Sterope (daughter of Cepheus)
Sterope ( ancient Greek Στερόπη , also asterope ) is a daughter of Cepheus of Tegea in Greek mythology . She may be equated with a daughter of Cepheus named Aërope .
When Cepheus was asked by Heracles to support him against the sons of the Hippocoon , he hesitated for fear that the Argives might attack Tegea in the meantime. Heracles thereupon presented Sterope with a lock of the Gorgon which he had kept in a brazen vessel. In the event that attackers approached the city, she should hold the lock three times from the battlements of the city wall, but avoid looking at the lock. The attackers would then turn to escape.
With Pausanias it was Athena who gave Cepheus some of Medusa's hair . The presentation of the locke by Athena to both Cepheus and Sterope was shown on Tegeatic coins.
literature
- Gustav Türk : Sterope 4 . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 4, Leipzig 1915, column 1501 f. ( Digitized version ).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Pausanias 8, 44, 7–8.
- ↑ Georg Türk: Steropes 4 . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 4, Leipzig 1915, column 1501 f. ( Digitized version ).
- ↑ Libraries of Apollodorus 2, 7, 3; Suidas sv πλόκιον Γοργάδος, handed down there as an asterope.
- ^ Pausanias 8:47, 5.