Tmolus
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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- For the butterfly genus, see Tmolus (butterfly).
Tmolus was a King of Lydia and husband to Omphale. He is the eponymous namesake of Mount Tmolus (modern Bozdağ), which lies in Lydia with the Lydian capital (later also called Sardis) at its foot and Hypaepa on its southern slope. In Greek mythology he figures as a mountain god, a son of Ares and Theogone and he judged the musical contest between Pan and Apollo.
When Tmolus was gored to death by a bull on the mountain that bears his name, his widow, Omphale, became Queen-regnant of Lydia. Through her, Lydian reign passed into the hands of the Tylonid (Heraclid) dynasty.
The geography of Tmolus and the contest between Pan and Apollo are mentioned in Ovid's Metamorphoses, XI.168.
It has been suggested that there could be another personality named Tmolus, a mythical king of Lydia, a son of Sipylus and Chthonia, and the husband of Plouto and stepfather of Tantalus.
