Charnabon

In the fragmentary Eleusinian/Triptolemus tradition preserved in Sophocles' fragments and summarized by later authors (notably Hyginus), Triptolemus travels under divine commission to spread agriculture. Charnabon is named as a king of the Getae in Thrace who received Triptolemus hospitably at first, then treacherously seized him and attempted to kill him. One of the serpents/dragons that pulled Triptolemus's chariot had been slain by Charnabon, preventing immediate escape. Demeter intervened, restoring the chariot by substituting another dragon and making Charnabon's remaining life unbearable; after his death she caused him to be placed among the stars as the constellation Ophiuchus as a memorial and punishment. The name appears in Greek as Χαρναβών (genitive Χαρναβώντος) and in Latin summaries as Carnabon.

Sources present Charnabon as a human monarch in the narrative accounts; no detailed physical description of his person survives. Mythic tradition reports that after his death Demeter fixed him in the sky as the constellation Ophiuchus, represented in astronomical lore as a man with a serpent entwined around him or a man holding a serpent — a postural image tied to the story of his attack on Triptolemus and the slaying of one of the chariot serpents.

The surviving sources portray Charnabon as a mortal king whose notable actions are human and political: he seized Triptolemus, attempted to kill him, and had killed one of the dragons/serpents that pulled Triptolemus's chariot. The narrative emphasizes that these human acts provoked direct divine intervention by Demeter; the sources do not attribute intrinsic supernatural powers to Charnabon himself.