Aidos

Aidos ( Greek  Αἰδώς aidós "shy, modesty") is shame personified in Greek mythology . According to Pindar , she is the daughter of Prometheus . The concept of aidos is complex and still controversial in classical philology . She is closely connected to the goddess of revenge, Nemesis . According to Hesiod , Aidos and Nemesis are the last of the gods to leave the depraved human race of the Iron Age . With Plato , Zeus sends Aidos together with Dike (“justice”) to the people in order to enable them to live together in a decent manner.

Sophocles calls her in his drama Oedipus auf Kolonos "who sits next to Zeus on the throne" ( σύνθακος Ζηνί θρόνων ). Euripides even calls her “mistress, mistress” (πότνια), which she should perhaps approximate to the goddess Artemis in her capacity as “shy, shameful” (αιδοίη).

She is also passed down as a wet nurse of Athena . As such, she had an altar near the ancient Temple of Athena on the Acropolis of Athens , in Sparta there was an old cult image consecrated to her by Ikarios , and two sanctuaries in Rome were dedicated to her.

literature

• Douglas L. Cairns, Aidos: The Psychology and Ethics of Honor and Shame in Ancient Greek Literature , Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1992.
• Felix Eckstein :  Aidos . In: Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC). Volume I, Zurich / Munich 1981, pp. 351–353.
• Wolfgang Fauth : Aidos. In: The Little Pauly (KlP). Volume 1, Stuttgart 1964, Col. 154 f.
• Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher: Aidos . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 1,1, Leipzig 1886, column 139 ( digitized version ).
• Rudolf Schultz: Aidos. Dissertation, Rostock 1909
• M. Scott: Aidos and Nemesis in the works of Homer and their relevance to social and co-operative values. In: Acta Classica 23, 1980, pp. 13-35
• Konrad Wernicke : Aidos . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume I, 1, Stuttgart 1893, Col. 942.

Web links

• Aidos in the Theoi Project

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Pindar Olympien 7, 44 ff.
2. ↑ Homer Iliad 13: 121-122.
3. ↑ Hesiod's works and days 200.
4. ↑ Plato Protagoras 322c.
5. ↑ Sophocles Oedipus on Colonus 1267.
6. ↑ Euripides Iphigenia in Aulis 821 and rfg. 436N.
7. ↑ Schol. Aeschylus , Prometheus 12.
8. ↑ Pausania's description of Greece 1, 17, 1; Hesych. sv Αἰδοῦς βωμός; See CIA III 367
9. ↑ Pausania's description of Greece 3, 20, 10.