Procne
Athenian princess married to Tereus who killed her own son Itys to avenge her sister Philomela's rape.
The Legend of Procne
She fed her husband his own son for dinner — the most horrifying revenge feast in Greek myth after Thyestes. When Procne learned from Philomela's woven tapestry that Tereus had raped her sister and cut out her tongue, she killed her son Itys, cooked him, and served him to Tereus. The sisters revealed the truth by showing Tereus the boy's head. The gods transformed Procne into a swallow — a bird that nests near humans but cannot truly sing, only chatter. Ovid's telling in the Metamorphoses is one of the most disturbing passages in classical literature. Sophocles wrote a lost tragedy, Tereus, about this myth.
Parents
Pandion
Children
Itys
Symbols
Fun Fact
The Romans reversed which sister became which bird — in their version, Procne is the nightingale.
Explore Further
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.
Atreus
🗡 herovengeance
King of Mycenae who murdered his nephews and fed them to his brother Thyestes, establishing the bloodiest family curse in myth.
Aerope
🗡 heroAdultery, royalty
Queen of Mycenae whose adultery with Thyestes caused the devastating curse upon the House of Atreus
Alcmaeon
🗡 herovengeance
Son of Amphiaraus who killed his own mother Eriphyle on his father's orders and was driven mad by the Erinyes.
Itys
🗡 herotragedy
Young son of Tereus and Procne murdered by his own mother and served as food to his father in revenge for Philomela's rape.
Agave
🗡 heromadness
Mother of Pentheus and daughter of Cadmus who tore her own son apart while possessed by Dionysian madness.
Polydorus of Troy
🗡 herotragedy
Youngest son of Priam, sent away from Troy with gold for safekeeping, only to be murdered by his host.
Aegisthus
🗡 herovengeance
Son of Thyestes who murdered Agamemnon to avenge his father, ruling Mycenae with Clytemnestra for seven years.
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.
Acastus
🗡 herovengeance
King of Iolcus and Argonaut who tried to murder Peleus through treachery on Mount Pelion — a tale of false accusation and sacred hospitality violated.
Deianeira
🗡 herolove, destruction
The wife of Heracles whose love inadvertently killed the greatest hero in Greek mythology when she used the poisoned shirt of Nessus.
Pandion
🗡 herokingship
King of Athens who married off his daughters Procne and Philomela, both of whom suffered terribly at the hands of Tereus.