In Greek mythology, Thersanon or Thersanor is one of the Argonauts, the crew of the legendary Argo. Born on the island of Andros, Thersanon was the son of the Solar deity Helios by a woman named Leucothoe; he joined Jason and the other Argonauts in the quest for the Golden Fleece, kept by King Aeëtes of Colchis, who was himself a son of Helios and thus one of Thersanon's paternal half-brothers.[Hyginus, Fabulae 14.4]
Parentage
Hyginus names Leucothoe as his mother; according to
Ovid, Leucothoe was a mortal princess of
Babylon that Helios fell in love with; but when her
Orchamus discovered the affair thanks to Clytie, he buried Leucothoe alive, and afterwards her dead body was turned into a
Boswellia sacra by Helios.
[Ovid, Metamorphoses 4.192–270][Hard, p. 45][Gantz, p. 34] Hyginus assigning them a son might indicate that he knew a very different version of the myth in which Leucothoe survives, or at least lives long enough to bear a child; alternatively Hyginus is perhaps referring to another woman, such as the sea goddess
Leucothea, whom he elsewhere refers to as "Leucothoe" in the same work.
[Hyginus, Fabulae 125][William Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology Leucothoe]
See also
Footnotes
Bibliography
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Timothy Gantz, Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, Two volumes: (Vol. 1), (Vol. 2).
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Hyginus, Gaius Julius, The Myths of Hyginus. Edited and translated by Mary A. Grant, Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1960.
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Hard, Robin, The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology", Psychology Press, 2004, . Google Books.
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Ovid. Metamorphoses, Volume I: Books 1-8. Translated by Frank Justus Miller. Revised by G. P. Goold. Loeb Classical Library No. 42. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1977, first published 1916.
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Scott Smith R.; Trzaskoma, Stephen M., Apollodorus' Library and Hyginus' Fabulae: Two Handbooks of Greek Mythology, Hackett Publishing Company, Inc, 2007, . Google books.
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Smith, William, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London (1873). Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
