Pandion, 5th king of Athens and grandson of the divine blacksmith Hephaestus knew he was in trouble. The Barbarian army of Labdacus, King of Thebes stood outside the gates of the city and was getting ready for an all-out assault on Athens because of their dispute over the borders.
Although he knew that his army was well able for the Thebans, he also knew that there would be a lot of bloodshed, and that he wanted to avoid. At least, he didn’t want the blood of his soldiers shed. He didn’t care too much about Labdacus’s men.
He devised a cunning plan which, if successful, would not only weaken the armies of Thebes beyond recovery, but it would also weaken another potential adversary, Tireis, king of Thrace. Although Pandion was very aware of the hideous and brutal reputation Tireis had, he offered the Thracian king his beautiful daughter Procne as his wife in exchange for his support in the fight against the Theban armies. Pandion figured that Procne, also renowned for her extraordinary abilities with a dagger, was well able for somebody like Tiseis and might even be able to control him. Unable to resist this offer, Tiseis promptly came to the assistance of Athens. His soldiers were, like their king, masters in the use of the spear. They killed every single one of the Theban soldiers laying siege to Athens. As expected, Tiseis too lost many soldiers. His majorly weakened army and the marriage to Procne ensured that any possible threat from Thrace was now non-existent, and Pandion knew this was a job well done.
Tireis and Procne were duly married and set sail for Thrace. Soon, the joyful news of the birth of their son Itys reached Pandion and he now knew with certainty that he had turned a potential adversary into a fearsome, but brutal ally.
Itys, under the influence of his mother, grew up loving the arts, and especially poetry and music. After 5 years, Procne begged her husband to arrange for a visit of her sister Philomela. Tiseis promptly set sail for Athens himself and went to visit King Pandion to convey his wife’s request. While the kings exchanged pleasantries and Pandion ordered a welcome feast for Tiseis, Philomela was summoned and came to inquire about her father’s wishes. As soon as he saw the girl, Tiseis heart jumped and a burning desire for her incredible beauty engulfed him. He knew he would not be able to resist her beauty. He set about convincing Pandion to allow the girl to travel across the seas with him to visit her sister. Philomela, upon hearing her sister’s request, also worked hard convincing her father to allow her to go. Despite his misgivings, for he knew Tiseis reputation only too well, Pandion finally agreed and as the winds were favourable, Tiseis insisted on setting sale immediately.
No sooner had they gone beyond the horizon, or Tiseis ordered his crew to change course and sail south to the island of Elafonisos, instead of North to Thrace, and it became clear to Philomela what Tiseis was really planning. All his wonderful words of encouragement the day before had been hollow words, designed to get her on his ship and satisfy his desire for her, with or without her consent.
After they landed at the inlet of Kiriakoulou, he took Philomela inland until they arrived at his stronghold overlooking the lake of Kiriakoulou and the island of Kythira. Tiseis imprisoned Philomena in the cave hidden under his castle, where he once again violated her repeatedly in a particular brutal way, which made Philomela finally lose her fear and sorrow and she lashed out at him, cursing him and invoking the help of every God and Goddess she could think of to help her in her plight. Her words put a mortal fear in the king’s heart, and he became afraid that she would find some willing ears to listen to her story and create serious trouble for him. Holding her prisoner in the cave wasn’t enough for the king. He pulled his dagger and cut out Philomela’s tongue, ensuring she would not be able to tell anybody about what had happened to her.
He left the girl locked in the cave under his castle, and finally set sail back to Thrace. When he arrived in his kingdom, and his queen enquired about her sister, he told her a tale of heavy weather and bad storms which had blown them way off course. In his anger, Poseidon, the sea God, had created the biggest waves they had ever seen, and one of these waves washed over the ship, taking Philomela with it. They had, he told his wife, spend days searching for her after the weather had calmed down, but were unable to find her.
Despite having no body, a funeral pyre was erected for Philomela and Procne personally lit it, starting the official period of mourning for her sister. Word was also sent to king Pandion in Athens, and there too the required period of mourning for the princess began.
Under the pretext of government business, Tireis set sail regularly and secretly went back to his stronghold on Elafonisos for he found his lust for Philomela insatiable. With every visit the anger of the princess increased. After losing her tongue she frantically thought of ways to tell the world about her plight.
Helios, the sun God, had travelled through 12 heavenly signs, when Philomela finally decided to act. During Tireis’ next visit came, she pretended to willingly accept his desire and responded intensely. Taken aback by the change in attitude, Tireis extended his stay until the princess managed to convince him of her desire for him. Believing he had tamed the girl, Tireis relaxed the security around her and let her stay in the castle rather than keeping her in the cave. He even appointed a servant to the princess. As soon as he left, Philomela asked her servant for a loom and white and purple thread, and she set to work. She wove her story into a blanket, which, as its narrative grew, shocked the servant beyond imagination. It took the princess another 6 star signs to complete her work, by which time she knew she could entrust it to her servant to make sure it was delivered to her sister, the Queen of Thrace.
Pretending she had to attend the commemoration rites of her deceased father in Thrace, the servant sailed with the king after his next visit and, biding her time, waited for him to go on official business again before she approached the queen and handed her the blanket. Procne’s rage was immeasurable. She was beside herself with anger and hatred for the betrayal by her husband and the torture and shame he had put her sister through. And, seeding with anger, she wanted revenge. Revenge so fierce it would make what her husband had put her sister through pale into insignificance.
Procne donned her warrior clothes again, picked up her fearsome weapons and commandeered a ship with trusted solders from Attica attacked and destroyed her husband’s castle, killing all inside. When she freed her sister, she took her back to the palace in Thrace where she hid her while they planned their revenge .
They had still not developed a plan for revenge when a few days later Tiseis returned from a hunting party with his son Itys. Tiseis had won the boy over and was taking every opportunity to teach him to hunt, use weapons and kill. While in the company of his father, the boy’s moral and human values faded. He had become as unpleasant an individual as his father, who by now was extremely proud of his son.
When Itys came over to greet his mother, she felt the same coldness in his embrace as she felt in that of his father, and she knew that she had lost her son. At the same time, she knew how she would take revenge for what his father had done to her sister.
Procne withdrew to her private temple, dedicated to the Goddess Demeter, and asked the Goddess for protection while she took revenge for her sister’s suffering. She also asked the Goddess to intervene after she took revenge to ensure that humanity would forever be reminded of the hideous behaviour of her husband and the suffering both her sister and she had endured because of it.
That evening Procne invited her son to take a walk with her because she wanted to talk to him. Puzzled, the young man obliged his mother, and they walked to a remote part of the palace were nobody ever came. There, without a word, Procne pulled out a dagger and stabbed her son in the heart. One blow killed the boy, but she was not content with just killing him. Frenzied by sorrow and hatred, she cut his throat and decapitated him. She then proceeded to dismember the body and started to cook the body parts.
While the body of her son was cooking, she took a bath and cleaned herself, then she ordered her servants to set the table for her husband and she invited Tiseis for a dinner in her private quarters. Thinking his wife had something else in mind Tiseis happily accepted and showed up at the agreed time. He was puzzled when he saw the table was only set for one, but at his wife’s beckoning he sat down while she served him his meal.
After he had eaten, he complemented her on the meal and asked if she had seen Itys. In answer, Philomela jumped out from behind the thick curtains where she was hiding and threw the severed head of the boy at his father.
Shocked to see Philomela standing in front of him, holding him to account for everything he had done to her, Tiseis slowly realised what had happened and what he had eaten for his last meal. He broke down in sorrow, not for his victim and his wife, but for the loss of his son.
As soon as he recovered enough to let his anger take over, he reached for his sword intending to kill both women in front of him. Responding to the request from Procne, Demeter interfered and the three people metamorphosed into birds. Procne herself became the swallow; her journey symbolised by the eternal journey of the bird. Philomela became the female blackbird which does not sing, just like Philomela could not speak.
Like Tiseis, swift in his desire to take revenge and always armed with his spear, so does the bird he became look like a royal warrior with a long-feathered crest on its head and armed with a long, sharp beak resembling a spear. The bird became known to humanity as the epops, which people today refer to as the hoopoe.
