Philomela
Philomela names 2 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below. 1 of them is described by more than one encyclopedia.
Philomela A daughter of Pandion
Described by 2 of the 6 encyclopedias.
1000 Classical Characters (1900)
A daughter of Pandion, king of Athens . Her sister Procne had married Tereus, king of Thrace, and being separated from Philomela spent her time in great melancholy. She persuaded her husband to go to Athens and bring her sister to Thrace. Tereus, on the journey, treated Philomela with great cruelty, and cut off her tongue, confining her in a lonely castle, and reporting to Procne that she was dead. Philomela, however, found means to inform Procne that she was living. In revenge for the cruelty of Tereus, Procne murdered his son and served him up as food at a banquet. On hearing this Tereus drew his sword to slay the sisters, when he was changed into a hoopoe, Philomela into a nightingale, and Procne into a swallow. In poetry we frequently find the nightingale alluded to as Philomela, as in this quatrain, which occurs in a contribution to the Etonian: "Hark! upon the passing gale Philomela's plaintive wail! Feelings how serene and tender Does the lovely music render."
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
fil-o-me'la, in Greek mythology, daughter of Pandion, a king of Athens. Procne, her sister, married Tereus, a Thracian king. Tereus, however, preferred Philomela. He therefore pretended that Procne was dead, having cut out her tongue that she might tell no tales, and thus won Philomela. Procne wove the story of her wrongs into a web and thus acquainted her sister with the truth. The two women in revenge slew the child of Tereus and served him to his father at table. In punishment for so terrible a crime the gods transformed Philomela into a nightingale; Procne into a swallow. Then Tereus, who was to blame in the beginning, was changed into a hawk who should ever pursue the other two birds. See Nightingale
Philomela During his reign there was such an abundance of corn
1000 Classical Characters (1900)
During his reign there was such an abundance of corn, wine, and oil in his realm that it was supposed that Bacchus and Minerva had personally visited the country.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The outline of the myth is exactly where Ovid left it, and both accounts on this shelf tell it recognisably, though Aiton's 1910 version garbles the roles: it is Philomela whose tongue is cut out and Philomela who weaves the tapestry that tells Procne the truth, not the other way round. What has genuinely shifted is the reticence. Neither the 1900 nor the 1910 entry mentions that Tereus raped Philomela, which is the hinge of Ovid's account and the reason modern readers meet her at all; since T. S. Eliot put her in The Waste Land in 1922, she has become the standard literary figure for the silenced victim, and the mutilation is now read as the silencing of a witness rather than mere cruelty. On the bird endings, scholars still note the split the 1900 entry hints at: Greek sources generally make Philomela the swallow and Procne the nightingale, with the Roman version reversing them, and Tereus a hoopoe rather than Aiton's hawk.
Written for this edition, 2026.