Philomela
Athenian princess whose tongue was cut out by her rapist Tereus, who wove her story into a tapestry to reveal the crime.
The Legend of Philomela
She told her story without words — weaving the truth into fabric when her rapist cut out her tongue. Philomela was raped by Tereus, king of Thrace and husband of her sister Procne. To silence her, Tereus cut out her tongue and imprisoned her. But Philomela wove a tapestry depicting the crime and sent it to Procne. The sisters took revenge by killing Itys, Tereus and Procne's son, and feeding him to his father. When Tereus discovered the truth and pursued them with an axe, the gods transformed all three into birds — Philomela became a nightingale, Procne a swallow, and Tereus a hoopoe. The nightingale's song is her eternal lament.
Parents
Pandion
Symbols
Fun Fact
T.S. Eliot references Philomela in The Waste Land: the nightingale singing in the desert.
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
Tereus
🗡 herocrime
Thracian king who raped Philomela, cut out her tongue, and was transformed into a hoopoe bird.
Tereus
🗡 heroKing who was transformed into a hoopoe
Tereus was a Thracian king who married Procne, then assaulted her sister Philomela and cut out her tongue — the sisters' revenge and transformation is one of mythology's darkest tales.
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.
Myrrha
🗡 herotransgression, transformation
A princess cursed by Aphrodite to desire her own father, whose tears of shame became myrrh resin after the gods transformed her into a tree.
Harpalyce
🗡 heroFemale Warrior, Revenge, Transformation
Thracian princess raised as a warrior who was transformed into a bird after a cycle of horrific revenge.
Caeneus
🗡 herotransformation
Born as the woman Caenis, raped by Poseidon, who granted her wish to become an invulnerable man.
Procne
🗡 herovengeance
Athenian princess married to Tereus who killed her own son Itys to avenge her sister Philomela's rape.
Nisus
🗡 heroNone recorded
A king of Megara whose city was invulnerable as long as a magical purple lock of hair remained on his head, betrayed when his daughter Scylla cut it for love of Minos
Aerope
🗡 heroAdultery, royalty
Queen of Mycenae whose adultery with Thyestes caused the devastating curse upon the House of Atreus
Semele
🗡 heroMortal mother of Dionysus
Semele was a Theban princess who became the mortal mother of Dionysus — destroyed when she insisted on seeing Zeus in his true divine form.
Tyro
🗡 herolove
Beautiful princess who fell in love with the river god Enipeus, only to be seduced by Poseidon disguised as the river.
Alcyone
🗡 heroLove, transformation, birds
Queen of Trachis who was transformed into a kingfisher bird alongside her devoted husband Ceyx