Iynx

In Greek mythology, Iynx (Greek: Ἴϋγξ, translit. Íÿnx) was an Arcadian Oread nymph; a daughter of the god Pan and Echo. In popular myth, she used an enchantment to cast a spell on Zeus, which caused him to fall in love with Io. In consequence of this, Hera metamorphosed her into the bird called iynx (Eurasian wryneck, Jynx torquilla).^[2]

Mythology

Iynx was an Arcadian nymph and the daughter of Pan and Echo, or Peitho. She was the creator of a magical love-charm known as the iynx—a spinning wheel with a wryneck bird attached. Iynx used her enchantments to make Zeus fall in love with her or with the nymph Io. Hera was enraged and transformed her into a wryneck bird.^[3]

According to another story, she was a daughter of Pierus, and as she and her sisters had presumed to enter into a musical contest with the Muses, she was changed into the bird iynx.^[4] This bird, the symbol of passionate and restless love, was given by Aphrodite to Jason, who, by turning it round and pronouncing certain magic words, excited the love of Medea.^[5]

Magic wheel

Iynx toys were small metal or wooden discs rotated by pulling attached strings, in a manner similar to more modern button whirligig toys.^[6]

See also

• Jinx
• Idyll II
• Love magic
• Magic in the Greco-Roman world

References

References

• Antoninus Liberalis, The Metamorphoses of Antoninus Liberalis translated by Francis Celoria (Routledge 1992). Online version at the Topos Text Project.
• Entry for ἴυγξ in LSJ Greek Lexicon (via Perseus) – including magical uses of the word
• Pindar, Odes translated by Diane Arnson Svarlien. 1990. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Pindar, The Odes of Pindar including the Principal Fragments with an Introduction and an English Translation by Sir John Sandys, Litt.D., FBA. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1937. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.

Attribution:

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Leonhard Schmitz (1870). "Iynx". In Smith, William (ed.). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Vol. 2. p. 692.

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