Lyssa (mythology)

Lyssa ( ancient Greek Λύσσα , in the Attic dialect Lytta , Λύττα ) is the embodiment of madness in Greek mythology , especially furious frenzy.

Her Greek name (as well as the names of her Roman version Ira , Furor and Rabies ) means "anger", in Greek especially " rabies ". This disease is referred to in medical terminology to this day by the Latin or Greek name of the goddess. Lyssa appears as an allegorical figure in several classical dramas. Lyssa's personifications on crater paintings show her as a huntress with animal skins, also with dog attributes. It resembles the Erinyes and Maenads without being closely associated with them.

Transferred to the Battlelust especially Hector and Apollo the word already appears in the Iliad . Another transmission is sometimes directed in the direction of “maddening love”, so Sophocles even uses “Lyssa” as a nickname for Kypris .

Lyssa appears in her capacity as the messenger of the "dog fury" in the myth of the death of Aktaion , which his own dogs tear up, which has been depicted many times since the 6th century . As the dramatis persona of tragedy poetry , Lyssa has played an important role since the beginning of the 5th century. In Aeschylus ' Xantriai ( Die Wollkremplerinnen ) she incites the maenads , possibly to kill Pentheus '; in Euripides' tragedy “The maddening Heracles” she appears in dialogue with Iris , expressing concerns about Heras's orders. The poet calls her a daughter of Nyx and the blood that was shed during the castration of Uranus .

Individual evidence

↑ Homer , Ilias 9, 239, 304f .; 21, 540f. Hector is also called an "angry dog" in 8, 299.
↑ Ralf Krumeich : Visual Commentaries on Greek Dramas? Theater pictures on Attic and Lower Italian symposium vessels from the late Archaic and Classical times . In: Wilhelm Geerlings , Christian Schulze (ed.): The commentary in antiquity and the Middle Ages: new contributions to his research . Brill, Leiden 2004, p. 54.
^ Bernhard Zimmermann , Anne Schlichtmann (ed.): Handbook of Greek literature in antiquity. First volume: The literature of the archaic and classical times. Beck, Munich 2011, p. 570.

literature

Johanna Schmidt: Lyssa. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume XIV, 1, Stuttgart 1928, Col. 69-71.
Anneliese Kossatz-Deissmann: Lyssa . In: Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC). Volume 000006VI, Zurich / Munich 1992, pp. 322–323.
Katharina Waldner: Lyssa. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 7, Metzler, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-476-01477-0 , column 612 f.

Web links

Lyssa at theoi.com , accessed January 29, 2014

[1] Homer , Ilias 9, 239, 304f .; 21, 540f. Hector is also called an "angry dog" in 8, 299.

[2] Ralf Krumeich : Visual Commentaries on Greek Dramas? Theater pictures on Attic and Lower Italian symposium vessels from the late Archaic and Classical times . In: Wilhelm Geerlings , Christian Schulze (ed.): The commentary in antiquity and the Middle Ages: new contributions to his research . Brill, Leiden 2004, p. 54.

[3] Bernhard Zimmermann , Anne Schlichtmann (ed.): Handbook of Greek literature in antiquity. First volume: The literature of the archaic and classical times. Beck, Munich 2011, p. 570.