Unsolved:Iynx

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Short description: Arcadian nymph – daughter of Pan and Echo
Detail of an earring showing a figure of Eros holding an iynx toy. Created in Northern Greece, 330-300 BC[1]

In Greek mythology, Iynx (Greek: Ἴϋγξ, translit. Íÿnx) was an Arcadian Oread nymph; a daughter of the god Pan and Echo. In popular myth, she used an enchantment to cast a spell on Zeus which caused him to fall in love with Io. In consequence of this, Hera metamorphosed her into the bird called iynx (Eurasian wryneck, Jynx torquilla).[2]

Iynx toys were small metal or wooden discs rotated by pulling attached strings, in a manner similar to more modern button whirligig toys.[3]

Mythology

Iynx was an Arcadian nymph and the daughter of Pan and Echo, or Peitho. She was the creator of a magical love-charm known as the iynx—a spinning wheel with a wryneck bird attached. Iynx used her enchantments to make Zeus fall in love with her or with the nymph Io. Hera was enraged and transformed her into a wryneck bird.[4]

According to another story, she was a daughter of Pierus, and as she and her sisters had presumed to enter into a musical contest with the Muses, she was changed into the bird iynx.[5] This bird, the symbol of passionate and restless love, was given by Aphrodite to Jason, who, by turning it round and pronouncing certain magic words, excited the love of Medea.[6]

See also

  • Jinx

Notes

  1. "Пара серег" (in ru). https://www.hermitagemuseum.org/wps/portal/hermitage/digital-collection/25.+Archaeological+Artifacts/960524/?lng=ru. Retrieved 2021-07-26. 
  2. Scholia on Theocritus 2. 17, on Pindar, Pythian Ode 4. 380, Nemean Ode 4. 56; Tzetzes on Lycophron 310. (cited in Smith)
  3. Hoorn, Gerard van (1951) (in en). Choes and Anthesteria. Brill Archive. https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Choes_and_Anthesteria/dcwUAAAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=iynx+disc&pg=PA46&printsec=frontcover. Retrieved 22 August 2022. 
  4. "II. Epistula IIb ad Serapionem und Epistula III ad Serapionem", Athanasius Werke Band 1, Teil 1: Epistulae I-IV ad Serapionem (Berlin, New York: De Gruyter), 2010, doi:10.1515/9783110227710.32, ISBN 978-3-11-022771-0, http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9783110227710.32, retrieved 2021-02-09 
  5. Antoninus Liberalis 9. (cited in Smith)
  6. Pindar, Pythian Ode 4. 380, &c.; Tzetzes on Lycophron 310 (cited in Smith)

References


 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domainSmith, William, ed (1870). "Iynx". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. 2. p. 692.