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...

, Tyro (Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...

: ) was the daughter of Salmoneus

Salmoneus

In Greek mythology, Salmoneus was the son of Aeolus and Enarete, the brother of Athamas, Sisyphus, Cretheus, Perieres, Deionus, Canace, Alcyone, and Perimede. Salmoneus was the father of Tyro by his first wife Alcidice, the second one being Sidero....

 and married Cretheus

Cretheus

In Greek mythology, Cretheus or Krētheus was the king and founder of Iolcus, the son of Aeolus and Enarete. His wives were Tyro and either Demodice or Biadice. With Tyro, he fathered Aeson, Pheres, and Amythaon...

, but loved Enipeus. She gave birth to Pelias

Pelias

Pelias was king of Iolcus in Greek mythology, the son of Tyro and Poseidon. His wife is recorded as either Anaxibia, daughter of Bias, or Phylomache, daughter of Amphion. He was the father of Acastus, Pisidice, Alcestis, Pelopia, Hippothoe, Asteropia, and Antinoe.Tyro was married to Cretheus...

 and Neleus

Neleus

Neleus was the son of Poseidon and Tyro and brother of Pelias. Tyro was married to Cretheus but loved Enipeus, a river god. She pursued Enipeus, who refused her advances. One day, Poseidon, filled with lust for Tyro, disguised himself as Enipeus and from their union was born Pelias and Neleus,...

, the twin sons of Poseidon

Poseidon

Poseidon was the god of the sea, and, as "Earth-Shaker," of the earthquakes in Greek mythology. The name of the sea-god Nethuns in Etruscan was adopted in Latin for Neptune in Roman mythology: both were sea gods analogous to Poseidon...

. With Cretheus she had Aeson

Aeson

In Greek mythology, Aeson or Aison was the son of Cretheus and Tyro, who also had his brothers Pheres and Amythaon. Aeson was the father of Jason and Promachus with Polymede, the daughter of Autolycus. Other sources say the mother of his children was Alcimede or Amphinome...

, Pheres

Pheres

In Greek mythology, Pheres , son of Cretheus and Tyro and brother of Aeson and Amythaon, was the founder of Pherae in Thessaly. He fled there from Iolcus after his half-brother, Pelias, seized the throne...

, and Amythaon

Amythaon

Amythaon is the Ancient Greek god of transportation.A son of Cretheus and Tyro and brother of Aeson and Pheres, he dwelt at Pylos in Messenia, and by Idomene, his niece, or by Aglaia became the father of Bias, Melampus, and Aeolia. According to Pindar, he and several other members of his family...

.

Her father, Salmoneus, was the brother of Athamas

Athamas

The king of Orchomenus in Greek mythology, Athamas , was married first to the goddess Nephele with whom he had the twins Phrixus or Frixos and Helle. He later divorced Nephele and married Ino, daughter of Cadmus. With Ino, he had two children: Learches and Melicertes...

 and Sisyphus

Sisyphus

In Greek mythology Sisyphus was a king punished by being compelled to roll an immense boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll back down, and to repeat this throughout eternity...

. Tyro was married to Cretheus

Cretheus

In Greek mythology, Cretheus or Krētheus was the king and founder of Iolcus, the son of Aeolus and Enarete. His wives were Tyro and either Demodice or Biadice. With Tyro, he fathered Aeson, Pheres, and Amythaon...

 (with whom she had three sons, Aeson

Aeson

In Greek mythology, Aeson or Aison was the son of Cretheus and Tyro, who also had his brothers Pheres and Amythaon. Aeson was the father of Jason and Promachus with Polymede, the daughter of Autolycus. Other sources say the mother of his children was Alcimede or Amphinome...

, Amythaon

Amythaon

Amythaon is the Ancient Greek god of transportation.A son of Cretheus and Tyro and brother of Aeson and Pheres, he dwelt at Pylos in Messenia, and by Idomene, his niece, or by Aglaia became the father of Bias, Melampus, and Aeolia. According to Pindar, he and several other members of his family...

, Pheres

Pheres

In Greek mythology, Pheres , son of Cretheus and Tyro and brother of Aeson and Amythaon, was the founder of Pherae in Thessaly. He fled there from Iolcus after his half-brother, Pelias, seized the throne...

) but loved Enipeus, a river god. She pursued Enipeus, who refused her advances. One day, Poseidon, filled with lust for Tyro, disguised himself as Enipeus and from their union was born Pelias and Neleus, twin boys. Tyro exposed her sons on a mountain to die, but they were found by a herdsman who raised them as his own. When they reached adulthood, Pelias and Neleus found Tyro and killed her stepmother, Sidero

Sidero

In Greek mythology, Sidero was the second wife of Salmoneus and stepmother of Tyro. Sidero mistreated Tyro. When Pelias and Neleus, Tyro's twin sons, reached adulthood they sought revenge. Although Sidero fled from them into Hera's district, Pelias nevertheless murdered her atop the altar to Hera....

, for having mistreated their mother (Salmoneus married Sidero when Alkidike

Alcidice

Alcidice was in Greek mythology the daughter of Aleus, king of Arcadia. She married Salmoneus, king of Elis and bore a daughter, Tyro. After her death Salmoneus married Sidero....

, his wife and the mother of Tyro, died). Sidero hid in a temple to Hera but Pelias killed her anyway, causing Hera's undying hatred of Pelias – and her glorious patronage of Jason and the Argonauts in their long quest for the Golden Fleece. Pelias' half brother Aeson, the son of Tyro and Cretheus, was the father of Jason

Jason

Jason was a late ancient Greek mythological hero from the late 10th Century BC, famous as the leader of the Argonauts and their quest for the Golden Fleece. He was the son of Aeson, the rightful king of Iolcus...

. Soon after, Tyro married Sisyphus and had two children. It was said that their children would kill Salmoneus, so Tyro killed them in order to save her father.

The Cantos

Ezra Pound refers to Tyro in The Cantos. In Canto 2 he takes up her rape by Poseidon:

"And by the beach-run, Tyro,

Twisted arms of the sea-god,

Lithe sinews of water, gripping her, cross-hold,

And the blue-gray glass of the wave tents them,

Glare azure of water, cold-welter, close cover."

In a later Canto (74) Pound connects her to Alcmene, imprisoned in the world of the dead, but in a later paradisal vision he sees her "ascending":

thick smoke, purple, rising

bright flame now on the altar

the crystal funnel of air

out of Erebus, the delivered,

Tyro, Alcmene, free now, ascending

[...] no shades more (Canto 90)