Enorches
Ancient Greek mythological figure
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Enorchus (Ancient Greek: Ἐνόρχης) or Enorches (Enorchês) is a figure from Greek mythology for whom the only surviving sources are scholia on the Alexandra of Lycophron.
According to the scholia, Enorchus was a son of Thyestes by his sister Daeta (or Daesa) and was born out of an egg. He built a temple to Dionysus, which is given as the explanation for the fact that Enorches is also an epithet of Dionysus.[1] According to the scholia it is his epithet at Lesbos,[1] though Hesychius states – without giving a reason or mentioning the son of Thyestes – that the place was Samos.[2][3]
Depiction
Enorchus is possibly represented on an oil jar (lekythos) from around 430–425 BCE. The image depicts an altar on which rests an egg, within which is an infant – naked except for a necklace of amulets – who reaches towards a woman standing to the right as she stares at the altar.[4]
The identification is, however, heavily contested, with Helen of Troy being offered as a more probable identification (the woman thus being Leda).[5] In favour of the identification as Enorchus, Lesley Beaumont points out that the hairstyle of the infant matches the common representation of that of infant boys on red-figure iconography, and Gratia Berger-Doer argues that the amulet necklace around his neck identifies him as a so-called 'temple boy'.[6][4]
Nina Zimmermann-Elseify, however, argues that the fact that this type of figure on oenochoae is usually a male infant can be explained by the painter not having access to a pattern for painting female infants.[5] Lilly Kahil and Noëlle Icard further note that it is more likely to be Helen based on the far greater popularity of the myths surrounding Helen's birth from an egg.[7]