Pierus
The king of Emathia in Macedonia. By Antigone or Evippe he is the father of nine daughters, to whom he gave the names of the nine Muses. His daughters, who were called the Emathides or Pierides, challenged the Muses to a singing contest but lost and were transformed into birds for their insolence.
Pierus is reputed to have introduced the worship of the Muses at Thespiae and changed their names to the present ones. The mountain in Macedonia was named after him.
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References
Sources
- Ovid. Metamorphoses v, 295 ff.
- Pausanias. Description of Greece ix, 29.3-4.
- Smith, William. (1870). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. London: Taylor, Walton, and Maberly.