Iambe in Greek mythology

Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...

 was a Thracian woman, daughter of Pan and Echo

Echo (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Ekho , "echo", itself from ἦχος , "sound") was an Oread who loved her own voice. Zeus loved consorting with beautiful nymphs and visited them on Earth often. Eventually, Zeus's wife, Hera, became suspicious, and came from Mt...

 and a servant of Metaneira, the wife of Hippothoon

Hippothoon

Hippothoon or Hippothous is a figure in Greek mythology, often described as the King of Eleusis after the death of Cercyon; however, Theseus was sometimes said to have taken the throne from Cercyon after his death....

. Others call her a slave of Celeus

Celeus

Celeus or Keleus was the king of Eleusis in Greek mythology, husband of Metaneira and father of several daughters, who are called Callidice, Demo, Cleisidice and Callithoe in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, and Diogeneia, Pammerope and Saesara by Pausanias.In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, Celeus was...

,king of Eleusis. The extravagant hilarity displayed at the festivals of Demeter in Attica was traced to her, for it is said that when Demeter

Demeter

In Greek mythology, Demeter is the goddess of the harvest, who presided over grains, the fertility of the earth, and the seasons . Her common surnames are Sito as the giver of food or corn/grain and Thesmophoros as a mark of the civilized existence of agricultural society...

, in her wanderings in search of her daughter, arrived in Attica, Iambe cheered the mournful goddess with her jokes (Horn. Hymn, in Cer. 202; Apollod. i. 5. § 1; Diod. v. 4; Phot. BibL Cod. 239. p. 319, ed. Bekker; Schol. ad Nicand. Aleodph, 134.) She was believed to have given the name to iambic poetry

Iambus (genre)

Iambus was a genre of ancient Greek poetry that included but was not restricted to the iambic meter and whose origins modern scholars have traced to the cults of Demeter and Dionysus. The genre featured insulting and obscene language...

, for some said that she hanged herself in consequence of the cutting speeches in which she had indulged, and others that she had cheered Demeter by a dance in the Iambic metre. (Eustath. ad Horn. p. 1684.) [L. S.]