Alastor

Alastor (/əˈlæstər, -tɔːr/; Ancient Greek: Ἀλάστωρ, English translation: "avenger") refers to a number of people and concepts in Greek mythology:^[1]

Alastor, an epithet of the Greek god Zeus, according to Hesychius of Alexandria and the Etymologicum Magnum, which described him as the avenger of evil deeds, specifically familial bloodshed. As the personification of a curse, it was also a sidekick of the Erinyes.^[2] The name is also used, especially by the tragic writers, to designate any deity or demon who avenges wrongs committed by men.^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6]^[7] In Euripides' play Electra, Orestes questions an oracle who calls upon him to kill his mother, and wonders if the oracle was not from Apollo, but some malicious alastor.^[8] There was an altar to Zeus Alastor just outside the city walls of Thasos.^[9]
- By the time of the 4th century BC, alastor in Greek had degraded to a generic type of insult, with the approximate meaning of "scoundrel".^[2]
Alastor, son of Neleus and Chloris. When Heracles took Pylos, he killed Alastor and his brothers, except for Nestor.^[10]^[11] According to Parthenius of Nicaea, he was to be married to Harpalyce, who, however, was taken from him by her father Clymenus.^[12]
Alastor, a Lycian, who was a companion of Sarpedon, and was slain by Odysseus.^[13]^[14]
- Alastorides is a patronymic form given by Homer to Tros, who was probably a son of the Lycian Alastor mentioned above.^[15]
Another, unrelated Alastor is mentioned in the Iliad of Homer.^[16]
Alastor, a black horse belonging to the Greek God Hades. He was one of the four horses drawing Hades's chariot when he rose from the Underworld to bring Persephone down with him.^[17]
Alastor, in Christian demonology, came to be considered a kind of possessing entity.^[18] He was likened to Nemesis. The name Alastor was also used as a generic term for a class of evil spirits.

References

↑ Schmitz, Leonhard (1867), "Alastor", in Smith, William, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, 1, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, p. 89
1 2 Rose, Herbert Jennings (1996), "Alastor", in Hornblower, Simon, Oxford Classical Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press
↑ Pausanias, Description of Greece viii. 24. § 4
↑ Plutarch, De Defectu Oraculorum 13, &c.
↑ Aeschylus, Agamemnon 1479, 1508, The Persians 343
↑ Sophocles, The Trachiniae 1092
↑ Euripides, Phoenician Women 1550, &c.
↑ Euripides, Electra 979
↑ Cole, Susan Guettel (1994), "Civic Cult and Civic Identity", in Herman Hansen, Mogens, Sources for the Ancient Greek City-State: Symposium August, 24-27 1994, Copenhagen: Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, p. 310, ISBN 978-87-7304-267-0
↑ Bibliotheca i. 9. § 9
↑ Scholiast on Apollonius of Rhodes, i. 156
↑ Parthenius of Nicaea, c. 13
↑ Homer, Iliad v. 677
↑ Ovid, Metamorphoses xiii. 257
↑ Homer, Iliad xx. 463
↑ Homer, Iliad viii. 333, xiii. 422
↑ "LacusCurtius • Claudian — The Rape of Proserpine: Book I". penelope.uchicago.edu. Retrieved 2017-04-25.
↑ Sorenson, Eric (2002), Possession and Exorcism in the New Testament and Early Christianity, Mohr Siebeck, p. 78, ISBN 3-16-147851-7

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[DGRBM-1] Schmitz, Leonhard (1867), "Alastor", in Smith, William, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, 1, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, p. 89

[OCD-2] 1 2 Rose, Herbert Jennings (1996), "Alastor", in Hornblower, Simon, Oxford Classical Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press

[3] Pausanias, Description of Greece viii. 24. § 4

[4] Plutarch, De Defectu Oraculorum 13, &c.

[5] Aeschylus, Agamemnon 1479, 1508, The Persians 343

[6] Sophocles, The Trachiniae 1092

[7] Euripides, Phoenician Women 1550, &c.

[8] Euripides, Electra 979

[9] Cole, Susan Guettel (1994), "Civic Cult and Civic Identity", in Herman Hansen, Mogens, Sources for the Ancient Greek City-State: Symposium August, 24-27 1994, Copenhagen: Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, p. 310, ISBN 978-87-7304-267-0

[10] Bibliotheca i. 9. § 9

[11] Scholiast on Apollonius of Rhodes, i. 156

[12] Parthenius of Nicaea, c. 13

[13] Homer, Iliad v. 677

[14] Ovid, Metamorphoses xiii. 257

[15] Homer, Iliad xx. 463

[16] Homer, Iliad viii. 333, xiii. 422

[17] "LacusCurtius • Claudian — The Rape of Proserpine: Book I". penelope.uchicago.edu. Retrieved 2017-04-25.

[demon-18] Sorenson, Eric (2002), Possession and Exorcism in the New Testament and Early Christianity, Mohr Siebeck, p. 78, ISBN 3-16-147851-7

Alastor

See also

References