Itys in the context of "Philomela"

In Greek mythology, Tereus (/ˈtɛriəs, ˈtɪərjuːs/; Ancient Greek: Τηρεύς) was a Thracian king, the son of Ares and the naiad Bistonis. He was the brother of Dryas. Tereus was the husband of the Athenian princess Procne and the father of Itys.

Procne (/ˈprɒkni/; Ancient Greek: Πρόκνη, Próknē [pró.knɛː]) or Progne is a minor figure in Greek and Roman mythology. Traditionally she is an Athenian princess as the elder daughter of a king of Athens named Pandion. Procne was married to the king of Thrace, Tereus, who instead lusted after her sister Philomela. Tereus forced himself on Philomela and locked her away. When Procne discovered her sister and her gruesome fate, she took revenge against her husband by murdering their only child, a young boy named Itys. Procne's story serves as an origin myth for the nightingale, a singing bird whose melodic song was believed to be a sad lament.

Procne's mythological doublet is Aëdon, the queen of Thebes who also turned into a nightingale after killing her only son. Procne's origins seem to lie in earlier traditions about the nightingale and its sorrowful song before the definitive version of her tale was probably codified during the fifth century BC in the now lost play Tereus by the Athenian tragedian Sophocles, whose initial popularity eclipsed the prior story with Aëdon. However, Procne's myth became widely known in the post-classical era due to its inclusion in Ovid's Metamorphoses, a narrative poem that went on to influence a great number of artists and authors in the western canon.