Taygete
| Taygete | |
|---|---|
| Member of the Pleiades | |
 The PleiadesbyElihu Vedder | |
| Abode | Mt. CylleneonArcadia,later Mt. TaygetosonLaconia |
| Genealogy | |
| Parents | (a)AtlasandPleioneorAethra (b)Agenor |
| Siblings |
(a)Hyades
|
| Consort | (1)Zeus(2)Lacedaemon |
| Children | (1) Lacedaemon andEurotas(2)Himerus |
In ClassicalGreek mythology,Taygete(/teɪˈɪdʒətiː/;[1]Ancient Greek:Ταϋγέτη,Ancient Greek:[taːyɡétɛː],Modern Greek:[taiˈʝeti]) was anymph,one of thePleiadesaccording to theBibliotheca(3.10.1) and a companion ofArtemis,in her archaic role aspotnia theron,"Mistress of the animals", with its likely roots in prehistory.Mount TaygetosinLaconia,dedicated to the goddess, was her haunt.
| Greek deities series |
|---|
| Nymphs |
TheTaygetusmountain on thePeloponnesewas named after her.[1]
Mythology[edit]
As he mastered each of the local nymphs one by one, Olympic Zeus pursued Taygete, who invoked her protectress Artemis. The goddess turned Taygete into adoewith golden horns,[2]any distinction between theTitanessin her human form and in her doe form is blurred: the nymph who hunted the doe in the company of Artemisisthe doe herself. AsPindarconceived themyth-elementin his third Olympian Ode, "the doe with the golden horns, which once Taygete had inscribed as a sacred dedication toArtemis Orthosia",(" right-minded "Artemis)[3]was the veryCeryneian HindthatHeracleslater pursued. For the poet, the transformation was incomplete, and the doe-form had become an offering. Pindar, who was a very knowledgeable mythographer, hints that the mythic doe, even when slain and offered to Artemis, alsocontinues to exist,to be hunted once again (although not killed) by Heracles at a later time.[4]Karl Kerenyipoints out (The Heroes of the Greeks) "It is not easy to differentiate between the divine beast, the heroine and the goddess".
According toPausanias(3.1.2, etc.) Taygete conceivedLacedaemon,the mythical founder of Sparta, through Zeus, andEurotas.Pausanias noted, atAmyclae,that the rape of Taygete was represented on the throne.[5]
According toPseudo-Plutarch,[6]Taygete was the wife of Lacedaemon, sometimes referred to asSparta,whose name was given to the city of Sparta. Their son was namedHimerus.
In a rare variant of the myth, Taygete was called the daughter ofAgenor.[7]
Notes[edit]
- ^Pseudo-Plutarch, De fluviis, 17
- ^Biogeographicallyspeaking, in Greece the nearest species of deer in which females carry horns was and is thereindeer(Ruck and Staples p 173), a fact which has occasioned various speculations: see alsoDeer (mythology)
- ^Emmet Robbins, "Heracles, the Hyperboreans, and the Hind: Pindar," OL. "3",Phoenix36.4 (Winter 1982:295-305) 302f notes that the association of Artemis with Orthia = Orthosia was under way in the sixth century BCE.
- ^Robbins 1982:295-305.
- ^Pausanias, 3.18.10
- ^Pausanias (1918). "3.1.2". Description of Greece. with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA; London. At the Perseus Project.
- ^Dictys Cretensis,1.9
References[edit]
- Ruck, Carl A.P., and Danny Staples, 1994.The World of Classical Myth(Carolina Academic Press)
- Harry Thurston Peck,Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities,1898.Online version at the Perseus Digital Library:"Taygete"
- Robbins, Emmet. "Heracles, the Hyperboreans, and the Hind: Pindar," OL. 3 ",Phoenix36.4 (Winter 1982), pp. 295–305.
External links[edit]
Media related toTaygete (Pleiad)at Wikimedia Commons
