mythology aesthetics
MUNICHUS, LELANTE, PHILAEUS, ALCANDER, MEGALETOR, & HYPERIPPE
In Greek mythology, Munichus was a king of the Molossians and a seer. Lelante was his wife, and they had three sons, Philaeus, Alcander and Megaletor, and a daughter Hyperippe. Of them Alcander excelled his father in prophetic abilities. The family were just and righteous and therefore especially favored by the gods. One day, raiders attacked them in the fields; the family ran off to their house and began to throw various objects at them in self-defense, whereupon the offenders set fire to the house. To save them, Zeus changed them all into birds: Munichus into a buzzard, Lelante into a woodpecker, Alcander into a wren, Hyperippe into a loon, Megaletor into an "ichneumon", and Philaeus into a "dog-bird".