Kerasten

The Kerasten ( Greek Κερασταί, Latin Cerastae: "the horned") are mythical inhabitants of the city of Amathus on Cyprus . They have two horns on their foreheads; with them stood an altar of Jupiter , who protects the hospitality on which they had killed a stranger. The goddess Venus , native to Cyprus, sees her homeland polluted and transforms the Kerasten into scowling bulls as punishment.

Their wicked female counterparts are the propoetids .

Remarks

1. ↑ Johannes Siebelis: Dictionary on Ovid's Metamorphoses . Leipzig 1893, p. 56: "But the island of Cyprus is said to have been called Cerastis (κεραστίς the horned) because of its many promontories."
2. ↑ Iuppiter Hospes, Greek Ζεὺς ξένιος
3. ↑ Ovid , Metamorphoses 10.220-237