Celeus (Crete)

In Greek mythology, Celeus (/ˈsiːliəs/ SEE-lee-əs; Ancient Greek: Κελεός, romanized: Keleós) is a Cretan man who attempted to steal from Zeus, the king of gods, and was punished for it. He was transformed into an woodpecker for attempting to steal from him.

Mythology

The Cretan Celeus and three other men, Cerberus, Aegolius and Laius entered the sacred cave of Zeus in Crete where the young god had been born and raised with the aim to steal some of the sacred honey produced by the bee caretakers of Zeus. Zeus thundered and stripped them of their brazen armors. He meant to kill them all, but Themis and the Fates advised Zeus against doing that, saying the cave as a holy place should not have anyone be killed inside it. So Zeus turned them all into birds instead; Celeus became a woodpecker. Celeus shares a name with a mythical king of Eleusis.

Legacy

A woodpecker species native to the Americas is named Celeus.

See also

• Pandareus
• Tantalus
• Pyrrhus

Bibliography

• Antoninus Liberalis, The Metamorphoses of Antoninus Liberalis translated by Francis Celoria (Routledge 1992). Online version at the Topos Text Project.
• Celoria, Francis (October 24, 1992). The Metamorphoses of Antoninus Liberalis: A Translation with a Commentary'. USA, Canada: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-06896-7.
• Jacobs, Joseph; Trübner Nutt, Alfred; Robinson Wright, Arthur; Crooke, William (1904). Folklore. Vol. 15. London, UK: Folklore Society.
• Pollard, J. R. T. (1948). The Birds of Aristophanes - A Source Book for Old Beliefs. The American Journal of Philology, 69(4), 353–376. https://doi.org/10.2307/290909
• William Smith, A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London. John Murray: printed by Spottiswoode and Co., New-Street Square and Parliament Street, 1873.