Philomela, daughter of Pandion, king of Athens, and sister of Progne; she was the victim of an outrage committed by her brother-in-law Tereus, who cut out her tongue to prevent her exposing him, and kept her in close confinement; here she found means of communicating with her sister, when the two, to avenge the wrong, made away with Itys, Tereus' son, and served him up to his father at a banquet; the fury of Tereus on the discovery knew no bounds, but they escaped his vengeance, Philomela by being changed into a nightingale and Progne into a swallow.