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Greek Mythology >> Greek Gods >> Rustic Gods >> Carystus (Karystos)

KARYSTOS

Greek Name

Καρυστος

Transliteration

Karystos

Latin Spelling

Carystus

Translation

Herald (karyssô)

KARYSTOS (Carystus) was a rustic demi-god of the island of Euboia (Euboea) in central Greece. In the local mythology he was the father of the shepherd-god Aristaios (Aristaeus). Karystos also gave his name to a southern Euboian town.


PARENTS

KHEIRON & KHARIKLO (Scholiast on Pindar's Pythian 4.181; Eustathius on Homer 281)

OFFSPRING

ARISTAIOS (Bacchylides Frag 45)


ENCYCLOPEDIA

CARYSTUS (Karustos), a son of Cheiron and Chariclo, from whom the town of Carystus in Euboea was believed to have derived its name. (Schol. ad Pind. Pyth. iv. 181; Eustath. ad Hom. p. 281.)

Source: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.


CLASSICAL LITERATURE QUOTES

Bacchylides, Fragment 45 (from Scholiast on Apollonius of Rhodes) (trans. Campbell, Vol. Greek Lyric IV) (Greek lyric C5th B.C.) :
"Some authorities give the parentage of four gods called Aristaios (Aristaeus), as Bakkhylides does : one the son of Karystos (Carystus), another the son of Khiron (Chiron), another the son of Ge (Gaea, Earth) and Ouranos (Uranus, Sky), and the son of Kyrene (Cyrene)."


COMMENTARY

In the Scholiast's account above there appear to be two Aristaios's--the first and third are the Euboian Titan-god [i.e. perhaps equivalent to Hesiod's Astraios] and the second and fourth are the Thessalian rustic-god [i.e. the god usually described as a son of Apollon].

Karystos was perhaps also identified with the Euboian demi-god Sokos (Socus) father of the Euboian Korybantes (whose number included the Aristaios-like honey-man Melisseus). He may also have been associated with the Titan Krios "the Ram" father of the Aristaios-like Titan Astraios. The words karystos, sokos and krios were all epithets of the god Hermes--meaning "the Strong One," "the Herald," "the Ram-"Bearer. Karystos might therefore be an Euboian variant of the god Hermes.


SOURCES

GREEK

OTHER SOURCES

Other references not currently quoted here: Eustathius on Homer's Iliad 281, Scholiast on Pindar's Pythian 4.181.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A complete bibliography of the translations quoted on this page.