Deimos (mythology)

Deimos ( ancient Greek Δεῖμος "horror", Latin terror , also Metus and Formido ) is a daimon of Greek mythology .

Deimos usually appears together with Phobos , "fear". Already in Homer's Iliad , both as retinues of Ares spread fear and terror among the fighters of Troy . Together with Phobos he serves Ares, whom they harness the horses to the chariot. Since Homer makes Phobos son of Ares, it can be assumed that Deimos was also Ares' son for Homer. For Hesiod they are together sons of Ares and Aphrodite , whom he calls Kythereia. In the Dionysiacs of the Nonnos of Panopolis , both are sons of Enyalios , an Epiklesis des Ares who is also venerated as an independent deity . They appear here not only as charioteers and companions of Ares in the fight against Dionysus , but also as assistants of Zeus , who lets them compete in his second fight against Typhon , equipping Phobos with the lightning bolt and Deimos with the thunderbolt. The Suda , a Byzantine lexicon that was probably created in the 10th century , names Deimos and Phobos together with Kydoimos , the daimon of hand-to-hand combat, sons of polemos , i.e. of war, and companions of Ares. According to Suda, they suffered the same fate as Ares, who tried to bring Hephaestus back to Olympus by force so that he could free Hera from her bondage on the throne. Unimpressed, Hephaestus chased the god of war away with firebrands. According Semo Delos Deimos was the father of Scylla , which he with the Krataiis , one of Hecate related, urgewaltigen demonic power, begat.

The around 400 BC Acting poet Antimachos von Kolophon counted Deimos as well as Phobos to the four fire-snorting horses of Ares, probably as a result of a misinterpretation of the carriage scene by Homer. Also in the Argonautica of Valerius Flaccus are terror and Pavor, the Roman translations of Deimos and Phobos, the horses of the Roman god of war Mars (Martis equi) .

In the Iliad , Deimos was shown together with Phobos on the shield of Agamemnon and the shield of Heracles also showed both of them standing next to Ares on the chariot. In Quintus of Smyrna finally decorate next Enyo ( "melee") and Eris ( "Dispute") the shield of Achilles . In contrast to those of Phobos, no representations that can be identified as Deimos are known from ancient art.

After the companions of Ares, to whom the god Mars corresponds in Roman mythology, the moons of the planet Mars were named Deimos and Phobos .

literature

• Otto Crusius : Deimos . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 1,1, Leipzig 1886, column 979 ( digitized version ).
• Otto Waser : Deimos. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume IV, 2, Stuttgart 1901, Col. 2385 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Hans von Geisau : Deimos. In: The Little Pauly (KlP). Volume 1, Stuttgart 1964, column 1426.

Web links

• Deimos in the Theoi Project (English)

Remarks

1. ↑ Homer, Iliad 4,440 ( Memento April 7, 2016 in the Internet Archive ).
2. ↑ Homer, Iliad 15,119 f.
3. ↑ Homer, Iliad 13,299 ( Memento April 7, 2016 in the Internet Archive ).
4. ↑ Hesiod, Theogony 934 ; Scholien zu Homer, Iliad 4,439,440; 15.119.
5. ↑ Nonnos, Dionysiaka 29,364 ff.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
6. ↑ Nonnos, Dionysiaka 27,335 ff.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
7. ↑ Nonnos, Dionysiaka 32, 175.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
8. ↑ Nonnos, Dionysiaka 2,414 ff.
9. ↑ Suda , keyword Δεῖμος , Adler number: delta 327 , Suda-Online .
10. ↑ Scholion zu Homer, Odyssey 12,124 (= FGrH 396 F 22).
11. ↑ Scholion to Homer, Iliad 4,439.
12. ↑ Valerius Flaccus 3.89.
13. ↑ Homer, Iliad 11:37. ( Memento from May 31, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
14. ↑ Hesiod, The Shield of Heracles 191–195.
15. ↑ Quintus of Smyrna 5:27 ff.
16. ^ Harvey Alan Shapiro: Personifications in Greek art. The representation of abstract concepts, 600-400 BC Akanthus, Zurich 1993, p. 208.