‘Apollonius of Tyre’

Medieval tale, supposedly of Greek origin. Apollonius of Tyre reveals the incest of King Antiochus with his daughter and flees from Antioch, returning after the king's death. On the voyage his wife apparently dies when giving birth to his daughter. She is thrown overboard and the daughter is left at Tarsus. The three are eventually reunited.

The story, first mentioned towards the end of the 6th century, was universally popular during the Middle Ages. John Gower's Confessio Amantis (1390) incorporated it, and Shakespeare used it in Pericles (1608–09).