Teumessian fox

The Teumessische fox ( Alopex altgr. ἀλώπηξ Τευμησσία = Teumēssīa ) was a huge, man-eating fox, who was sent by the gods because of a transgression of the descendants of Cadmus as a punishment against Thebes. Dionysus had pulled it great on the mountain Teumessos which is between Thebes and Chalcis, near Ypato ( Hypatos ). From here it everywhere devastated the land, tore humans and animals, and could only temporarily be appeased, that he was accused each month a boy of the city as a victim. The fox was also chosen by divine providence to the fact that a hunter could never catch him.

When Amphitryon help of Creon in the war against the requested Teleboans, Creon told him about this, if he helped in return in the hunt for the Teumessischen fox. But the hunt was unsuccessful. So Amphitryon went to Cephalus and promised a share of the spoils when this accreting his hunting dog Lailaps on the fox. The endless battle between the fox, no one could catch, and the dog, which no one could escape, eventually Zeus made an end by transforming both animals in stone.

Swell

• Antoninus liberalism, Metamorphoses, 41
• Libraries of Apollodorus, II/57-59
• Ovid, Metamorphoses VII, 764 ff
• Pausanias, traveling in Greece, 9, 19, 1

• Mythological animal
• Creature of Greek mythology
• Fox in art and literature
• Thebes ( Boeotia )