Battus (mythology)

Battus (means "tongue-tied"^[1]) was a figure in Greek mythology who witnessed Hermes stealing Apollo's cattle in Maenalus in Arcadia.

Hermes turns Butte to stone ." Engraving by Antoine - Jean Duclos of 1767 for Ovid 's Metamorphoses

Hermes gave him a heifer on condition Battus kept the theft secret. On returning in disguise, Hermes offered to reward Battus if he would tell him the location of the cattle; Battus did so, and for his greed was punished by being turned into stone.^[2][3]

Notes

1. Graves, Robert (1960). The Greek Myths. Harmondsworth, London, England: Penguin Books. pp. s.v. Aristaeus. ISBN 978-0143106715.
2. Michael Grant, John Hazel (2004). Who's Who in Classical Mythology (revised ed.). Routledge. p. 97. ISBN 9781134509430.
3. Pierre Grimal (1991). The Penguin Dictionary of Classical Mythology. Penguin Books. p. 72.

References

• Graves, Robert, The Greek Myths, Harmondsworth, London, England, Penguin Books, 1960. ISBN 978-0143106715
• Graves, Robert, The Greek Myths: The Complete and Definitive Edition. Penguin Books Limited. 2017. ISBN 978-0-241-98338-6, 024198338X
• Grimal, Pierre, The Dictionary of Classical Mythology, Wiley-Blackwell, 1996. ISBN 978-0-631-20102-1

Externasl links

• Media related to Battus (mythology) at Wikimedia Commons