ByblisCaunus1.0000_OGCMA

Byblis and Caunus.
Daughter and son of Miletus and great-grandchildren of the Cretan king Minos. Byblis was passionately attracted to her twin brother, Caunus; when she confessed her love to him, he fled in horror to Lycia. Byblis went in search of him, wandering through many lands, until at last she was turned by nymphs into a fountain of her own tears. In another account, Caunus returned Byblis’s love but then left her, whereupon she hanged herself with her girdle.
The Phoenician city of Byblos (Jubayl) was said to have been named for Byblis. This minor mythological tale is more commonly a theme of literature and the stage than of the visual arts.

Classical Sources. Ovid, Metamorphoses 9.451-665. Hyginus, Fabulae 243.

OGCMA slides are designed by Roger T. Macfarlane for use in Classical Civilization 241 courses at Brigham Young University.
The present resource contains information assembled for The Oxford Guide to Classical Mythology in the Arts, 1300 - 1990's, edited by J. Davidson Reid (Oxford 1994), and it is used with express permission from Oxford University press.
Address concerns or inquiries to macfarlane@byu.edu.