Idol of a Rooster - Attica, Athens - 650 BC - Alectryon's Myth - Miniature - Museum Reproduction - Ceramic Artifact

Item Specifics

Condition: New, Handmade in Greece.
Height: 8,5 cm - 3,3 inches
Width: 7,5 cm - 3 inches
Length: 3,5 cm - 1,4 inches
Weight: 85 g

Alectryon, in Greek mythology, was a young soldier who was assigned by Ares to stand guard outside his door while the god indulged in a love affair with Aphrodite. He fell asleep on guard duty and the sun-god, Helios, discovered them the following morning. Helios then alerted Hephaestus, Aphrodite's husband, to the actions of the two, prompting Hephaestus to create a net to ensnare and shame them. Furious, Ares punished Alectryon by turning him into a rooster which never forgets to announce the arrival of the sun in the morning by its crowing. He thus became the god of chickens and roosters, looking after them for all eternity.
According to Lucian, Alectryon was said to have been 'an adolescent boy, beloved of Ares, who kept company with the god at drinking parties, caroused with him, and was his companion in lovemaking'.