Carmanor (of Crete)

This article is about the Cretan priest. For the son of Dionysus, see Carmanor (son of Dionysus).

In Greek mythology, Carmanor or Karmanor (Ancient Greek: Καρμάνωρ Karmánōr) was a Cretan priest who purified Apollo after he killed the Delphic dragon Python.^[1] He was the father of two children: Eubuleus and Chrysothemis, possibly by Demeter. According to Walter Burkert, the name Carmanor "does not appear to be Greek".^[2]

Mythology

According to second-century geographer Pausanias, when Apollo and Artemis had killed Python, the dragon at Delphi, they came to Carmanor in Crete to be purified,^[3] and it was in Carmanor's house in Tarrha that Apollo mated with Acacallis, producing the offspring Phylacides and Philander.^[4]

According to Pausanias, Carmanor had two children: Eubuleus, whose daughter Carme was the mother, by Zeus, of Britomartis,^[5] and the poet Chrysothemis, who was said to have won the victory in the first competition—the singing of a hymn to Apollo—held at the Pythian games at Delphi.^[6] Both children may have been demigods of agriculture and the harvest, with Eubuleus being worshipped alongside Persephone in mystery cults.^[7][8]