Phalanx (mythology)
[1][2] In Liddell & Scott the Greek word Φάλαγξ, usually used to mean the phalanx (a clustered mass of infantry),[3] can refer among other things to beams, the bone between joints in fingers and toes, round pieces of wood, trunk or logs and generally beam-shaped objects (like a spider's legs).[8] In the most known and traditional version of the tale, recorded in Ovid's Metamorphoses, the Lydian maiden Arachne is the (apparently brotherless) child of Idmon.[9][10] But in a much more obscure version, saved by a scholiast on Nicander and attributed to Theophilus, a writer of the school of Zenodotus who lived during the third century BC,[11] Arachne was an Attic maiden instead who had a brother named Phalanx.[12] But when the two siblings engaged in an incestuous relationship and laid with each other, they disgusted Athena, who turned them into 'animals doomed to be eaten by their own young', presumably spiders given the more popular tale and the meaning of Phalanx and Arachne's names.[13][14][15] Ovid's original Greek source for this tale remains unknown;[16] it is known that he drew a lot from Nicander's now lost works for his Metamorphoses, but if he had heard of this twist in Arachne's character, he chose to omit it.
Phalanx (disambiguation)ArachneAtticaAncient GreekromanizedGreek mythologyAthenaspiderLiddell & ScottphalanxbarrelRobert Beekespre-GreekColophonGustave DoréPurgatorioMetamorphosesLydianscholiastNicanderZenodotusAntoninus LiberalisAsia MinorByblisIctinusProetusA Greek-English LexiconBrill's New PaulyPliny the ElderNatural HistoryUniversity of PatrasBeekes, Robert S. P.Brill PublicationsBell, JohnJohn BellGrimal, PierreDe GruyterHarvard University PressLiddell, Henry GeorgeScott, RobertClarendon PressLoeb Classical LibraryOhio State University PressSmith, WilliamA Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and MythologyMetamorphoses in Greek mythologyAcanthisAcanthusAëdonAegoliusAegypiusAëtosAesacusAgrius and OreiusAlcanderAlcyoneAlcyone and CeyxAlcyonidesAlectryonAnthusAntigoneArne SithonisArtemicheAscalaphusAsteriaAutonousBotresCaeneusCeleusCerberusChelidonCinyrasClinisCoroneCtesyllaCycnus of AetoliaCycnus of AresCycnus of ColonaeCycnus of LiguriaDaedalionErinomaErodiusEumelusGeranaHarmothoëHarpalyceHarpasusHieraxHippodamiaHyperippeLelanteLyciusMegaletorMeleagridsMemnonidesMeropisMeropsMinyadesMunichusNeophronNyctaeaNyctimeneOenotropaeOrtygiusPandareusPerdixPeriphasPeristeraPieridesPhilaeusPhilomelaPleiadesPolyphontePolytechnusProcneRhexenorSchoeneusScyllaTereusTimandraActaeonAristaeusAscalabusAtalantaCadmusCalchus