Progne

Family: Athens · Role: wife of Tereus · First appears: Fable 59

Progne, daughter of Pandion, married Tereus under ominous signs, and she and Tereus became parents to Itys. When Tereus returned and falsely told her that her sister Philomela had died, Progne believed him, then silently began planning revenge.

In fable 60, Progne broke into Philomela’s dwelling, seized her and brought her home. Together they killed Itys and dismembered his body; Progne served his remains to Tereus at a banquet. “Thou hast within {thee}, that for which thou art asking,” she told him, revealing what he had eaten, while Philomela displayed Itys’s bloody head. As Progne fled Tereus’s fury, she was transformed into a swallow.