In Classical
Greek mythology
Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories conc ...
, Taygete
, , ) was a
nymph
A nymph (; ; sometimes spelled nymphe) is a minor female nature deity in ancient Greek folklore. Distinct from other Greek goddesses, nymphs are generally regarded as personifications of nature; they are typically tied to a specific place, land ...
, one of the
Pleiades
The Pleiades (), also known as Seven Sisters and Messier 45 (M45), is an Asterism (astronomy), asterism of an open cluster, open star cluster containing young Stellar classification#Class B, B-type stars in the northwest of the constellation Tau ...
according to the ''
Bibliotheca'' (3.10.1) and a companion of
Artemis
In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, Artemis (; ) is the goddess of the hunting, hunt, the wilderness, wild animals, transitions, nature, vegetation, childbirth, Kourotrophos, care of children, and chastity. In later tim ...
, in her archaic role as ''
potnia theron
The ''Potnia Theron'' (, ) or Mistress of Animals is a widespread motif in ancient art from the Mediterranean world and the ancient Near East, showing a central human, or human-like, female figure who grasps two animals, one to each side. Alth ...
'', "Mistress of the animals", with its likely roots in prehistory.
Mount Taygetos in
Laconia
Laconia or Lakonia (, , ) is a historical and Administrative regions of Greece, administrative region of Greece located on the southeastern part of the Peloponnese peninsula. Its administrative capital is Sparti (municipality), Sparta. The word ...
, dedicated to the goddess, was her haunt.
The
Taygetus
The Taygetus, Taugetus, Taygetos or Taÿgetus () is a mountain range on the Peloponnese peninsula in Southern Greece. The highest mountain of the range is Mount Taygetus, also known as "Profitis Ilias", or "Prophet Elias" (Elijah).
The name is o ...
mountain on the
Peloponnese
The Peloponnese ( ), Peloponnesus ( ; , ) or Morea (; ) is a peninsula and geographic region in Southern Greece, and the southernmost region of the Balkans. It is connected to the central part of the country by the Isthmus of Corinth land bridg ...
was named after her.
Mythology
As he mastered each of the local nymphs one by one, Olympic Zeus pursued Taygete, who invoked her protectress Artemis. The goddess turned Taygete into a
doe with golden horns, any distinction between the
Titan
Titan most often refers to:
* Titan (moon), the largest moon of Saturn
* Titans, a race of deities in Greek mythology
Titan or Titans may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment
Fictional entities
Fictional locations
* Titan in fiction, fictiona ...
ess in her human form and in her doe form is blurred: the nymph who hunted the doe in the company of Artemis ''is'' the doe herself. As
Pindar
Pindar (; ; ; ) was an Greek lyric, Ancient Greek lyric poet from Thebes, Greece, Thebes. Of the Western canon, canonical nine lyric poets of ancient Greece, his work is the best preserved. Quintilian wrote, "Of the nine lyric poets, Pindar i ...
conceived the
myth-element in his third Olympian Ode, "the doe with the golden horns, which once Taygete had inscribed as a sacred dedication to
Artemis Orthosia", ("right-minded" Artemis) was the very
Ceryneian Hind that
Heracles
Heracles ( ; ), born Alcaeus (, ''Alkaios'') or Alcides (, ''Alkeidēs''), was a Divinity, divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of ZeusApollodorus1.9.16/ref> and Alcmene, and the foster son of Amphitryon.By his adoptive descent through ...
later pursued. For the poet, the transformation was incomplete, and the doe-form had become an offering. Pindar, who was a very knowledgeable mythographer, hints that the mythic doe, even when slain and offered to Artemis, also ''continues to exist'', to be hunted once again (although not killed) by Heracles at a later time.
Karl Kerenyi Karl may refer to:
People
* Karl (given name), including a list of people and characters with the name
* Karl der Große, commonly known in English as Charlemagne
* Karl of Austria, last Austrian Emperor
* Karl (footballer) (born 1993), Karl Cac ...
points out (''The Heroes of the Greeks'') "It is not easy to differentiate between the divine beast, the heroine and the goddess".
According to
Pausanias (3.1.2, etc.) Taygete conceived
Lacedaemon
Sparta was a prominent city-state in Laconia in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (), while the name Sparta referred to its main settlement in the valley of Evrotas river in Laconia, in southeastern Pe ...
, the mythical founder of Sparta, through Zeus, and
Eurotas
In Greek mythology, Eurotas (; Ancient Greek: Εὐρώτας) was a king of Laconia. Family
Eurotas was the son of King Myles of Laconia and grandson of Lelex, eponymous ancestor of the Leleges. The ''Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus), Bibliothe ...
. Pausanias noted, at
Amyclae
Amyclae or Amyklai () was a city of ancient Laconia, situated on the right or western bank of the Eurotas, 20 stadia south of Sparta, in a district remarkable for the abundance of its trees and its fertility. Amyclae was one of the most celebr ...
, that the rape of Taygete was represented on the throne.
According to
Pseudo-Plutarch Pseudo-Plutarch is the conventional name given to the actual, but unknown, authors of a number of pseudepigrapha (falsely attributed works) attributed to Plutarch but now known not to have been written by him.
Some of these works were included in s ...
, Taygete was the wife of Lacedaemon, sometimes referred to as
Sparta
Sparta was a prominent city-state in Laconia in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (), while the name Sparta referred to its main settlement in the Evrotas Valley, valley of Evrotas (river), Evrotas rive ...
, whose name was given to the city of Sparta. Their son was named
Himerus.
In a rare variant of the myth, Taygete was called the daughter of
Agenor
Agenor (; ) was in Greek mythology and history a Phoenician monarch, king of Tyre, Lebanon, Tyre or Sidon. The Greeks, Greek historian Herodotus (c. 484–425 BC), born in the city of Halicarnassus under the Achaemenid Empire, estimated that Agen ...
.
Dictys Cretensis
Dictys Cretensis, i.e. Dictys of Crete (, ; ) of Knossos was a legendary companion of Idomeneus during the Trojan War, and the purported author of a diary of its events, that deployed some of the same materials worked up by Homer for the ''Iliad'' ...
, 1.9
Notes
References
*Ruck, Carl A.P., and Danny Staples, 1994. ''The World of Classical Myth'' (Carolina Academic Press)
*
Harry Thurston Peck
Harry Thurston Peck (November 24, 1856 – March 23, 1914) was an American classical scholar, author, editor, historian and critic.
Biography
Peck was born in Stamford, Connecticut. He was educated in private schools and at Columbia College, gr ...
, ''Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities'', 1898
Online version at the Perseus Digital Library "Taygete"
*Robbins, Emmet. "Heracles, the Hyperboreans, and the Hind: Pindar, "OL. 3", ''Phoenix'' 36.4 (Winter 1982), pp. 295–305.
External links
*
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Pleiades (Greek mythology)
Women in Greek mythology
Mythological Arcadians
Retinue of Artemis
Deeds of Artemis
Divine women of Zeus
Metamorphoses into animals in Greek mythology
Mythological deer
Laconian mythology