Pieris (mythology) explained

In Greek mythology, Pieris was one of the names given for the slave who was the mother, by Menelaus, of Megapenthes.^[1] Homer's Odyssey, and the geographer Pausanias, mention that Megapenthes was the illegitimate son of Menelaus, king of Mycenaean Sparta, by a slave, without naming her.^[2] But according to the mythographer Apollodorus:

Menelaus had ... by a female slave Pieris, an Aetolian, or, according to Acusilaus, by Tereis, he had a son Megapenthes"^[3]

Other sources give other names for the slave who bore Megapenthes.^[4]

Notes

1. Fowler, p. 529; Grimal, s.v. Megapenthes 1; Tripp, s.v. Megapenthes (2).
2. Fowler 2013, p. 529; Homer, Odyssey 4.10 - 12; Pausanias, 2.18.6.
3. [Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]
4. Fowler 2013, p. 529.

References

• Apollodorus, Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. . Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Fowler, R. L., Early Greek Mythography: Volume 2: Commentary, Oxford University Press, 2013. .
• Grimal, Pierre, The Dictionary of Classical Mythology, Wiley-Blackwell, 1996. .
• Homer, The Odyssey with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, PH.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1919. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Pausanias, Pausanias Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Tripp, Edward, Crowell's Handbook of Classical Mythology, Thomas Y. Crowell Co; First edition (June 1970). .