Iasion

Or Jasion, also called Iasius, was, according to some, a son of Zeus and Electra, the daughter of Atlas, and a brother of Dardanus;¹ but others called him a son of Corythus and Electra, of Zeus and the nymph Hemera, or of Ilithyius, or of Minos and the nymph Pyronia.² At the wedding of his sister Harmonia, Demeter fell in love with him, and in a thrice-plowed field (τρίπολος) she became by him the mother of Pluton or Plutus in Crete, in consequence of which Zeus killed him with a flash of lightning.³

According to Servius,⁴ Iasion was slain by Dardanus, and according to Hyginus⁵ he was killed by his own horses, whereas others represent him as living to an advanced age as the husband of Demeter.⁶ In some traditions Eetion is mentioned as the only brother of Dardanus,⁷ whence some critics have inferred that Iasion and Eetion are only two names for the same person. A further tradition states that Iasion and Dardanus, being driven from their home by a flood, went from Italy, Crete, or Arcadia, to Samothrace, whither he carried the Palladium, and where Zeus himself instructed him in the mysteries of Demeter.⁸

According to Eustathius,⁹ Iasion, being inspired by Demeter and Kore, traveled about in Sicily and many other countries, and every where taught the people the mysteries of Demeter.¹⁰

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