Do you know about Lykos and
Chimaireus, the sons of Prometheus?
Neither did I and I have a reputation for an “encyclopaedic knowledge”
of Greek Mythology. (My friends say the
nicest things to me!) Apparently,
Cassandra, otherwise known a Princess Alexandra of Troy knew about them. She rants about them in the book named for
her. (Lykophr. 132, with scholia and Tzetzes)
They were the sons of
Prometheus and his niece Celaeno, daughter of Atlas. This is a rarely known fact to those of us in
the habit of just using Hesiod’s Theogony as a genealogical resource. However, marrying his niece, (a common
practice in Greek myths) relieves us of the problem of Hesiod’s "Clymene". The poet marries off this Oceanid first to Iapetus,
Prometheus’ father, then to Prometheus (Yuck!) and finally to the Titan of the Sun,
Helios.
Regardless of their titanic
ancestry, it appears that Lykos and Chimaireus, were mortal. Menelaus was sent to Troy to propitiate the
brothers and enquired after their tombs.
A plague raged in Sparta and with the usual ambiguity the Oracle at
Delphi sent Helen’s husband to the Troas to perform rituals in the honor of the
sons of Prometheus.
Of course this state-visit is
what prompts the Trojans to visit Sparta, and consequently Helen’s abduction and
the first great war in the western world and then the reduction of the weight
of the tribes of men upon the shaggy earth.
Nothing more is known about
Lykos and Chimaireus.
Of course Robert Graves “Paris and Helen; q” told this story better than I
in The Greek Myths and Samson
Eitrem has some interesting asides and speculation in
“Lykos and Chimaireus.” The Classical Review, vol. 34, no. 5/6,
1920, pp. 87–89. www.jstor.org/stable/697772
