In Greek mythology, Broteas was the ugly son of Tantalus, whose other offspring were Niobe and Pelops. He carved the most ancient image of the Great Mother of the Gods (Cybele), an image that in Pausanias' day (2nd century CE) was still held sacred by the Magnesians. The sculpture was carved into the rock-face of the crag Coddinus, north of Mount Sipylus, whose daemon was one of the mythographers' candidates for Broteas' grandfather ^[1]. Greek mythology consists of a large collection of narratives detailing the lives and adventures of a wide variety of gods, goddesses, heroes, and heroines, which were first envisioned and disseminated in an oral-poetic tradition. ... This article is about Tantalus from Greek mythology. ... Apollo and Diana Attacking Niobe and her Children by Anicet-Charles-Gabriel Lemonnier A mortal woman in Greek mythology, Niobe (Νιόβη), daughter of Tantalus and either Euryanassa, Eurythemista, Clytia, Dione, or Laodice, and the wife of Amphion, boasted of her superiority to Leto because she had fourteen children (Niobids), seven male... In Greek mythology, Pelops (Greek Πέλοψ) was a son of Tantalus and Dione, and father of Pittheus, Plisthenes, Atreus and Thyestes. ... Statue of Cybele in a chariot drawn by lions, in the Plaza de Cibeles, Madrid Originally a Phrygian goddess, Cybele (Greek Κυβέλη, sometimes given the etymology she of the hair if her name is Greek, not Phrygian, but more widely considered of Luwian origin, from Kubaba; Roman equivalent: Magna Mater or... Pausanias was Greek traveller and geographer of the 2nd century A.D., who lived in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. ... Magnesia ad Sipylum was a city of Lydia, situated about 65 km northeast of Smyrna on the river Hermus at the foot of Mount Sipylus. ... In Greek mythology, Mount Sipylus northeast of Smyrna in Lydia (southwestern Anatolia, now Turkey) was the region ruled by Tantalus. ... The term Daemon has several meanings: Daemon (mythology) - see also Demon Daemon (computer software), a background process Dæmon (His Dark Materials) in the Philip Pullman trilogy of novels His Dark Materials Daemon (Warhammer) Daemon (Warcraft) Daemon Sadi (SaDiablo) is a character in the Black Jewels Trilogy by Anne Bishop. ...

The rock-cut carving mentioned by Pausanias is still to be seen above the road about 6 or 7 km east of Manisa (the modern Magnesia ad Sipylum), though the head has partly cleaved away, from natural causes. The figure 8-10 metres high carved on a cliff-face a hundred meters above the marshy plain, has come to be confused with a nearby natural rock formation associated with Niobe, the "Niobe of Sipylus" (Suratlu Tash), also mentioned by Pausanias^[2]. Manisa is the capital of the Turkish province of Manisa. ... Magnesia ad Sipylum was a city of Lydia, situated about 65 km northeast of Smyrna on the river Hermus at the foot of Mount Sipylus. ... Apollo and Diana Attacking Niobe and her Children by Anicet-Charles-Gabriel Lemonnier A mortal woman in Greek mythology, Niobe (Νιόβη), daughter of Tantalus and either Euryanassa, Eurythemista, Clytia, Dione, or Laodice, and the wife of Amphion, boasted of her superiority to Leto because she had fourteen children (Niobids), seven male...

Apart from the badly damaged head, the sitting figure is clear enough to be made out by a non-professional. The goddess with the polos headgear holds her breasts with her hands; a vague trace of four Hittite hieroglyphics could be seen on a squared section to the right of her head. The site is Hittite, second millennium BCE. Kotekan is a style of playing fast interlocking parts in most varieties of Balinese Gamelan music, including Gamelan gong kebyar, Gamelan angklung, Gamelan jegog and others. ... Hittite can refer to either: The ancient Anatolian people called the Hittites; or The Hittite language, an ancient Indo-European language they spoke. ...

Nearby, other archaeological sites traditionally associated with the House of Tantalus since Antiquity are also in fact Hittite. Some 2 km E of Akpınar there are another two monuments on Mount Sipylus, which are also mentioned by Pausanias: the tomb of Tantalus (Christianized as "Saint Charalambos' tomb") and the "throne of Pelops", in fact a rocky altar. Hittite can refer to either: The ancient Anatolian people called the Hittites; or The Hittite language, an ancient Indo-European language they spoke. ... This article is about Tantalus from Greek mythology. ... St Francis Xavier converting the Paravas: a 19th-century image of the docile heathen Ansgar, the 9th century apostle of the North in an 1830 drawing. ...

Broteas was consumed on a pyre as a propitiating sacrifice. The mythic rationale, that he was a famous hunter who (1) refused to honor Artemis, who (2) drove him mad, to (3) immolate himself—combines three familiar mythemes. Compare the hunter Actaeon, whose sacrifice is also justified as retribution. A pyre is a structure, such as a mound of wood, for burning a body as part of a funeral rite. ... The Artemis of Versailles, a Roman copy of a Hellenistic marble sculpture, now at the Louvre Museum. ... In the study of mythology, a mytheme is a feature of a myth, which may be shared with other, related myths. ... Actaeon and his dogs In Greek mythology, Actaeon (or Aktaion) was a son of Aristaeus and Autonoe in Boeotia, a hunter who endured the wrath of Artemis. ...

The heir of Broteas was named Tantalus, like his grandfather.

Notes

1. ↑ Pausanias: "the Magnesians, who live to the north of Mount Sipylus, have on the rock Coddinus the most ancient of all the images of the Mother of the gods. The Magnesians say that it was made by Broteas the son of Tantalus."
2. ↑ Pausanias, i.21.2: "this Niobe I myself saw when I had gone up to Mount Sipylus. When you are near it is a beetling crag, with not the slightest resemblance to a woman, mourning or otherwise; but if you go further away you will think you see a woman in tears, with head bowed down".

References

• Robert Graves, 1960. The Greek Myths section 108.
• Pausanias, Greece, iii.22.4.
• Apollodorus, Epitome, i.24; ii.2.
• Ovid, Ibis, line 517 (with scholiast noted by Graves).
• 168. Manisa / Magnesia on Sipylus. Archaeological Atlas of the Aegean, map 168. Retrieved March 10, 2006.