Adrasteia

In Greek mythology, Adrasteia (/ˌædrəˈstiːə/; Greek: Ἀδράστεια (Ionic Greek: Ἀδρήστεια), "inescapable"; also spelled Adrastia, Adrastea, Adrestea, Adastreia or Adrasta) was a Cretan nymph, and daughter of Melisseus, who was charged by Rhea with nurturing the infant Zeus in secret, to protect him from his father Cronus.[1]

For other uses, see Adrasteia (Greek mythology) and Adrasteia (Mysia).

Adrastea may be interchangeable with Cybele, a goddess also associated with childbirth. The Greeks cultivated a system of patron gods who served specific human needs, conditions or desires to whom one would give praise or tribute for success in certain arenas such as childbirth.

Mythology

Zeus's nurse

Both the early 3rd-century BC poet Callimachus, and the mid 3rd-century BC poet Apollonius of Rhodes, name Adrasteia (here possibly another name for Nemesis) as a nurse of the infant Zeus.[2] According to Callimachus, Adrasteia, along with the ash-tree nymphs, the Meliae, laid Zeus "to rest in a cradle of gold", and fed him with honeycomb, and the milk of the goat Amaltheia.[3] Apollonius of Rhodes, describes a wondrous toy ball which Adrasteia gave the child Zeus, when she was his nurse in the "Idean cave".[4]

According to Apollodorus, Adrasteia and Ida were daughters of Melisseus, who nursed Zeus, feeding him on the milk of Amalthea.[5] Hyginus says that Adrasteia, along with her sisters Ida and Amalthea, were daughters of Oceanus, or that according to "others" they were Zeus's nurses, "the ones that are called Dodonian Nymphys (others call them the Naiads)".[6]

Adrasteia was an epithet of Nemesis, a primordial goddess of the archaic period. Her name appears as a-da-ra-te-ja in Mycenaean Pylos.[7] The epithet is derived by some writers from Adrastus, who is said to have built the first sanctuary of Nemesis on the river Asopus,[8] and by others from the Greek verb διδράσκειν (didraskein), according to which it would signify the goddess whom none can escape.[9][10]

Adrasteia was also an epithet applied to Rhea herself, to Cybele, and to Ananke, as her daughter.[11] As with Adrasteia, these four were especially associated with the dispensation of rewards and punishments.

Adrasteia was also the name of a mountain goddess, worshipped in hellenised Phrygia (north-western Turkey), perhaps derived from a local Anatolian mountain goddess. Her name is found in inscriptions in Greece from around 400 BC as a defender of the righteous.[12]

In The Dialogue of the Sea-Gods, Poseidon remarks to a Nereid that Adrasteia is a great deal stronger than Nephele, who was unable to prevent the fall of her daughter Helle from the ram of the Golden Fleece.[13]

See also

Notes
  1. Tripp, s.v. Adrasteia, p. 13; Smith, s.v. Adrasteia 1; Apollodorus, 1.1.6; Hyginus, Fabulae 182 (Smith and Trzaskoma, p. 158).
  2. Gantz, p. 42; Hard, p. 75.
  3. Callimachus, Hymn 1 to Zeus 46–48.
  4. Hard, p. 197; Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 3.132–136.
  5. Apollodorus, 1.1.6–7.
  6. Hyginus, Fabulae 182 (Smith and Trzaskoma, p. 158).
  7. Margareta Lindgren. (1973). The People of Pylos: Prosopographical and Methodological Studies in the Pylos Archives: part II. Uppsala.
  8. Strabo, xiii, p. 588.
  9. Valeken, ad Heroditus, iii, 40.
  10. Schmitz, Leonhard (1867), "Adrasteia (2)", in Smith, William (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, 1, Boston, p. 21
  11. Abril Cultural, ed. (1973). Dicionário de Mitologia Greco-Romana (in Portuguese). Editora Victor Civita. p. 134. OCLC 45781956.
  12. Jordan, s.v. Adeastea, p. 4.
  13. Lucian of Samosata, Dialogue of the Sea-Gods, 9.

References
  • Apollodorus, Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
  • Apollonius of Rhodes, Apollonius Rhodius: the Argonautica, translated by Robert Cooper Seaton, W. Heinemann, 1912. Internet Archive.
  • Callimachus, Callimachus and Lycophron with an English translation by A. W. Mair; Aratus, with an English translation by G. R. Mair, London: W. Heinemann, New York: G. P. Putnam 1921. Internet Archive.
  • Gantz, Timothy, Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, Two volumes: ISBN 978-0-8018-5360-9 (Vol. 1), ISBN 978-0-8018-5362-3 (Vol. 2).
  • Hard, Robin, The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology", Psychology Press, 2004, ISBN 9780415186360.
  • Hyginus, Gaius Julius, Fabulae in Apollodorus' Library and Hyginus' Fabuae: Two Handbooks of Greek Mythology, Translated, with Introductions by R. Scott Smith and Stephen M. Trzaskoma, Hackett Publishing Company, 2007. ISBN 978-0-87220-821-6.
  • Jordan, Michael, Encyclopedia of Gods: Over 2,500 Deities of the World, Facts on File, `1993.
  • Tripp, Edward, Crowell's Handbook of Classical Mythology, Thomas Y. Crowell Co; First edition (June 1970). ISBN 069022608X.
  • Smith, William; Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London (1873). Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
  • Guide to the Pergamon Museum By Königliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin (Germany). Pergamon-Museum
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