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Procris
(Greek Mythology)


Procris

 
(presumed subject:  "The Death of Procris")

  -[Piero di Cosimo]- "Mythological Scene" ca.1510)

 Procris - Wife of Cephalus

Ref:  Graves, Robert (1996). "The Greek Myths" (2 vols; London
                Folio edition). 


[P. 279-281] which i have paraphrased/quoted here 
             (rather un-poetcially)

Cephalus was married to Procris "with whom he had 
exchanged vows of perpetual faithfulness. However,
Eos (godess of the dawn) fell in love with him
and rebuked him saying that Procris would toss 
him aside for a bit of gold. When he protested,
she metamorphosed him into the likeness of
Pteleon and bade him try to seduce his wife
with a golden crown. Easily seduced, he felt
no compunction about lying with eos, of whom
she [Procris] was painfully jealos.

Eos bore Cephalus a son named PhaEthon; but
Aphrodited stole him while still a child, 
to be the night-watchman of her most sacred
shrines. 

[P. 280]

[With all of the gossip, Procris left and went
to Crete, ] where Minos found her no more 
difficult to seduce than the supposed
Pteleon. He bribed her with a hound, named
Laelpas, that never failed to catch his 
quarry, and a dart that never missed its 
mark - both of which had been given to 
him by Artemis [goddess of the hunt]. 
Procris, being an ardent huntress, gladly 
accepted these. 

[much lurid detail omitted here]. 

She  hurried off to Athens and disgusing 
herself as a handsome boy, Pterelas she
joined a hunting party and offered to buy
the dart and hound for a huge sum of silver.
But, Procris refused to part with either, 
except for love, and when he agreed 
to take her to his bed, tearfully revealed
herself as her wofe. Thus, they were reconciled
at last, and Cephalus enjoyed great sport with
the dog and the dart. But Artemis was vexed 
that her valuable gifts should thus be bandied
about from hand to hand by these mercenary 
adulterers and ploted revenge. She put it into
Procris' head to suspect that Cephalus was
still visiting eos when he rose two hours after
midnight and went off to hunt. 

One night Procris, wearing a dark tunic, crept
out after him in the half light. Presently he
heard a rustle in a thicket behind him, Laelpas
growled and stiffened, Cephalus let fly the 
un-erring dart and transfixed Procris. In due
course, the Areiopagus sentenced him to 
perpetucal banishment for murder. 



 -[Johann Michael Rottmayr]-
  "Cephalus and Procris" (downloaded on 2008.03.16 at 00:25 pct)
  Carlos Parada's web site. Note the arrow.


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