In Greek mythology, Autolycus (/ɔːˈtɒlɪkəs/; Ancient Greek: Αὐτόλυκος Autolykos 'the wolf itself')[1] was a successful robber who had the power to metamorphose or make invisible the things he stole.[2] He had his residence on Mount Parnassus and was renowned among men for his cunning and oaths.
Family
There are a number of different accounts of the birth of Autolycus. According to most, he was the son of Hermes[3] and Chione[4] or Philonis.[5] In Ovid's version, Autolycus was conceived after Hermes had intercourse with the virgin Chione.[6]Pausanias instead states that Autolycus' real father was Daedalion.[7][8] In some accounts, his mother was also called Telauge.[9]
Autolycus obtained most of the same skills that his supposed father Hermes possesses, such as the arts of theft and trickery. It was said that he "loved to make white of black, and black of white, from a hornless animal to a horned one, or from horned one to a hornless". He was given the gift that his thievery could not be caught by anyone.[4][15]
Autolycus, master of thievery, was also well known for stealing Sisyphus' herd right from underneath him – Sisyphus, who was commonly known for being a crafty king that killed guests, seduced his niece and stole his brothers' throne[16] and was banished to the throes of Tartarus by the gods. However, according to other versions of the myth, Autolycus failed to steal Sisyphus' herd and the king banished him from his city.
Heracles, the great Greek hero, was taught the art of wrestling by Autolycus.[17] However, Autolycus was a source of trouble in Heracles' life, because when Autolycus stole some cattle from Euboea and Eurytus, they accused Heracles of the deed; upon going mad from these accusations, Heracles killed them and another one of Eurytus' sons, Iphitus. This led to Heracles serving three years of punishment to repent the deed.[18]
Odysseus' name
Through Anticleia, Autolycus was also the grandfather of the famous warrior Odysseus,[13] and he was responsible for the naming of the child as well. This happened when the nurse of the child Eurycleia "laid the child upon his knees and spoke, and addressed him: Autolycus, find now thyself a name to give to thy child's own child; be sure he has long been prayed for". Then Autolycus answered: "Since I have been angered (ὀδυσσάμενος odyssamenos)[19] with many, both men and women, let the name of the child be Odysseus".[20]
In popular culture
Although not as well known as many other Greek mythological figures, Autolycus has appeared in a number of works of fiction.
A comic thief in Shakespeare'sThe Winter's Tale boasts that he is named after Autolycus and, like the latter's father, Mercury/Hermes, is "a snapper-up of unconsidered trifles".
A column in the Pall Mall Gazette appeared in the 1890s, entitled "The Wares of Autolycus". One of its contributors, Elizabeth Robins Pennell, commented that it was "daily written by women and I daresay believed by us to be the most entertaining array of unconsidered trifles that any Autolycus had ever offered to any eager world"; she compiled her culinary essays as The Feasts of Autolycus: the Diary of a Greedy Woman (1896).[21]
Autolycus appears in Diana Wynne Jones' book The Game as a very mischievous brat.
In the television seriesHercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess, Autolycus appears as a comical antihero, who has a kinder heart than he lets on. He was portrayed by cult actor Bruce Campbell. As the self-proclaimed "King of Thieves", Autolycus is depicted as a thief of great cunning but even greater ego which typically results in him getting in over his head in one scenario after another and even getting caught by Hercules. His wardrobe includes a green tunic, possibly in reference to Robin Hood (also known as a thief, particularly in the title of a film featuring Kevin Costner).
Autolycus appears in an episode of the Canadian television series Class of the Titans episode "Bad Blood" voiced by Joseph May. He was hired by Cronus to steal Hercules' last surviving arrow.
The superhero/trickster figure of Uncle Sam in Robert Coover's The Public Burning (1977, New York, Grove Books) is described in the following terms (p. 7): "American Autolycus, they called him in the Gospels, referring to his cunning powers of conjuration, transmutation, and magical consumption (he can play the shell game, not with a mere pea, but with whole tin mines, forests, oil fields, mountain ranges, and just before Thanksgiving this past year made an entire island disappear!)”.
Autolycus was the pen name Aldous Huxley used when writing the 'Marginalia′ column in the Athenaeum.[22]
In the game Age of Empires Online, there is an army of computer-controlled opponents who call themselves the Followers of Autolycus. They must be defeated during several quests of the Greek civilization.
Series 4, episode 5 of the British television series Father Brown is entitled "The Daughter of Autolycus".
The Blue Guitar (John Banville 2015 novel) begins with the line "Call me Autolycus."
The family of non-tailed dsDNA marine bacteriophages, Autolykiviridae, were named after Autolycus for their elusiveness, which had delayed their discovery (Nature, 2018, doi:10.1038/nature25474).
Autolycus is the playable character of Italiangamebook series Hellas Heroes (Mauro Longo & Francesco di Lazzaro, Edizioni Librarsi), where he is considered the son of Hermes and Chione.
^Wong, Alex. “The Gourmand as Essayist: Irony and Style in the Culinary Essays of Elizabeth Robins Pennell.” Elizabeth Robins Pennell: Critical Essays, edited by Dave Buchanan and Kimberly Morse Jones, Edinburgh University Press, 2021, pp. 153–71, http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctv1hm8htz.13. Accessed 7 May 2022.
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, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
