Ascalabus

Ascalabus (Ancient Greek: Ἀσκάλαβος), in Greek mythology, was a son of Misme.

Mythology

When Demeter, on her wanderings in search of her daughter Persephone who had been abducted by Hades, came to Misme in Attica, the goddess was received kindly, and being exhausted and thirsty, Misme gave her something to drink (a kykeon). As the goddess emptied the vessel at one draught, Ascalabus laughed at her, and ordered a whole cask to be brought. Demeter, indignant at the boy's conduct, sprinkled the few remaining drops from her vessel upon him and thereby changed him into a gecko.^[1] The tale is preserved in Antoninus Liberalis' Metamorphoses, which cites Nicander's lost Heteroeumena. The tale is also told in Ovid's Metamorphoses,^[2] though Ascalabus and his mother go unnamed: "presumably... to avoid confusion with Ascalaphus".^[3]

In Roman versions of the story, where Demeter is called Ceres, Ascalabus is often named Stellio.

Notes

^ Antoninus Liberalis, 24
^ Ovid, Metamorphoses 5.446 - 461
^ Ovid; Melville, A.D.; Kenney, E.J. (1986). Metamorphoses. Oxford University Press. p. 406. ISBN 9780192816917.

References

Antoninus Liberalis, The Metamorphoses of Antoninus Liberalis translated by Francis Celoria (Routledge 1992). Online version at the Topos Text Project.
Welcker, Das Kunst-Museum zu Bonn, p. 74, &c.
Grant, Michael and Hazel, John, Who's Who In Classical Mythology

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1870). "Ascalabus". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.