Busiris (king of Egypt)

In Greek mythology, Busiris (Ancient Greek: Βούσιρις) was an Egyptian king who was killed by Heracles. It may also refer to the Greek name of a place in Egypt, which in Egyptian was named pr-wsjr "Temple of Osiris" but had the civil name of ḏdw (pronounced Djedu). The location was an important necropolis and a centre for the cult of Osiris, hence name Busiris. The word Busiris was also used to refer to chief god of Busiris, an attribute of Osiris.

Heracles killing Busiris and his suitors, Attic red-figure hydria, ca. 480 BC, Staatliche Antikensammlungen (Inv. 2428)

Biography

Isocrates, in his witty declamation Busiris recounts "the false tale of Heracles and Busiris" (11.30–11.40), which was a comic subject represented almost entirely in the repertory of early 5th century BC Athenian vase-painters:[1] the theme has a narrow narrative range, according to Niall Livingstone: Heracles being led to sacrifice; his escape; the killing of Busiris; the rout of his entourage.[2]

In Isocrates' rhetorical use of a theme that he considers unworthy of serious treatment,[3] the villainous king of Egypt named Busiris, a son of Poseidon and Libya or Lysianassa,[4] was the ancient founder of Egyptian civilization, with an imagined "model constitution" that Isocrates sets up as a parodic contrast to the Republic by Plato. Plutarch says that his mother is Anippe,[5] daughter of the river-god Nilus.[6] The monstrous Busiris sacrificed all visitors to his gods. Heracles defied him, broke his shackles at the last minute and killed Busiris.

In Diodorus Siculus, Busiris appears as the founder of the line of kings at Thebes, which historically would have been the 11th Dynasty.

According to Hyginus, Busiris was the father of Melite who became the mother of Metus by her grandfather Poseidon.[7]

This part of the mythology concerning Herakles appears to have origins in a corruption of an Egyptian myth concerning Osiris' sacrifice by Set, and subsequent resurrection (see Legend of Osiris and Isis).

The fictional king Busiris also appears, as the leader of a revolt, in True History (2.23) by Lucian, written in the 2nd century CE.

In Paradise Lost, John Milton uses "Busiris" as the name of the Pharaoh of the Exodus, which suggests a comparison between Heracles' escape and the Israelites' escape from slavery.[8]

Notes
  1. And in Magna Graecia, according to Livingstone, who notes that there are no vase-paintings of this subject in mainland Greece aside from Athens; for another comic episode, compare the mytheme of Heracles and the Cercopes.
  2. Livingstone 2001:87.
  3. Niall Livingstone surveys the sketchy previous literary references.
  4. Pseudo-Apollodorus, Library, 2.5.11, (Theoi Project).
  5. Anippe plays no other role in Greek mythology.
  6. According to a fragment of Pherecydes; In Isocates, Busiris 10, a genealogy that adds Libye for mother may be invented, Niall Livingstone suggests (2001:86), as part of Isocrates' mock encomium.
  7. Hyginus. Fabulae, 157
  8. John Milton, Paradise Lost, I.306-307, in The Complete Poetry of John Milton, ed. John T. Shawcross, rev. ed. (New York: Doubleday, 1971), 259: "whose waves orethrew / Busiris and his Memphian Chivalry."

Further reading
  • Livingstone, Niall "A Commentary on Isocrates' Busiris" (Brill) 2001. The first scholarly commentary devoted to Busiris.
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