~angel

Ramblings from the tilde

Women of Lemnos

When the Argonauts arrived on a humid and sunny day to the island of Λημνος (Lemnos), they found it a desolate place: no males were to be found. Jason and his companions were informed that the women of Lemnos had killed all of them; fathers, husbands, sons. Some time ago, a strange frenzy had motivated all males to travel to Thrace, abduct women from there, make them their spouses and bring them back to the island; the massive killing was one of anger and jealousy and outrage. Jason, after begging for an elaboration on the cause of that frenzy, was told that the men of Lemnos had accused all women of heresy because of an awful smell emanating from their private parts. Finally Hypsipyle, queen of Lemnos, explained that the hideous odor were given as a curse to women by the anger of Aphrodite, offended by their lack of offerings and worshiping. The Argonauts stayed in the island for a long time (even years, according to some sources) and cohabited with the women of Lemnos; we can only guess that by then the bad smell was gone or that it was not that awful after all.

There is an apocryphal saying that the women of Lemnos stopped worshiping Aphrodite because they were dreaming about a bunch of handsome men on a fancy boat that were to arrive to the island on a humid and sunny day.