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In Greek mythology, Itys () is a minor mythological Thracian character, the son of Tereus, a king of Thrace, by his Athenian wife Procne. Itys was murdered by his own mother and aunt and served to be consumed during dinner by his father, as part of a revenge plan against Tereus for assaulting and raping the maiden Philomela, Procne's sister.
Following those events, Itys' immediate family were all transformed into birds afterwards, and in some versions he 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, though myths that would eventually shape the standard tale go back even further.
After Tereus finished his meal, the two sisters presented him with the disembodied head of Itys. Once he realised what had happened, Tereus hunted down the two sisters, who prayed to the gods. All three were transformed into birds. Depending on the myth's version, either Philomela or Procne is turned into either the silent swallow or the singing nightingaleOvid, Metamorphoses 6.338- 6.674 which continued to mourn her slain son in her new life. "Itys" was also the name for the plaintive cry of the nightingale.Aeschylus, Agamemnon 1144; scholia on Aristophanes's Aves 212
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.
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
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
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