Acontius and Cydippe (Callimachus)

Catalogue ID: 05-local-and-lesser/018-acontius-cydippe-callimachus

Cycle: Local and lesser — Cean / Delian

Version line: Callimachean (*Aetia*); Aristaenetus and Ovid *Heroides* 20–21 as later expansions

Sources: Callimachus, *Aetia* frr. 67–75 Pf.; cf. Aristaenetus 1.10; Ovid, *Heroides* 20–21 (**Roman** epistolary elaboration)

Source file: /workspace/greek-myth-catalogue/05-local-and-lesser/018-acontius-cydippe-callimachus.md

Characters

Acontius — Cean youth; loves Cydippe; tricks her with the inscribed apple
Artemis — goddess of the Delian festival; enforcer of the oath
Cydippe — Naxian (or Attic) maiden; reads the oath aloud; falls ill until she weds Acontius
Cydippe’s parents — arrange a rival betrothal; yield to the oracle
Rival bridegroom — displaced by the divine verdict

Places

Ceos — Acontius’s home; aetion of local families
Mount Helicon — oracle that clears the path to marriage
Naxos — Cydippe’s origin in variants
Ortygia — Artemis’s festival; apple oath

Themes

Narrative

Acontius of Ceos, of the house of Codrus’s line in some notices, saw Cydippe of Naxos (or Athens in variants) at a Delian festival of Artemis and loved her at once. He inscribed on an apple (or quince) the words: “I swear by Artemis to marry Acontius”—and rolled or tossed the fruit into her path. Cydippe picked it up and read the inscription aloud, as one did with writing; by speaking she swore the oath unwittingly. Her parents betrothed her to another. Each time the wedding approached, she fell dangerously ill; the marriage could not be completed. The family sent to Delphi (or Apollo’s oracle intervened). The god revealed Artemis’s anger at the broken oath sworn in her name. Cydippe was given to Acontius; the illness ceased. Callimachus’s *Aetia* treats the tale as an origin-story of Cean family rites and of Artemis’s jealous guard over spoken vows. The myth hinges on the power of the spoken word, the trick of the inscribed fruit, and Delian Artemis as witness.