|
Gorgophone
In Greek mythology, Gorgophone ( grc, Γοργοφόνη "Gorgon-Slayer") was the name of two different women. *Gorgophone, daughter of Perseus. * Gorgophone, a Libyan princess as one of the 50 Danaïdes. She married and murdered Proteus, son of King Aegyptus of Egypt, on their wedding night obeying the command of their father, King Danaus. Her mother was Elephantis and thus full sister of Hypermnestra, who saved her husband Lynceus and became the ancestress of the Argead dynasty.Apollodorus, 2.1.5 Notes References * Apollodorus Apollodorus (Ancient Greek, Greek: Ἀπολλόδωρος ''Apollodoros'') was a popular name in ancient Greece. It is the masculine gender of a noun compounded from Apollo, the deity, and doron, "gift"; that is, "Gift of Apollo." It may refer to: ..., ''The Library'' with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. ISBN 0-674-99135-4On ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gorgophone (Perseid)
In Greek mythology, Gorgophone (Ancient Greek: Γοργοφόνη) was a queen of Messenia and Sparta. Her name means "Gorgon Slayer", a tribute to her father Perseus who killed Medusa, the mortal Gorgon. Biography Gorgophone as one of the Perseids, was the daughter of Perseus and Andromeda. She was the sister of Perses, Alcaeus, Heleus, Mestor, Sthenelus of Mycenae, Electryon, Cynurus and Autochthe. Gorgophone was a prominent figure in the mythical history of Sparta, having been married to two kings, Oebalus of Laconia and Perieres of Messenia, and being considered the first woman to have married twice.Pausanias, ''Graeciae Descriptio'' 2.21.7 After the death of her first husband Perieres by whom she had sons, Aphareus, Leucippus, Tyndareus, Icarius and possibly Pisus, Gorgophone took Oebalus as her second spouse and by him she begat a daughter Arene and some say, of Tyndareus also.Compare Apollodorus, 1.9.5 & 3.10.3 with Pausanias, ''Graeciae Descriptio'' 3.1.4 & 4.2.4 P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Perseus
In Greek mythology, Perseus (Help:IPA/English, /ˈpɜːrsiəs, -sjuːs/; Greek language, Greek: Περσεύς, Romanization of Greek, translit. Perseús) is the legendary founder of Mycenae and of the Perseid dynasty. He was, alongside Cadmus and Bellerophon, the greatest Greek hero and slayer of monsters before the days of Heracles. He beheaded the Gorgon Medusa for Polydectes and saved Andromeda (mythology), Andromeda from the sea monster Cetus (mythology), Cetus. He was the son of Zeus and the mortal Danaë, as well as the half-brother and great-grandfather of Heracles (as they were both children of Zeus, and Heracles' mother was descended from Perseus). Etymology Because of the obscurity of the name "Perseus" and the legendary character of its bearer, most etymologists presume that it might be pre-Greek; however, the name of Perseus's native city was Greek and so were the names of his wife and relatives. There is some idea that it descended into Greek from the Proto-Indo-Eu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Danaïdes
In Greek mythology, the Danaïdes (; el, Δαναΐδες), also Danaides or Danaids, were the fifty daughters of Danaus. In the ''Metamorphoses'', Ovid refers to them as the Belides after their grandfather Belus. They were to marry the 50 sons of Danaus' twin brother Aegyptus, a mythical king of Egypt. In the most common version of the myth, all but one of them killed their husbands on their wedding night, and are condemned to spend eternity carrying water in a sieve or perforated device. In the classical tradition, they came to represent the futility of a repetitive task that can never be completed (see also Sisyphus and Ocnus). Mythology Danaus did not want his daughters to go ahead with the marriages and he fled with them in the first boat to Argos, which is located in Greece near the ancient city of Mycenae. Danaus agreed to the marriage of his daughters only after Aegyptus came to Argos with his fifty sons in order to protect the local population, the Argives, from any ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hypermnestra
Hypermnestra ( grc, Ὑπερμνήστρα, ''Hypermnēstra''), in Greek mythology, was a Libyan princess as one of the 50 Danaids the daughter of King Danaus, son of King Belus of Egypt. Her mother was Elephantis and full sister to Gorgophone. Mythology Hypermnestra's father, Danaus was the twin brother of Aegyptus who demanded the marriage of the Danaids and his 50 sons. But her father Danaus who was unhappy with this kind of arrangement, decided they should flee to Argos where King Pelasgus (Gelanor) ruled. When Aegyptus and his sons arrived to take the Danaides, Danaus gave them to spare the Argives the pain of a battle. However, Danaus instructed Hypermnestra and the other Danaids to kill their husbands on their wedding night. Her forty-nine sisters followed through except her because her husband, Lynceus, honored her wish to remain a virgin. Danaus was angry with this disobedience and threw her to the Argive courts. Aphrodite intervened and saved Hypermnestra. Lynceus later ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greek Mythology
A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the Cosmogony, origin and Cosmology#Metaphysical cosmology, nature of the world, the lives and activities of List of Greek mythological figures, deities, Greek hero cult, heroes, and List of Greek mythological creatures, mythological creatures, and the origins and significance of the ancient Greeks' own cult (religious practice), cult and ritual practices. Modern scholars study the myths to shed light on the religious and political institutions of ancient Greece, and to better understand the nature of myth-making itself. The Greek myths were initially propagated in an oral tradition, oral-poetic tradition most likely by Minoan civilization, Minoan and Mycenaean Greece, Mycenaean singers starting in the 18th century BC; eventually the myths of the heroes of the Trojan War and its after ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)
The ''Bibliotheca'' (Ancient Greek: grc, Βιβλιοθήκη, lit=Library, translit=Bibliothēkē, label=none), also known as the ''Bibliotheca'' of Pseudo-Apollodorus, is a compendium of Greek myths and heroic legends, arranged in three books, generally dated to the first or second century AD. The author was traditionally thought to be Apollodorus of Athens, but that attribution is now regarded as false, and so "Pseudo-" was added to Apollodorus. The ''Bibliotheca'' has been called "the most valuable mythographical work that has come down from ancient times." An epigram recorded by the important intellectual Patriarch Photius I of Constantinople expressed its purpose:Victim of its own suggestions, the epigraph, ironically, does not survive in the manuscripts. For the classic examples of epitomes and encyclopedias substituting in Christian hands for the literature of Classical Antiquity itself, see Isidore of Seville's ''Etymologiae'' and Martianus Capella. It has the follo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ancient Libya
The Latin name ''Libya'' (from Greek Λιβύη: ''Libyē'', which came from Berber: ''Libu'') referred to North Africa during the Iron Age and Classical Antiquity. Berbers occupied the area for thousands of years before the recording of history in ancient Egypt. Climate changes affected the locations of the settlements. More narrowly, ''Libya'' could also refer to the country immediately west of Egypt, viz Marmarica (''Libya Inferior'') and Cyrenaica (''Libya Superior''). The Libyan Sea or ''Mare Libycum'' was the part of the Mediterranean Sea south of Crete, between Cyrene and Alexandria. In the Hellenistic period, the Berbers were known collectively as ''Libyans'', a Greek term for the inhabitants of the Berber world. Their lands were called "Libya" and referred to the known African continent at that time, excluding Sub-Saharan Africa which was known as Aethiopia. Egypt contains the Siwa Oasis, which was part of ancient Libya. The Siwi language, a Berber language, is stil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Proteus
In Greek mythology, Proteus (; Ancient Greek: Πρωτεύς, ''Prōteus'') is an early prophetic sea-god or god of rivers and oceanic bodies of water, one of several deities whom Homer calls the "Old Man of the Sea" ''(hálios gérôn)''. Some who ascribe a specific domain to Proteus call him the god of "elusive sea change", which suggests the constantly changing nature of the sea or the liquid quality of water. He can foretell the future, but, in a mytheme familiar to several cultures, will change his shape to avoid doing so; he answers only to those who are capable of capturing him. From this feature of Proteus comes the adjective protean, meaning "versatile", "mutable", or "capable of assuming many forms". "Protean" has positive connotations of flexibility, versatility and adaptability. Name origin Proteus' name suggests the "first" (from Greek "πρῶτος" ''prōtos'', "first"), as ''prōtogonos'' (πρωτόγονος) is the "primordial" or the "firstborn". It is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aegyptus
In Greek mythology, Aegyptus or Ægyptus (; grc, Αἴγυπτος) was a legendary king of ancient Egypt. He was a descendant of the princess Io through his father Belus, and of the river-god Nilus as both the father of Achiroe, his mother and as a great, great grandfather on his father's side. Family Aegyptos was the son of King Belus of Egypt and Achiroe, a naiad daughter of Nile, or of Sida, eponym of Sidon. He was the twin brother of Danaus, king of Libya while Euripides adds two others, Cepheus, king of Ethiopia and Phineus, betrothed of Andromeda. He may be the same or different from another Aegyptus who was called the son of Zeus and Thebe.Tzetzes on Lycophron, ''Alexandra'' 1206 Aegyptus fathered fifty sons by different women: six of whom by a woman of royal blood called Argyphia; ten by an Arabian woman; seven by a Phoenician woman; three by Tyria; twelve by the naiad Caliadne; six by Gorgo and lastly another six by Hephaestine. According to Hippostra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Danaus
In Greek mythology, Danaus (, ; grc, Δαναός ''Danaós'') was the king of Libya. His myth is a foundation legend of Argos, one of the foremost Mycenaean cities of the Peloponnesus. In Homer's ''Iliad'', "Danaans" ("tribe of Danaus") and "Argives" commonly designate the Greek forces opposed to the Trojans. Family Parents and siblings Danaus, was the son of King Belus of Egypt and the naiad Achiroe, daughter of the river god Nilus, or of Sida, eponym of Sidon. He was the twin brother of Aegyptus, king of Egypt while Euripides adds two others, Cepheus, King of Ethiopia and Phineus, betrothed of Andromeda. Danaides Danaus had fifty daughters, the Danaides, twelve of whom were born to the naiad Polyxo; six to Pieria; two to Elephantis; four to Queen Europa; ten to the hamadryad nymphs Atlanteia and Phoebe; seven to an Ethiopian woman; three to Memphis; two to Herse and lastly four to Crino. According to Hippostratus, Danaus had all these progeny begotten by Europa, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elephantis
Elephantis ( grc, Ἐλεφαντίς) (fl. late 1st century BC) was a Greek poet and physician apparently renowned in the classical world as the author of a notorious sex manual. Due to the popularity of courtesans taking animal names in classical times, it is likely Elephantis is two or more persons of the same name. None of her works have survived, though they are referenced in other ancient texts. Works According to Suetonius in The Twelve Caesars, the Roman Emperor Tiberius took a complete set of her works with him when he retreated to his resort on Capri. One of the poems in the ''Priapeia'' refers to her books: :''Obscenas rigido deo tabellasdicans ex Elephantidos libellisdat donum Lalage rogatque, temptes,si pictas opus edat ad figuras.'' ("Lalage dedicates a votive offering to the God of the erect penis, bringing shameless pictures from the books of Elephantis, and begs him to try and imitate with her the variety of intercourse of the figures in the illustrations.")Tr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
