Astraea
Astraea,Astrea,AstriaorAusträa(Ancient Greek:Ἀστραία,romanized:Astraía;[1]"star-maiden" or "starry night" ), inancient Greek religion,is a daughter ofAstraeusandEos.[2][3]She is the virgin goddess of justice, innocence, purity and precision. She is closely associated with the Greek goddess of justice,Dike(daughter ofZeusandThemis). She is not to be confused withAsteria,the goddess of the stars and the daughter ofCoeusandPhoebe.Themain beltasteroid5 Astraeais named after her, and her name was also suggested for the planetUranus.[4][5]
Mythology
[edit]Astraea, the celestial virgin, was the last of the immortals to live with humans during theGolden Age,one of theold Greek religion's five deterioratingAges of Man.[2]In the Iron Age, the world was in a chaotic state. People only coveted gold, while family and friends did not trust each other.[6]According toOvid,Astraea abandoned the earth during the Iron Age.[7]Fleeing from the new wickedness of humanity, she ascended to heaven to become theconstellationVirgo.The nearby constellationLibrareflected her symbolic association withDike,who, in Latin culture is said to preside over the constellation asJustitia.In thetarot,the eighth card (or eleventh, depending on the tarot used),Justice,depicts Justitia, thus making it related to the figure of Astraea on historical iconographic grounds.
According to myth, Astraea will one day come back to Earth, bringing with her the return of the utopian Golden Age of which she was the ambassador.[8]
In literature
[edit]Astraea's hoped-for return was referred to in a phrase fromVirgil'sEclogue4:"Iam redit et virgo, redeunt Saturnia Regna"(Astraea returns, returns old Saturn's reign).[9]
During theEuropean Renaissance,Astraea became associated with the general spirit of renewal of culture occurring at that time, particularly in England, where she became poetically identified in literature[10]with the figure ofQueen Elizabeth Ias the virgin Queen reigning over a new Golden Age. In Spain, she was often identified with the rule ofPhilip IV.The French authorHonoré d'Urféwrote a very popularserial novelcalledL'Astrée,whose titular heroine is named after Astraea, which was published serially between 1607 and 1627 with each installment very much anticipated by the aristocratic public at the time;Jean-Jacques Rousseauin hisConfessions(p. 160Penguin Classics) notes it as one of the novels read with his father and says it "was the one that recurred most frequently to my mind". A spectacle play by theCount of Villamedianaand thirteen dramas byPedro Calderón de la Barcaintroduce a character named Astraea to highlight the political and astrological concerns.[11]In Russian Empire, Astraea was identified first with EmpressElizabeth of Russia,then with EmpressCatherine the Greatof Russia.
The English epic poetEdmund Spenserfurther embellished this myth at the opening of Book V ofThe Faerie Queene(1596), where he claims that Astraea left behind "her groome | An yron man"calledTalus.William Shakespearerefers to Astraea inTitus Andronicus,and also inHenry VI, Part 1.In his most famous play,Life Is a Dream,Calderónhas a character named Rosaura (an anagram for "dawns" ) take on the name of Astraea at Court. This may be a laudatory political allusion to the dawn of a new Golden Age under Philip IV/Segismundo.
Astraea is also referenced inJohn Milton's epic poemParadise Lost,in Book IV between lines 990 and 1000. When Satan is discovered in the Garden of Eden and brought before the Angel Gabriel, the two are on the verge of war.
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The British writerAphra Behnused "Astrea" as one of her code-names while working as a spy for King Charles II.[12]She subsequently used the name "Astrea" to identify the speaker in many of her poems, and was herself referred to as "The Incomparable Astrea".[13]
"Astræa"is also the title of a poem byRalph Waldo Emerson.[14]
See also
[edit]Notes
[edit]
- ^"Astraea".Zeno.org(in German).Retrieved11 April2018.
- ^abAratus,Phaenomena97–128
- ^Hyginus,Astronomica2.25
- ^Gallentine, Jay (November 2009).Ambassadors from Earth: Pioneering Explorations with Unmanned Spacecraft.U of Nebraska Press.ISBN978-0-8032-2220-5.
- ^Gingerich, O. (1958)."The Naming of Uranus and Neptune, Astronomical Society of the Pacific Leaflets, Vol. 8, No. 352, p.9".Leaflet of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.8(352): 9.Bibcode:1958ASPL....8....9G.Retrieved2023-06-01.
- ^Sung, HyunSook."아스트라이아".terms.naver(in Korean).Archivedfrom the original on 2021-03-21.Retrieved2021-06-20.
- ^Ovid,Metamorphoses1.149–50: SeeThe Metamorphoses.Translated byFrank Justus Miller.New York: Barnes & Noble Classics. p. 6 Book I.ISBN978-1-59308-276-5.
- ^De Armas, Frederick (January 1986)."The Return of Astraea: An Astral-Imperial Myth in Calderón by Frederick A. de Armas, Louisiana State University".Spanish Literature.Retrieved6 December2020.
- ^"Lewis & Short: Virgo".Perseus Latin Word Study Tool.Retrieved16 November2014.
- ^cf.Frances Yates,Astraea: The Imperial Theme in the Sixteenth Century.
- ^cf.Frederick A. de Armas,The Return of Astraea: An Astral-Imperial Myth in Calderon.
- ^"Aphra Behn".About Education.October 17, 2015. Archived fromthe originalon 8 November 2014.Retrieved30 August2016.
- ^Stiebel, Arlene."Biography: Aphra Behn".Poetry Foundation.Retrieved30 August2016.
- ^Emerson, Ralph Waldo(1847).Poems.Retrieved24 September2010.
References
[edit]- Aratus Solensis,Phaenomenatranslated by G. R. Mair. Loeb Classical Library Volume 129. London: William Heinemann, 1921.Online version at the Topos Text Project.
- Aratus Solensis,Phaenomena.G. R. Mair. London: William Heinemann; New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. 1921.Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Gaius Julius Hyginus,Astronomica from The Myths of Hyginustranslated and edited by Mary Grant. University of Kansas Publications in Humanistic Studies.Online version at the Topos Text Project.
- Publius Ovidius Naso,Metamorphosestranslated by Brookes More (1859-1942). Boston, Cornhill Publishing Co. 1922.Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Publius Ovidius Naso,Metamorphoses.Hugo Magnus. Gotha (Germany). Friedr. Andr. Perthes. 1892.Latin text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
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