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"Once before I saw some
creatures in a painting, carrying off the feast of
Phineus ..." [The Pythian priestess.
Aeschylus,
Eumenides
50]
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Phineus 2 is the blind king and seer from
Salmydessus in Thrace. He is variously alleged to
have been blinded by the gods for foretelling men
the future; or by Boreas 1 and the
ARGONAUTS, for having
blinded his own sons at the instigation of their
stepmother; or by
Poseidon, for having
revealed to the children of Phrixus 1 how they
could sail from Colchis to Hellas. The gods also
sent the HARPIES—winged female
creatures—to him, so that whenever a table was
laid for Phineus 2, they flew down from the sky,
snatching up most of the victuals; and what little
they left stank so that nobody could touch it. But
the ARGONAUTS
chased the HARPIES away, and Phineus 2, out of
gratitude, revealed to them the course of their
voyage.
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Phineus 2's long life
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Phineus 2's genealogical background is, as
several other aspects of his life, most uncertain.
His alleged father, King Agenor 1 of Phoenicia,
lived several generations before the time of the
ARGONAUTS,
and the same may be said of Phoenix 1, who
sometimes is called son of Agenor 1. However, some
have said that Phineus 2 preferred long life to
sight; so he may be assumed to have lived the time
of several generations.
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Part of Phoenician emigration
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Dispersed in their search for their lost sister
Europa, some of Agenor
1's sons came to Thrace and neighbouring countries:
Thasus founded a city on Thasos, the northernmost
large island in the Aegean Sea off the coast of
Thrace; and Cadmus lived
for some time with his mother Telephassa in Thrace.
But Phineus 2 became king of Salmydessus, a
Thracian city on the Black Sea.
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His blindness
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Phineus 2 was given the gift of prophecy by
Apollo, but because he
did not use it properly, revealing to men the
deliberations of the gods with full details, he was
blinded by Zeus, who also
sent the HARPIES to take the food away from his
lips. For, they say, Zeus
wishes to deliver oracles to men in an incomplete
fashion, so that they may still need to know the
will of heaven. But Phineus 2 used his prophetic
capacities to reveal more than it was allowed, and
for that he was punished.
However, others say that the Boreades Calais and
Zetes, who had wings on head and feet, took Phineus
2's sight away to punish him for having blinded his
own sons at the instigation of their stepmother.
And still others affirm that Phineus 2 was blinded
for having shown the way to Phrixus 1, the man who
was borne through the sky from Hellas to Colchis by
the Ram with the Golden Fleece.
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The king the ARGONAUTS
found
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According to some, the ARGONAUTS
found in Salmydessus a blind old king, who was
being tortured by the HARPIES. These disgusting
creatures—who have been called the hounds of
Zeus and were said to
snatch both things and living beings—, had the
bodies of birds and the faces of girls. When a
table was laid for Phineus 2, they flew down from
the sky and snatched up most of the food, and what
little they left stank so that nobody could touch
it. Phineus 2 looked like a lifeless dream, bowing
over his staff and feeling the walls. His limbs
trembled for weakness and age as he crept on his
withered feet, and his skin was caked with dirt.
The HARPIES starved him to such an extent that
nothing but the skin held his bones together.
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The Boreades help Phineus 2
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When Phineus 2, they tell, heard the voices of
the ARGONAUTS,
he—being a seer—knew that these were the
men who would deliver him from the HARPIES. He
asked the ARGONAUTS
to help him get rid of these monsters, and Calais
and Zetes, driving the HARPIES away to the
Strophades Islands, freed him from his punishment.
For these two brothers wished very much to help him
who had married their sister Cleopatra 5.
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Iris 1 protects the
HARPIES
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It is said that when the Boreades were about to
tore the HARPIES into pieces,
Iris 1 leapt down from the
sky and forbid them to do so, saying:
"It is not
lawful, sons of Boreas, to strike with your swords
the Harpies, the hounds of mighty
Zeus; but I myself will give you a
pledge, that hereafter they shall not draw near to
Phineus." [Iris 1
to the Boreades. Apollonius Rhodius,
Argonautica
2.289]
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Calais and Zetes turn back
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And when Calais and Zetes saw the goddess take
an oath by the waters of the Styx, they turned back
and joined the rest of the ARGONAUTS.
For this reason the islands where they parted,
which until then had been called the Floating
Islands, were called the Islands of Turning
(Strophades).
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Death of the Boreades
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Some have said that Calais and Zetes died while
they were chasing the HARPIES, but according to
others they were later killed by
Heracles 1. And this
happened, they say, because the two brothers stayed
the search for Heracles
1, who went lost while searching for his friend
Hylas, who in turn had
disappeared in Mysia.
So, when the ARGONAUTS
had returned to Hellas, and they had participated
in the games over the death of King
Pelias 1,
Heracles 1, having
learned that Calais and Zetes had persuaded the
other ARGONAUTS
to leave him in Mysia, slew them both on the island
of Tenos, which is one of the Cyclades.
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The seer's help
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When the ARGONAUTS,
through Calais and Zetes, freed Phineus 2, he
showed them how to pass the Symplegades or Clashing
Islands, which are at the entrance of the Black
Sea:
He told them to send out a dove, assuring them
that they would pass through if the dove went
through and they then exerted all their strength in
rowing. But they should turn back, he said, if the
dove perished. In similar manner, he advised them
to defeat the Stymphalian birds by noise, as
Heracles 1 had done in
Arcadia. So when the
birds—using their feathers as arrows—,
attacked them, the ARGONAUTS
seized shields and spears and, like the CURETES
once did to protect the child
Zeus, they dispersed the
birds by the noise.
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The plot of Idaea 2
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But others have said that the encounter between
the winged brothers and Phineus 2 was of a
completely different nature:
They say that Cleopatra 5 married Phineus 2 and
had children, Plexippus 2 and Pandion 3, by him.
Phineus 2, however, married a second woman Idaea 2,
who falsely accused her stepsons of corrupting her
virtue. On learning this, some say, Phineus 2
blinded his own sons by Cleopatra 5; but according
to others, they were kept in prison, along with
their mother, where they were tortured until the
ARGONAUTS
arrived and set them free.
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The ARGONAUTS
free royal prisoners
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When the ARGONAUTS
landed in Thrace, they came upon Plexippus 2 and
Pandion 3, who were continuously whipped inside the
burial vault within which they had been imprisoned.
The youths made supplication to the ARGONAUTS,
and implored that they be delivered from their
torture. For, they claimed, they were the victims
of their unscrupulous mother-in-law Idaea 2, who
had falsely accused them of rape.
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Disagreement between the ARGONAUTS
and Phineus 2
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As for Phineus 2, he yielded to Idaea 2 every
desire, being as he was very much in love with her.
Likewise, he believed Idaea 2's charge: that his
sons by Cleopatra 5 had attacked her in order to
please their mother. So when the ARGONAUTS
talked to Phineus 2 on their behalf, he met them
with bitter words, and told them not to interfere
with his land's internal affairs, adding that no
father exact punishments against his sons of his
free will, but that these children had committed
crimes of a great magnitude.
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Battle in the palace ends Phineus 2's life
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But this kind of talk did not persuade the
Boreades Calais and Zetes, since they were brothers
of Cleopatra 5. So they decided to rush to aid her
sons, tearing apart the chains that encircled the
young men. However, Phineus 2 and his Thracians,
disliking this new turn, hastened to join battle
against them; but then the rest of the ARGONAUTS
intervened, and Heracles
1 slew Phineus 2.
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Death of Idaea 2
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This is how the ARGONAUTS,
on their way to Colchis, made themselves masters of
Salmydessus in Thrace and, capturing the royal
palace, took Cleopatra 5 and her sons out of
prison. When Plexippus 2 and Pandion 3 were thus
given the rule, they wished to put their stepmother
Idaea 2 to death under torture. But
Heracles 1 persuaded
them to abstain from vengeance, and the brothers
sent her back to her father in
Scythia, urging that she
be punished for her crimes. For this the brothers
gained reputation of being just in their dealings,
and the Scythians condemned her to death.
Yet others have said that Phineus 2 was not
killed during this conflict, but instead blinded by
Calais and Zetes, who, in that way, avenged their
sister's children, who in turn had been blinded by
Phineus 2.
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Others with identical name
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- Phineus 1 was betrothed to
Andromeda.
- Phineus 3 is son of impious
Lycaon 2.
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