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In Greek mythology, Itys () is a minor mythological character, the son of Tereus, a king of Thrace, by his Athenian wife Procne. Itys was murdered by his own mother and served to be consumed during dinner by his father, as part of a revenge plan against Tereus for assaulting and raping Philomela, Procne's sister. His immediate family were all transformed into birds afterwards, and in some versions Itys too joins them in the avian kingdom. Itys' story survives in several accounts, the most extensive and famous among them being Ovid's Metamorphoses. His myth had been known since at least the sixth century BC.
Pausanias on the other hand writes that Tereus was so remorseful for his actions against Philomela and Itys's fate at the hands of the women (the nature of which is not described in clear detail) that he killed himself.Pausanias, Description of Greece 1.41.8-9 Eustathius's version of the story has the sisters reversed, so that Philomela married Tereus and became the mother of Itys.For the comparison between Homer's version and Eusthathius' version of the myth, see: Notes to Book XIX (regarding line 605&c.) in Pope, Alexander. The Odyssey of Homer, translated by A. Pope, Volume V. (London: F. J. DuRoveray, 1806), 139–140.
In some texts, Itys is called Itylus instead, another mythological bird who was killed by his mother Aëdon, who then transformed into a nightingale. In one variation of the myth, Procne is called Aëdon and his father Polytechnus.Antoninus Liberalis 11
The fullest surviving account of Itys' tale comes to us via the Roman poet Ovid and his narrative poem the Metamorphoses; however, the myth itself is much older, and Ovid's telling was largely influenced by Sophocles's now lost tragedy Tereus. Scholar Jenny Marsh theorized that Sophocles must had borrowed certain elements of the plot from Euripides's drama Medea.
She argues that the element of the enraged wife killing her child in an act of revenge against her husband's actions was directly borrowed from Euripides and incorporated into his tragedy. If accurate, that would mean that the infanticide of Itys did not appear in the myth of Procne and Philomela until Sophocles. Tellingly, the chorus in Medea state that they know only of one woman sans Medea herself that killed her children (Ino) without taking Procne into account.Euripides, Medea 1282-1284
In some versions, Itys himself was transformed into a bird like the rest of his family, specifically a pheasant, to be admired for its fine plumage.Servius, On Virgil's Eclogues 6.78Willi, Andreas (Basle), “Itys”, in Brill’s New Pauly, Antiquity volumes edited by Hubert Cancik and Helmuth Schneider, English Edition by Christine F. Salazar, Classical Tradition volumes edited by Manfred Landfester, English Edition by Francis G. Gentry. Consulted online on 11 January 2023. This element is not present in Ovid and most authors, who instead have Itys unceremoniously killed and eaten.
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