Tmolus (son of Ares)

For the butterfly genus, see Tmolus (butterfly).

Bozdağ (ancient Mount Tmolus) is associated with the accounts surrounding Tmolus

Tmolus /ˈmoʊləs/ (Ancient Greek: Τμῶλος, Tmōlos) was a King of Lydia and husband to Omphale. Mount Tmolus (modern Bozdağ) is named for him. It lies in Lydia with the Lydian capital Sardis at its foot and Hypaepa on its southern slope. In Greek mythology he figures as a mountain god, a son of Ares and Theogone and he judged the musical contest between Pan and Apollo.

When Tmolus was gored to death by a bull on the mountain that bears his name, his widow, Omphale, became Queen-regnant of Lydia. Through her, Lydian reign passed into the hands of the Tylonid (Heraclid) dynasty.

The geography of Tmolus and the contest between Pan and Apollo are mentioned in Ovid's Metamorphoses, XI.168.

He is perhaps the Tmolus who, according to a scholion to Euripides Orestes 5, was the father of Tantalus by Plouto.

References

• Catholic Encyclopaedia (passim)
• Gantz, Timothy, Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, Two volumes: ISBN 978-0-8018-5360-9 (Vol. 1), ISBN 978-0-8018-5362-3 (Vol. 2).
• Ovid's Metamorphoses, Book 11, tr. Arthur Golding. http://www.elizabethanauthors.com/ovid11.htm
• Smith, William; Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London (1873). "Tmolus 1."