Procne

Procne (Greek Πρόκνη ) was a daughter of King Pandion I of Athens and his wife, the Naiad Zeuxippe. Her siblings were the twins Erechtheus and Bute and the sister Philomela.

Myth

The king of Thebes, Labdacus, came with the Pandion in dispute, broke into Attica. Pandion turned for help to Tereus, a descendant of Ares and of Thracian king. The victorious allies gave Pandion his daughter Procne in marriage. The couple had a son, whom they called Itys.

A few years later Procne was longing for her sister Philomela. Tereus went to Athens to fetch Philomela a visit to Thrace. When they reached Thrace, Tereus abducted his wife's sister in a hidden pastoral homestead to include them there. He tells her Procne was dead. In order to save his father, Pandion, he had forged the invitation; in truth he had come to her to make her his wife. Of necessity, they acquiesced in the will of her captor until she learned while eavesdropping on a conversation of the servants that Procne was still alive. Philomela swore her abductor to proclaim his guilt all over the world. To make sure that no one knew anything of his crimes, he cut her tongue out.

When he returned to his wife Procne, he told her in tears, Philomela died during the trip and he had buried his own hands.

Philomela could not ask anyone for help and not escape alone. So she wove a robe, in the including it secret characters, of which she knew that her sister could read this. When she was finished, she gave the fabric a servant, who should take it to the Queen Procne. Procne unfolded the robe and read the secret signs that betrayed her the awful truth. Immediately she thought only of revenge on her unfaithful husband. She freed her sister and took her to the palace. Here, the two women brought the little Itys, the son of Tereus, and served him to the King for dinner.

When the realized what his wife had set before him to eat, he became angry, threw around the table and rushed at his wife. This quickly fled with her sister. They ran so fast that literally grew them wings. Procne turns into a nightingale and Philomela into a swallow; they always be followed while Tereus was transformed to the hoopoe.