Philammon
Legendary ante-Homeric singer of Delphi, the heteropaternal twin of Autolycus: son of Apollo by the mortal Chione of Phocis (greek_chione), born the same night as Hermes's son Autolycus (Ovid Met. 11.301-317; Pherecydes; Apollod. 1.3.3). Authored as a demigod (Olympian father Apollo + mortal mother Chione → divinity fraction 0.5). He founded the Delphic maiden-choruses singing the births of Leto, Artemis and Apollo, won the second victory (after Chrysothemis, before his son Thamyris) in the most ancient Pythian nome-contest (Paus. 10.7.2), was named — with Pausanias's own doubt — founder of the Lernaean Mysteries (Paus. 2.37.2), and fell defending Apollo's sanctuary at Delphi against the marauding Phlegyans (Paus. 9.36.2). Wired to greek_chione + greek_hesiod_apollo as parents and reciprocally to his twin greek_autolycus.
Parentage
Domains
- music and song
- choral and cultic hymnody
- mystery rites
Powers
- Sings and plays the lyre with surpassing skill
- Composes the hymn-to-Apollo nome for the Pythian contest
- Institutes the Delphic maiden-choruses
Epithets
- ἀοιδός — 'the singer' (of Delphi)
Relations
- twin sibling: Autolycus
Sources
- Pherecydes FGrHist 3 F 120 (son of Apollo and Chione/Philonis); Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1.3.3 (Philammon son of Apollo, father of Thamyris)
- Pausanias 10.7.2 (Pythian song-contest victor); 2.37.2 (Lernaean Mysteries); 9.36.2 (death fighting the Phlegyans at Delphi); 4.33.3 (father of Thamyris by Argiope)
- Ovid, Metamorphoses 11.316-317 (twin of Autolycus, famed for lyre and song); Hyginus, Fabulae 161, 200 (son of Apollo)
- Conon, Narrationes 7 (the Argiope / Thamyris tradition)
- Timothy Gantz, Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources (Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1993), pp. 96, 173