Tmolos (Ancient Greek: Τμῶλος, Tmōlos) was a mountain-god of Lydia in Anatolia (modern Turkey). He was appointed as judge of a musical contest between the god Apollo and Pan or Marsyas.
He was an Ouros (singular of Ourea, the mountain gods), and along with his brothers and sisters they were the offspring of Gaia.
His appearance in literature are from the Roman poets Ovid and Pseudo-Hyginus.
Mythology[]
Contest between Apollo and Pan[]
According to the ancient Roman writer Ovid in Book 11 of his Metamorphoses:
Once Pan had the audacity to compare his music with that of Apollo and to challenge the god of music to a contest. The mountain-god Tmolos was chosen to umpire. Pan blew on his pipes, and with his rustic melody gave great satisfaction to himself and his faithful follower, Midas, who happened to be present. Then, Apollo struck the strings of his lyre. It was so beautiful that Tmolus at once awarded the victory to Apollo, and everyone was pleased with the judgement. Only Midas dissented and questioned the justice of the award. Apollo did not want to suffer such a depraved pair of ears any longer, and caused them to become the ears of a donkey.
According to the ancient Roman writer Pseudo-Hyginus in his Fabulae:
"Midas . . . was taken as judge at the time when Apollo contested with Marsyas, or Pan, on the pipes. When [the mountain-god] Timolus (Tmolus) gave the victory to Apollo, Midas said it should rather have been given to Marsyas. Then Apollo angrily said to Midas : ‘You will have ears to match the mind you have in judging,’ and with these words he caused him to have ass's ears."
King of Lydia and Father of Tantalus?[]
According to Pseudo-Apollodorus' Bibliotheca, an identically named figure of Tmolos is said to be King of Lydia and the husband of Omphale and he bequeathed his government to her.[1] In a scholia of Euripides' Orestes it states that a possible father of Tantalus other than Zeus is Tmolos.
The scholar William Smith in his A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, treats the figure of Tmolos, the father of Tantalus and Tmolos, King of Lydia and wife of Omphale as the same as the mountain god[2] but other scholars seem to differ and treats those identically named people as separate people.
External links[]
- Tmolos at Theoi