Nyctaea
InGreek mythologyNyctaea(Ancient Greek:Νυκταία,romanized:Nuktaía,lit. 'nocturnal') is a princess featuring in two stories about father-daughter incest, who is eventually turned into an owl by the goddessAthena.Both her tales are preserved in the works of pseudo-Lactantius Placidus,a Latin grammarian of the third century AD.
Etymology[edit]
Nyctaea's name is derived from the Greek wordνύξ(genitiveνυκτός) meaning "night".[1]Νύξin turn is ofProto-Indo-Europeanorigin, from the PIE root*nókʷts,from which 'night' is also descended.[2]
Family[edit]
Depending on version, Nyctaea is either the daughter ofNycteus(usually a king ofThebes,but here identified as a king of theAethiopians) or the Argive kingProetus.[3]
Mythology[edit]
Nycteus[edit]
In the first version, Nyctaea harboured an incestuous desire for her father, and confessed her feelings to a nurse, who helped her deceive and trick her father into bedding her by pretending to be some unrelated maiden. When Nycteus found out, he was so enraged he meant to kill Nyctaea, who imploredAthenato save her. Athena took her under her protection by changing her intonight owl,paralleling the story ofMyrrha.[4][5]
Proetus[edit]
In another version mentioned by the same author, the Argive princess Nyctaea fled her home in terror so she could escape being raped by her father. Athena took pity in her and transformed her into a night owl, paralleling the story ofNyctimene.[4][6][7]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^Liddell & Scott 1940,s.v.νύξ.
- ^Beekes 2010,p.1027.
- ^von Pauly 1971,p. 1515.
- ^abLactantius Placidus,On the Thebaid3.507
- ^Wright, M. Rosemary."A Dictionary of Classical Mythology: Summary of Transformations".mythandreligion.upatras.gr.University of Patras.Archived fromthe originalon December 30, 2022.RetrievedJanuary 3,2023.
- ^Lamprinoudakēs 1971,p. 174.
- ^Furter 2021,p. 16.
Bibliography[edit]
- Beekes, Robert S. P.(2010). Lucien van Beek (ed.).Etymological Dictionary of Greek.Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series. Vol. ΙΙ. Leiden, the Netherlands:Brill Publications.ISBN978-90-04-17419-1.
- Furter, Edmond D. (2021)."The Greece and Aegean Myth Map".Stoneprint.7.
- Lactantius Placidus,Lactantii Placidi qui dicitur Commentarios in Statii Thebaida it Commentarium in Achilleida recensuit,translated by Ricahrd Jahnke, 1898, B. G. Tevbneri, Lipsiae.
- Lamprinoudakēs, V. K. (1971).Mērotraphēs.Athens,Greece:National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.
- Liddell, Henry George;Scott, Robert(1940).A Greek-English Lexicon,revised and augmented throughout by Sir Henry Stuart Jones with the assistance of Roderick McKenzie.Oxford:Clarendon Press.Online version at Perseus.tufts project.
- von Pauly, August Friedrich (1971).Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft: Neue Bearbeitung unter Mitwirkung zahlreicher Fachgenossen(in German). Vol. 17, part 2. Germany: Druckenmüller Verlag.
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