Itylus
Greek · quartigod · heroic age · Recorded classification
Only son of Zethus of Thebes and Aedon. Accidentally killed by his own mother, who in the dark mistook him for the eldest son of Niobe; his death is the Homeric origin (Odyssey 19) of the nightingale grief-song. Named in the prose of greek_zethus as the son accidentally killed by Aedon.
Parentage
- father: ZethusHomer, Odyssey 19.522-523 (primary)
- mother: AedonSlain in error by his mother Aedon.Homer, Odyssey 19.522-523 (primary)
Powers
- Become the grief-song of the nightingale through a mother's lament
Relations
- father: ZethusHomer, Odyssey 19.522-523 (primary)
- mother: AedonSlain in error by his mother Aedon.Homer, Odyssey 19.522-523 (primary)
Sources
- existence: Homer, Odyssey 19.518-523 (primary); Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1849), s.v. Aedon (secondary); Gantz, Early Greek Myth (1993), pp. 239-240 (secondary)