Gerana

A Pygmean woman, and wife of their king, Nicodamas, by whom she became the mother of Mopsus (according to Boeus,1 of a tortoise). Being highly esteemed and praised for her beauty among the Pygmies, she despised the gods, especially Artemis and Hera, who in revenge metamorphosed her into a crane.

In this state she always fluttered about the place in which her son Mopsus dwelt, until she was killed by the Pygmies. This is said to have been the origin of the war between the Cranes and the Pygmies (as referenced in the Iliad iii).

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References

Notes

  1. ap. Athenaeus, ix, p. 393.

Sources

  • Antoninus Liberalis. Metamorphoses, 16, who calls her Oenoë.
  • Eustathius on Homer, p. 1322.
  • Ovid. Metamorphoses vi, 90.
  • Smith, William. (1870). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. London: Taylor, Walton, and Maberly.

This article incorporates text from Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) by William Smith, which is in the public domain.