Phoebe (Titaness)
| Phoebe | |
|---|---|
Goddess of the Oracle of Delphi | |
| Member of theTitans | |
 AfrescoofHerculaneumdepicting Phoebe trying to pacify Leto andNiobe,while Hilearia and Agle playknucklebones,painted and signed by an artist named "Alexander of Athens", 1st century AD, now in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale (Naples) | |
| Personal information | |
| Parents | UranusandGaia |
| Siblings |
|
| Consort | Coeus |
| Offspring | Leto,Asteria |
Inancient Greek religionandmythology,Phoebe(/ˈfiːbi/FEE-bee;Ancient Greek:Φοίβη,romanized:Phoíbē,associated withφοῖβοςphoîbos,"shining" ) is one of the first generation ofTitans,who were one set of sons and daughters ofUranusandGaia.[1]She was the grandmother ofApolloandArtemis,and the witchcraft goddessHecate.According to myth, she was the original owner of the site of theOracle of Delphibefore gifting it to her grandson Apollo. Her name, meaning "bright", was also given to a number of lunar goddesses like Artemis and later the Roman goddessesLunaandDiana,but Phoebe herself was not actively treated as a moon goddess in her own right in ancient mythology.
Etymology[edit]
GreekΦοίβη,feminine form ofΦοῖβοςmeans "pure, bright".[2][3]Another meaning is "prophet", a reference to her role in myth.[2]Used for water and fire both, it can thus be explained as generally meaning "pure", "clear", or "bright".[4]
Family[edit]
Phoebe is a Titaness, one of the twelve (orthirteen) divine children born toUranus(Sky) andGaia(Earth). Phoebe's consort was her brotherCoeus,with whom she had two daughters, firstLeto,who boreApolloandArtemis,and thenAsteria,a star goddess who bore an only daughter,Hecate.[5]Hesiodin theTheogonydescribes Phoebe as "χρυσοστέφανος"(khrysostéphanos,meaning "golden-crowned" ).[1]
Mythology[edit]
Through Leto, Phoebe was the grandmother of Apollo and Artemis. The namesPhoebeandPhoebus(masculine) came to be applied as synonyms for Artemis/Dianaand Apollo respectively,[6]as well as forLunaandSol,the lunar goddess and the solar god, by the Roman poets; the late-antiquity grammarianServiuswrites that "Phoebe is Luna, like Phoebus is Sol."[7]Phoebe was, like Artemis, identified by Roman poets with the Roman moon goddess Diana.[8]Phoebe means "bright" but is functionally only a name; in mythology, the role of moon goddess is fulfilled by other deities as her grandchildren inherit her name.[9]Because of this Apollo is sometimes known as "Phoebeus Apollo".
According to a speech thatAeschylusputs into the mouth of the Delphic priestess herself inThe Eumenides,Phoebe received control of the Oracle at Delphi from her sisterThemis,who herself had received it from their mother Gaia, and then passed it on Apollo, her grandson, as a gift for his birthday:[10]D. S. Robertsonnoted "Phoebe in this succession seems to be his private invention," reasoning that in the three great allotments of oracular powers at Delphi, corresponding to the three generations of the gods, "Ouranos, as was fitting, gave the oracle to his wife Gaia and Kronos appropriately allotted it to his sister Themis."[11]Robertson also speculates that in Zeus' turn to make the gift, Aeschylus could not report that the oracle was given directly to Apollo, who had not yet been born, and thus Phoebe was interposed.[11]These supposed male delegations of the powers at Delphi as expressed by Aeschylus are not borne out by the usual modern reconstruction of the sacred site's pre-Olympian history.[citation needed]
Phoebe's name appears on the southeast corner of thePergamon Altarwhich depicts theGigantomachy,[12]fighting against aGiantwith animal features, similar to the one her daughter Leto is fighting.[13]Phoebe, wearing a diadem and a very creased dress, is seen wielding a flaming torch and fighting next to her other daughter Asteria.[14]
Legacy[edit]
Phoebe,one of themoonsofSaturnis named after this goddess, as sister ofCronus,Saturn's Greek equivalent.[15]Phoebe(also spelled Phebe) is also a popular feminine given name in the English-speaking world.
Genealogy[edit]
See also[edit]
Notes[edit]
- ^abHesiod,Theogony116-138.
- ^abA Greek-English Lexicons.v.φοῖβος;s.v. φοίβη
- ^Etymology ofφοῖβοςin Bailly, Anatole (1935)Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français,Paris: Hachette.
- ^Beekes, R. S. P.,Etymological Dictionary of Greek(Leiden: Brill, 2009), 1:1582.
- ^Hesiod,Theogony404–452.
- ^Compare the relation of the comparatively obscure archaic figure ofPallasandPallas Athena.
- ^Servius,Commentary on Virgil's Aeneid10.216
- ^Boyle,p. 147
- ^Gordon MacDonald Kirkwood,A Short Guide to Classical Mythology,p.88
- ^Aeschylus,Eumenides1;Orphic Hymn79to Themis(Athanassakis and Wolkow,p. 62).
- ^abRobertson, p. 70.
- ^Picón and Hemingway, p.47
- ^Ridgway, p.57
- ^LIMC617 (Phoebe 1);Honan, p.21
- ^Pickering, Edward Charles(April 10, 1899)."A New Satellite of Saturn".Astrophysical Journal.9(4): 274–276.Bibcode:1899ApJ.....9..274P.doi:10.1086/140590.PMID17844472.
- ^Hesiod,Theogony132–138,337–411,453–520,901–906, 915–920;Caldwell, pp. 8–11, tables 11–14.
- ^Although usually the daughter of Hyperion and Theia, as inHesiod,Theogony371–374,in theHomeric Hymnto Hermes(4),99–100,Selene is instead made the daughter of Pallas the son of Megamedes.
- ^According toHesiod,Theogony507–511,Clymene, one of theOceanids,the daughters ofOceanusandTethys,atHesiod,Theogony351,was the mother by Iapetus of Atlas, Menoetius, Prometheus, and Epimetheus, while according toApollodorus,1.2.3,another Oceanid, Asia was their mother by Iapetus.
- ^According toPlato,Critias,113d–114a,Atlas was the son ofPoseidonand the mortalCleito.
- ^InAeschylus,Prometheus Bound18, 211, 873 (Sommerstein, pp.444–445 n. 2,446–447 n. 24,538–539 n. 113) Prometheus is made to be the son ofThemis.
References[edit]
- Aeschylus,EumenidesinAeschylus, with an English translation by Herbert Weir Smyth, Ph.D. in two volumes.2. Eumenides. Herbert Weir Smyth, Ph.D. Cambridge, MA.Harvard University Press.1926.
- Aeschylus,Persians. Seven against Thebes. Suppliants. Prometheus Bound.Edited and translated by Alan H. Sommerstein.Loeb Classical LibraryNo. 145. Cambridge, Massachusetts:Harvard University Press,2009.ISBN978-0-674-99627-4.Online version at Harvard University Press.
- Athanassakis, Apostolos N.,and Benjamin M. Wolkow,The Orphic Hymns,Johns Hopkins University Press; owlerirst Printing edition (May 29, 2013).ISBN978-1-4214-0882-8.Google Books.
- Apollodorus,Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes.Cambridge, Massachusetts,Harvard University Press;London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921.Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Boyle, A. J. (editor),Seneca: Medea: Edited with Introduction, Translation, and Commentary,OUP Oxford, 2014.ISBN9780199602087.
- Caldwell, Richard,Hesiod's Theogony,Focus Publishing/R. Pullins Company (June 1, 1987).ISBN978-0-941051-00-2.
- Hesiod,Theogony,inThe Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White,Cambridge, Massachusetts.,Harvard University Press;London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914.Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Homeric Hymn to Hermes (4),inThe Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White,Cambridge, Massachusetts.,Harvard University Press;London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914.Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Honan, Mary McMahon,Guide to the Pergamon Museum,De Gruyter, 1904.ISBN9783112399330.Online version at De Gruyter.
- Maurus Servius Honoratus,In Vergilii carmina comentarii. Servii Grammatici qui feruntur in Vergilii carmina commentarii; recensuerunt Georgius Thilo et Hermannus Hagen.Georgius Thilo. Leipzig. B. G. Teubner. 1881.Online version at the Topos Text.
- Picón, Carlos A.; Hemingway, Seán,Pergamon and the Hellenistic Kingdoms of the Ancient World,Yale University Press,2016,ISBN978-1-58839-587-0.
- Ridgway, Brunilde Sismondo,Hellenistic Sculpture II: The Styles of ca. 200–100 B.C.,The University of Wisconsin Press,2000.
- Robertson, D.S., "The Delphian Succession in the Opening of the Eumenides"The Classical Review55.2 (September 1941, pp. 69–70).JSTOR703888.
External links[edit]
