greek mythology, Oenone (; ) was the first wife of Paris of Troy, whom he abandoned for Helen. Oenone was also the ancient name of an island, which was later named after Aegina, daughter of the river god Asopus.

Biography

Oenone was a mountain nymph on Mount Ida in Phrygia, a mountain associated with the Mother Goddess Cybele and the Titaness Rhea. Her gift of prophecy was learned from Rhea. Her father was either the river-gods, Cebren or Oeneus. Her name links her to the gift of wine.

Mythology

thumb|Drawing of a fresco depicting Paris, Eros, and Oenone from the House of the Labyrinth, Pompeii

Paris, son of king Priam and Hecuba, fell in love with Oenone when he was a shepherd on the slopes of Mount Ida. He had been exposed in infancy owing to a prophecy that he would bring destruction to Troy, but rescued by the herdsman Agelaus. The couple married, and Oenone gave birth to a son, Corythus. Paris swore he would never desert her, but Oenone prophesied that - whilst his love for her was true now - he would later abandon her and bring ruin to his family. Paris, perhaps disturbed or afraid, always dismissed her warnings.

Her prediction came true when Paris returned to his birth parents in Troy and sailed across the Aegean for Helen, the queen of Sparta. Out of revenge, she sent Corythus to guide the Greeks to Troy. Another version has it that she used him to drive a rift between Paris and Helen. Paris, not recognizing his own son, killed him.

She even sent her son to inform the Greeks of the prophecies required to take Troy: one of the Aeacidae, Pelops' bones, and Heracles' arrows.

One of the only extensive surviving narrations of Oenone and Paris is Quintus Smyrnaeus, Posthomerica, Book 10, 259–489, which tells the return of the dying Paris to Oenone. Mortally wounded by Philoctetes's arrow, he begged Oenone to heal him with her herbal arts, but she refused and cast him out with scorn, to return to Helen's bed, and Paris died on the lower slopes of Ida. Then, overcome with remorse, Oenone, the one whole-hearted mourner of Paris, threw herself onto his burning funeral pyre, which the shepherds had raised.

In Apollodorus' Library, she hanged herself upon finding Paris dead, whilst Lycophron imagines her throwing herself from the walls of Troy. According to Conon's Narrations, Oenone kills the messenger who informed her of Paris' demise. a text that has been extended by a number of spurious post-Ovidian interpolations, which include an elsewhere unattested rape of Oenone by Apollo.

In literature

Thomas Heywood wrote the epyllion Oenone and Paris (1594) in rhyme royal.

William Morris included "The Death of Paris" in The Earthly Paradise.

Lawrence Binyon published Paris and Oenone, a one-act closet tragedy in blank verse, in 1906.

Tennyson adapted the source material of Smyrnaeus for "The Death of Oenone" (1892), distilling its tragic essence. This was Tennyson's second poem on the subject; his previous attempt, "Oenone", was critically panned when first published in 1833. The poem was practically rewritten between then and 1842 and the revised version has been described as exquisitely beautiful.

In Racine's Phèdre, the name Oenone is given to Phaedra's nurse, a character who also commits suicide.

Notes

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.
  • Graves, Robert, The Greek Myths, Harmondsworth, London, England, Penguin Books, 1960.
  • Graves, Robert, The Greek Myths: The Complete and Definitive Edition. Penguin Books Limited. 2017.
  • Parthenius, Love Romances translated by Sir Stephen Gaselee (1882–1943), S. Loeb Classical Library Volume 69. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. 1916. Online version at the Topos Text Project.
  • Parthenius, Erotici Scriptores Graeci, Vol. 1. Rudolf Hercher. in aedibus B. G. Teubneri. Leipzig. 1858. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
  • OENONE from The Theoi Project