Adrasteia (mythology)
Adrasteia ( Greek Ἀδράστεια "the inevitable") is a virgin mountain nymph and one of the protectors of the young Zeus in Greek mythology .
myth
Adrasteia and Ide are daughters of Melisseus , the mythical king of Crete . On the orders of the Zeus mother, Rhea , they cared for and protected young Zeus in the Dictaean Cave , which is known today as the Cave of Psychro . They fed him with the milk of the goat Amaltheia (see wet nurses of Zeus ). In Hyginus Mythographus , the names of the daughters are Idothea , Althaea and Adrasta . Adrasteiea and Ida are also names of Rhea herself, who was also called Meter Idaia .
In Apollonius of Rhodes is mentioned that Adrasteia the infant Zeus gave a beautiful toy, a ball ( sphaira ):
You could never get a rounded ball yourself, a more beautiful piece of pleasure from the hand of Hephaestus: The
maturity of gold and belts all around adorn the ball,
everyone is surrounded by a double ring, formed in a circle.
The joints are imperceptibly hidden, a bluish arc
runs through them all, and if you throw the ball with
your hands, it shines through the air with a fiery tail, like a star.
A handy globe with rings corresponding to the (ancient) climatic zones : a toy worthy of a future ruler of the world.
It is believed that Adrasteia was originally a virgin mountain goddess from northwestern Asia Minor similar to Cybele . Her name was presumably not Greek, but would have taken on the meaning of the "inevitable", especially the "inescapable" vengeance and punishment, by adapting it to the Greek, which is why Adrasteia also appears as the nickname of the nemesis and she was later identified speculatively with nemesis.
cult
A temple is said to have been located on the mountain Adrasteia ( Adrasteia oros ) named after her near Kyzikos in Mysia . The mountain is located about 4 km west of today's Bandirma in Turkey. The relationship between the city of Adrasteia, west of the Troas , and the goddess is unclear. According to Strabo, the founder of the sanctuary is said to be an eponymous Adrestus .
In Cirrha , the port of Delphi , Pausanias notes a cult image of Adrasteia. There is also evidence of a cult in Athens.
Other sources
- Callimachus Hymni 1.46
- Plutarch Quaestiones convivales 3,9,2
literature
- Fritz Graf : Adrasteia. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 1, Metzler, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-476-01471-1 , column 129 f.
- Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher: Adrasteia . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 1.1, Leipzig 1886, column 77 ( digitized version ).
- Karl Tümpel : Adrasteia 3 . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume 1, Stuttgart 1893ff., Col. 406-411.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Bibliotheke of Apollodor 1,1,6
- ↑ Hyginus, Fabulae 182
- ↑ Karl Kerényi : The Mythology of the Greeks , Vol. 1, Munich ( dtv ) 1984, p. 76
- ↑ Apollonios of Rhodes Argonautika 3,135-141. Translation by Christian Nathanael by Osiander .
- ↑ Plato 's Phaedrus 248cd. Antimachos of Colophon , fr. 53 Wyss. Orphicorum Fragmenta 54. Ammianus Marcellinus Res gestae (14,11,25)
- ↑ Strabo 12.575 (12.8.11); 13,588 (13,1,13)
- ↑ Pausanias 10:37, 8
- ↑ IG I 3 383,142; see also 369.67