In the tales of ancient Greek mythology, curious mention was made by numerous authors to a certain group of mischievous ruffians known as the Cercopes. Their individual names, numbers, appearance, and territory varied from storyteller to storyteller, but all sources agreed that the Cercopes were wicked, treacherous, and generally evil beings. As summarized by the writer, Lucian of Samosata (c. 120-180+), the Cercopes were “notorious for wickedness” (Lucian, Alexander or The False Prophet, section 4). Despite the many variations, the Cercopes were often described as two brothers, and a tradition existed which claimed that they were the demigod sons of the titan, Oceanus. Additionally, they were also frequently described as monkey-men or gnomes. Like with many other ancient myths, the timeline and order of events concerning the Cercopes is convoluted. There are two main chapters in their story—their clash with Heracles and their encounter with Zeus. Heracles’ episode is generally considered to be chronologically first, but the sequence is still debatable.
Heracles, who lived in the times before the famous Trojan War, was described as having encountered Cercopes who were humanoid and had an ability to speak. Ancient authorities on mythology, such as Diodorus Siculus (c. 1st century BCE) and Apollodorus (c. 1st and 2nd century) claimed that the incident took place while Heracles was residing in the lands of Queen Omphale of Lydia. The latter writer stated, “While serving Omphale as a slave, Heracles captured and bound the Cercopes at Ephesus…” (Apollodorus, Library, 2.6.3), while the former stated, “…Heracles, healed now of the disease and serving Omphale as her slave, began to mete out punishment upon the robbers who infested the land. As for the Cercopes, for instance, as they are called, who were robbing and committing many evil acts, some of them he put to death and others he took captive and delivered in chains to Omphale” (Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, 4.31). Accounts such as these portray the Cercopes more as human or humanoid bandits instead of mythical gnomes or monkey men. Whatever their appearance, they were bested by Heracles. According to Apollodorus and Diodorus Siculus, the Cercopes encountered by Heracles were either killed, captured, or a mixture of the two. Other narratives existed, however, which claimed that Heracles found the Cercopes amusing and ultimately let them go.
A famous Roman poet named Ovid (43 BCE-17 CE) was in the camp of ancient authors who believed that the Cercopes survived Heracles. In that poet’s version of events, the Cercopes were still in existence by the later time of the Trojan War and Aeneas’ subsequent odyssey to Italy. As told by Ovid, the Cercopes (or Cercópians) of Aeneas’ era lived at a place called Pithecúsae. It was a name that evoked the idea of an ape, for ape in Greek is πίθηκος (which looks and sounds like píthikos in English transliteration). Ovid mentioned the Cercopes and Pithecúsae in book fourteen of his poetic masterpiece, Metamorphoses. As the title and theme of Ovid’s poetic work hints, the Cercopes in his account had by that point undergone a metamorphosis. Ovid stated:
“Aeneas’ ship was deprived of his helmsman, the drowned Palinúrus,
but soon it was skirting Inárime, Próchyte, past Pithecúsae,
placed on a barren hill and called Apetown from the people
who live there. They’d once been known as Cercópians; later, however,
Jupiter changed them to misshaped creatures, because he detested
their lying, deceitful ways and the treacherous crimes they’d committed.
He wanted them both to be different from men and resemble them too.
So he shortened their limbs and flattened their noses; he furrowed their faces
with elderly wrinkles; he covered their bodies completely in tawny
hair; then he set them to live on this island. But first he denied them
the use of their tongues and words to utter their dreadful perjuries;
all that remained was their power of complaining—in raucous screeches.”
(Ovid, Metamorphoses, book 14, approximately lines 88-100)
In Ovid’s version of the mythology, the Cercopes, after having survived their encounter with Heracles, later went on to draw the ire of the god Jupiter—or Zeus to the Greeks. Ovid’s account states that the general deceitful and treacherous nature of the Cercopes was enough for Zeus to decide to transform them into monkey-men. Other ancient narratives existed, however, that claimed the transformation was inflicted after the Cercopes unwisely played an obscure trick or deception on Zeus. The Cercopes, who were captured, killed, or transformed at the hands of Heracles and Zeus, did not have a pleasant fate.
Written by C. Keith Hansley
Picture Attribution: (Jupiter Changing the Cercopians into Monkeys, by Antonio Tempesta (1555–1630), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons and the MET).
Sources:
- Apollodorus, The Library of Greek Mythology, translated by Robin Hard. New York, Oxford University Press, 1997.
- Lucian, Selected Dialogues, translated by C. D. N. Costa. Oxford: Oxford University Press (Oxford World Classics), 2005, 2006, 2009.
- Metamorphoses by Ovid. Translated by David Raeburn. Penguin Classics; Revised Edition, 2004.
- The Library of History, by Diodorus Siculus, edited by Giles Laurén (Sophron Editor, 2014).
- Theogony and Works and Days by Hesiod, translated by M. L. West. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988, 1999, 2008.
- The Oxford Dictionary of Classical Myth and Religion, edited by Simon Price and Emily Kearns. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
- https://www.theoi.com/Georgikos/Kerkopes.html
- https://www.theoi.com/Gallery/O32.1.html
