Itys was the son of King Tereus and Queen Procne, a prince of Athens. He was a descendant of both Zeus and Hephaestus, being the maternal great-grandson of Erichthonius of Athens.
History[]
Sometime after his birth, Philomela, his mothers sister, visited their palace, where she was kidnapped and raped by Tereus. He then cut her tongue off, so that she wouldn't be able to speak of the crime. However, Philomela managed to weave what had happened to a tapestry and gave it to Procne. To take revenge on her husband, Procne killed their son Itys, boiled him and served him as a meal to Tereus. After Tereus had finished, Procne presented the severed head to Tereus, who, enraged, took an axe and started chasing the two sisters. They fled and started praying to the gods, and their prayers were answered them. The three of them were turned into birds; Procne into a nightingale, Philomela into a swallow, and Tereus into a hoopoe.