Nikaia (mythology)

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Nikaia ( Greek  Νικαία ) is in Greek mythology a virgin huntress in the wake of Artemis .

She is the daughter of the river god Sangarios and the goddess Cybele . Their hunting grounds were the forests of the Astakian Gulf on the Marmara Sea . Their prey was not deer, roe deer or even hares, but lions and bears. The shepherd Hymnos fell in love with this free and wild woman who lived in a cave and conquered lions with her bare hands . However, the lovesick shepherd did not find fulfillment for his passion in Nikaia, but death. However, he had also asked her to kill him, and so put an end to his love torments. Nikaia complied and shot him with an arrow.

This cold-hearted act angered not only the nymphs and naiads , but also the god Eros , who swore to submit the murdering maiden to the violence of Dionysus , who was in the area at the time and waged war against the Indians.

Dionysus watched Nikaia bathing in a mountain spring and, hit by the arrow of Eros, fell violently in love with Nikaia. But God is also rejected:

If I wished there was a god my husband, I would
Not the effeminate weakling, the unarmed, curly haired
Choose wooing Dionysus, my bridal bed would be Sagittarius
Phoibos as husband or the brazen Ares prepares ...
Nonnos Dionysiaka 16.171ff. German translation by Thassilo von Scheffer

After Dionysus had initially pursued them with languishing love, a nymph pointed out to him that his father would not have long asked Zeus for consent or inclination in his love affairs. So Dionysus changes his approach: when Nikaia drinks thirstily from a forest spring, he turns the water into wine. Nikaia falls drunk into a numb sleep in which she is raped by Dionysus.

When Nikaia wakes up, she realizes what has happened to her and in her desperation tries to kill both Dionysus and herself. Both fail. She leaves the forest in shame and after nine months becomes the mother of Telete ("celebration"), who becomes a tireless dancer in Dionysus' night retinue.

In honor of Nikaias, Dionysus founds the city of Nikäa named after her .

The story of Hymnos and Nikaia is told by Nonnos of Panopolis in the 15th and 16th chants of the Dionysiacs .