Erysichthon
A Thessalian king cursed by Demeter with insatiable hunger after destroying her sacred grove — he devoured everything he owned, then consumed himself.
The Legend of Erysichthon
Erysichthon of Thessaly is one of Greek mythology's starkest cautionary tales — a king destroyed not by war or monsters but by his own appetite. His crime was sacrilege against Demeter, goddess of the harvest, and his punishment was a hunger that could never be satisfied.
According to the poet Callimachus in his Hymn to Demeter, Erysichthon was a proud and impious man who decided to cut down the trees in Demeter's sacred grove to build himself a feasting hall. When he struck the first blow into a great oak tree, blood flowed from the bark and a voice cried out in pain — the tree was home to a dryad, a nymph sacred to the goddess. His companions begged him to stop, but Erysichthon threatened to kill anyone who interfered and felled the tree himself.
The Great Deeds
Demeter's punishment was devastating in its precision. She sent Limos, the personification of Famine, to crawl into Erysichthon's belly as he slept. From that moment, no amount of food could satisfy him. The more he ate, the hungrier he became. Ovid, who retells the story in the Metamorphoses, describes how Erysichthon devoured entire banquets, herds of cattle, and the wealth of his kingdom trying to feed the void inside him.
As his fortune dwindled, Erysichthon sold his own daughter Mestra into slavery to buy food. But Mestra had been granted the gift of shapeshifting by Poseidon (who had been her lover), and she repeatedly escaped her masters by changing form — only to be sold again by her desperate father. According to Ovid, this cycle continued until even this source of income was exhausted.
Trials and Tribulations
In the end, Erysichthon turned upon himself. Unable to stop eating and with nothing left to consume, he began to devour his own body. The myth does not linger on the details, but the image is unforgettable: a man so consumed by appetite that he literally consumed himself.
The story has resonated with modern readers as an allegory for addiction, compulsive consumption, and ecological destruction. Erysichthon's crime — destroying a sacred natural space for personal gain — reads as startlingly contemporary.
Parents
Triopas
Children
Mestra
Symbols
Fun Fact
Erysichthon's daughter Mestra was a shapeshifter — her father sold her into slavery repeatedly to buy food, but she kept escaping by changing form. She is one of the few female shapeshifters in Greek mythology and her story inspired later folk tales about trickster daughters.
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth. See our full guide to English words from Greek mythology.
Explore Further
Tantalus
🗡 heroKing punished with eternal hunger and thirst
A king who offended the gods by serving them his own son as a meal. His punishment in Tartarus — standing in water that recedes when he tries to drink, beneath fruit that pulls away when he reaches for it — gave us the word "tantalize."
Tantalus
🗡 heropunishment
King invited to dine with the gods who stole nectar and ambrosia and served his son Pelops as a stew to test divine omniscience.
Tityos
🗡 heropunishment
Giant who attempted to rape Leto and was condemned to have two vultures eat his regenerating liver in Tartarus forever.
Ixion
🗡 heropunishment
First human murderer of kin, who attempted to seduce Hera and was bound to an eternally spinning wheel of fire.
Busiris
🗡 heroNone recorded
Egyptian king who sacrificed strangers to Zeus until Heracles broke free and killed him
Thyestes
🗡 herocurse
Brother of Atreus who seduced his sister-in-law and was tricked into eating his own children at the feast of Atreus.
Atreus
🗡 herovengeance
King of Mycenae who murdered his nephews and fed them to his brother Thyestes, establishing the bloodiest family curse in myth.
Phineus
🗡 heroNone recorded
Blind Thracian king tormented by Harpies until rescued by the Argonauts
Tityos
🗡 heroGiant punished for assaulting Leto
Tityos was a giant whose attempt to assault Leto earned him one of the underworld's most graphic eternal punishments — two vultures feeding on his liver.
Sisyphus
🗡 heropunishment
Cleverest of mortals who cheated death twice and was condemned to push a boulder uphill in Tartarus forever.
Procne
🗡 herovengeance
Athenian princess married to Tereus who killed her own son Itys to avenge her sister Philomela's rape.
Tereus and Philomela
🗡 herovengeance, transformation
The myth of a Thracian king who assaulted his sister-in-law and cut out her tongue, only for the sisters to exact gruesome revenge.