General Notes

[FAMILY.FTW]

ACACALLIS was a daughter of Minos and Pasiphae. While she has not shared the fame of her sisters Ariadne and Phaedra, she did lead a most interesting life. She had children by the two handsomest of the Olympian gods and even by the father of the gods. Acacallis was Apollo's first love. With his sister Artemis he came to Tarrha from Aegialae on the mainland for purification after slaying the moster Python. Apollo stayed at the house of Carmanor, where he found Acacallis, a maternal relative of Carmanor; it was not long until he seduced her. Some say Minos banished Acacallis to Libya, where she became the mother of Ammon by Zeus. By Apollo she had two more sons, Amphithemis and Garamas. Amphithemis became the father of Nasamon and Caphaurus, or Cephalion, by the nymph Tritonis. Of Garamas little is known. Some say he was born in Libya when Acacallis fled there, but others say he was the first man ever to be born and therefore from a much earlier era. Acacallis became the mother of Cydon by Hermes (others say the father was Apollo, and still others that it was Tegeates). Cydon grew up to found the town of Cydonia (modern Hania) in Crete. Some say that Acacallis had still another son (no father mentioned), Oaxus, or Oaxes, in Crete. Others say he was a son of Apollo by Anchiale. In Crete Acacallis was a common name for narcissus. Apollodorus (3.1.2) calls this daughter of Minos Acalle. [Pausanias 7.2.3, 8.53.2; Plutarch, Agis 9; Apollonius Rhodius 4.1490; Apollodorus 3.1.2; Stephanus Byzantium, "Oaxos"; Athenaeus 15.681; Hesychius, "Akakallis."]

AEGINA was the daughter of the god of the Asopus River, which flows from Phliasia through Sicyonia into the Corinthian Gulf. Asopus married Metope, daughter of the river-god Ladon, and had by her two sons, Ismenus and Pelagon, and twenty daughters, one of whom was Aegina. Since she was very beautiful, she attracted the attention of Zeus, who abducted her and carried her from her home in Phlius to the island of Oenone or Oenopia, afterward called Aegina. A little tired of having his beautiful daughters carried away by lustful gods (Poseidon and Apollo were other examples), Asopus went in search of Aegina. At Corinth her learned from Sisyphus, the king (perhaps in exchange for supplying the Acrocorinthus with a spring), the facts about Aegina's disappearance. Asopus then pursued Zeus until the god, by hurling thunderbolts at him, sent him back to his original bed. Pieces of charcoal found in the riverbed in later times were thought to be residue from the stormy struggle. For his interference in the affair, after his death Sisyphus received special punishment in the lower world. Aegina became by Zeus the mother of Aeacus. His youth was marked by the progressive disappearance of the island's population by a plague or a dragon sent by the ever-jealous Hera. When Aeacus eventually became king, he had almost no subjects to govern, so Zeus restored the people by changing ants into human beings. Aeacus went on to become such a just king that his counsel was sought even by the gods, and after his death he was made one of the judges of the lower world. After her affair with Zeus, Aegina married Actor, son of Deion, and became by him the mother of Menoetius, who became the father of Patroclus, the famous friend of Achilles. In fact, it was through Aegina that Patroclus and Achilles were related, on being her grandson and the other her great-grandson by the separate lines begun by her two husbands. One commentator (Pythaenetos, quoting the scholiast on Pindar's Olympian Odes 9.107) said Menoetius was Actor's son by Damocrateia, a daughter of Aegina and Zeus. This makes sense in terms of putting Patroclus and Achilles in the same generation. In that case, also, Aegina's sexual encounters with the greeatest of the gods would have remained inviolate, unless we consider the single account that she was the mother of Sinope (usually called her sister) by Ares. Even here she at least kept with the immortals for lovers. [Apollodorus 3.12.6; Pausanias 2.5.1; Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius 436.]

AENETE (also called Aenippe) was a daughter of Eusorus and sister of Acamas. Bother Eusorus and Acamas, Trojan allies from Thrace, were killed in the war by the Telamonian Ajax. Aenete became the wife of Aeneus, a son of Apollo and Stilbe, and bore to him Cyzicus, who founded the town in Asia Minor by this name. [Apollonius Rhodius 1.950; Orphica, Argonautica 502.]

AETHUSA was a daughter of Poseidon and the Pleiad Alcyone, and sister of Hyrieus, Hyperenor, Hyperes, and Anthas. Hyperes and Anthas were kings of Troezen, probably concurrently, and had neighboring towns named for them. Hyrieus was the founder of Hyria in Boeotia and father of Orion. Aethusa was loved by Apollo and became by him the mother of Eleuther. According to one account, she was also mother by him of Linus, but most accounts call his mother Psamathe. Eleuther grew up to found Eleutherae in Boeotia. He is credited with having erected the first staue of Dionysus and with spreading the worship of the god. His grandson Poemander--and thus Aethusa's great-grandson--founded Tanagra. [Apollodorus 3.10.1; Pausanias 9.20.2.]

CALLIOPE was one of the nine Muses. As Muse of epic poetry she appears with a tablet and stylus, and sometimes with a scroll. Although she shared a great deal in common with her eight sisters and joined them most of the time in dancing and singing on Olympus and in their sacred groves on Mount Helicon, she led a most interesting private life. She was called at one time or another the mother of the Corybantes by Zeus, of Hymen by Apollo, of Ialemus by Apollo, of Linus by Apollo, of Rhesus by the Strymon River, of the Sirens, and of Orpheus by Oeagrus. It makes good sense that she was considered the mother of these famous poets and musicians (except for Rhesus). Hymen was the god of marriage and the author of the songs performed at weddings. Ialemus was the inventor of a special kind of song sung on melancholy occasions. Linus was the personification of lamentation; he invented dirges and songs in general. Orpheus was the most famous poet and musician who ever lived. The Corybantes were the attendants of Rhea Cybele and accompanied her with wild dancing and music. The Sirens, of course, were the women with beutiful voices who lured sailors to their death with their songs. As for Rhesus, the Thracian prince who went to the Trojan War, there is little reason for assigning him a Muse for a mother, and it seems this was done by later writers perhaps to lend poetic enhancement to his early and tragic death. Calliope also took a fancy to Achilles and taught him how to cheer his friends by singing at banquets. She was called by Zeus to mediate the quarrel between Aphrodite and Persephone over possession of Adonis. She settled the dispute by giving them equal time, providing Adonis some much-needed free time to himself. Calliope is somehow easier to picture than the other Muses, with the possible exception of Terpsichore. One can think of a voluptuous woman with a beautiful face and a pleasant manner. In spite of being credited with mournful sons who met unhappy ends, she may even be conceived as light-spirited. [Hesiod, Theogony 77; Philostratus, Heroicus 19.2; Hyginus, Fables 14, Poetic Astronomy 2.7; Catullus 61.2; Nonnos, Dionysiaca 33.67; Apollodorus 1.3.2,4; Pausanias 1.43.7, 2.19.7; Conon, Narrations 45; Apollonius Rhodius 1.23; Servius on Virgil's Aeneid 5.364; Zenobius 4.39.]

HARMONIA, one of the inspired conceptions of some long-forgotten writer, was a tribute to the ability of the Greeks to create an ideal balance. She was the daughter of Love (Aphrodite) and War (Ares). Her brothers were Deimos (Terror) and Phobos (Fear), both mainly thought of in terms of war. Again, as if to balance things, some called Eros and Anteros full brothers as well, but in any case they were half-brothers. After Cadmus founded Thebes, Zeus gave him Harmonia as a wife. This was a union favored by all the gods and goddesses of Olympus, especially Athena, who was the self-appointed protectress of Cadmus. All the Olympians attended the wedding, and rich presents were give, the most opulent being a necklace of exquisite design studded with precious stones. Fashioned for him by Hephaestus, the was the groom's gift to the bride, along with a handsome peplus, or robe. Some said the necklace was presented to her by Aphrodite or Athena. Some said Cadmus had received it from his sister Europa, who had earlier received it from Zeus, but this would make no sense, since Cadmus never saw Europa again after her abduction. In fact, his fruitless search for her had resulted in his founding Thebes. This beautiful jewelry, whatever its origin, came with a curse as it was passed from generation to generation. The results of its attraction culminated in the battle of the Seven against Thebes and the subsequent campaign of the Epigoni. Even in Harmonia's possession, its virulence seemed to spread like poison over the family. The children of Harmonia by Cadmus were Autonoe, Ino, Semele, Agave, and Polydorus. While they were small, Harmonia seemed to lead a rather idyllic life. Undeniably immortal herself, she spent time in the company of other immortals such as the Charites (Graces), Hebe (the goddess of youth), the Horae (Seasons), the Muses, Apollo, and her mother Aphrodite. Some even claimed that the Charites were her daughters by Zeus, who was already her grandfather and later would become her son-in-law as well. The mellow life enjoyed by Harmonia came to an end when her daughters grew up. Ino's husband went insane and tried to kill her, but she leapt into the sea and became a sea divinity. Autonoe married the god Aristaeus, but he left her when their son Actaeon was turned into a stag, then killed and eaten by his hunting dogs. Semele was burned alive when she forced her lover Zeus to appear to her in his full splendor. He managed to save the child she was carrying, which turned out to be Dionysus. This grandchild did not help things when later he converted his aunts to his worship. One day the three of them got drunk and, mistaking him for a wild beast, tore Agave's son, Pentheus, apart with their bare hands. Only Polydorus, the son, turned out reasonably well, if we do not dwell on the fact that he was the great-grandfather of Oedipus. Cadmus and Harmonia left Thebes even before the death of Pentheus. Their leaving has never been explained; perhaps the tragedies of the other daughters caused them to go to a remote place. There was a prophecy among the Enchelean people in northern Greece that if Cadmus would lead them against their enemies, the Illyrians, the would be victorious. Cadmus did so, and the prophecy was fulfilled. He and Harmonia then ruled in Illyria. Although grandparents, they produced another son, Illyrius. Afterward, the gods changed them into dragons and transported them to Elysium, or the Isles of the Blessed. A variation of this account calls Harmonia the daughter of Zeus and Electra, daughter of Atlas. She was therefore sister to Dardanus and Iasion. She and her brothers lived on the island of Samothrace, where they had gone from Arcadia. When Cadmus went there searching for Europa, he fell in love with Harmonia. In this version also, the gods smiled on the marriage and attended the wedding celebration on Samothrace. Then Cadmus took Harmonia to Thebes, and the two stories merged at that point. The second version might have arisen in conjunction with the strong Cabeirian influence in Theban worship (the Cabeiri were the divinities worshipped on the islands of Lemnos and Samothrace). Dardanus and Iasion taught the mysteries in the Aegean and Asia Minor, and it would seem appropriate that Harmonia introduced them on the Greek mainland. [Apollodorus 3.4.2,5.4; Diodorus Siculus 1.68,4.48; Pindar, Pythian Odes 3.94,167; Statius, Thebaid 2.266; Euripides, Bacchanals 1233,1350; Ovid, Metamorphoses 4.562-602; Pausanias 9.5.1,12.3; Hyginus, Fables 6,184,240; Ptolemaeus Hephaestion 1; Apollonius Rhodius 4.517.]

MAIA was the eldest of the Pleiades. As daughter of Atlas and Pleione, she was sometimes called either Atlantis or Pleias. One account called her a daughter of Atlas and Sterope, his own daughter. She was visited in a cave on Mount Cyllene in Arcadia by Zeus and became the mother of Hermes, one of the Olympian gods. He was surnamed Cyllenius from his birthplace. That is the extent of what we know of Maia. After Zeus had his affair with Callisto and she was changed into a bear, the baby, Arcas, was carried to Maia to be brought up. In a manner of speaking, he was her stepson, but so were scores of other sons of Zeus. Maia is famous through her son, for her presence is felt in the nursery adventures of the god of thieves. Hermes escaped from his cradle and went to Pieria, carrying off some of Apollo's oxen, but was forgiven when he invented the lyre from a tortoise shell. He became the messenger of the other gods, and was notorious for his ingenuity and cunning. We lose sight of Maia after Hermes became adult. She was not even mentioned in the upbringing of Dionysus, in which Hermes took a part. The Romans had a divinity called Maia, or Majesta, who was sometimes considered the wife of Vulcan, largely because a priest of Vulcan offered a sacrifice to her on May 1. Later, she became identified with the Greek Maia and was called the mother of Mercury. [Homeric Hymn to Hermes 3,17; Hesiod, Theogony 938; Apollodorus 3.10.2,8.2; Horace, Odes 1.10.1, 2.42; Macrobius, Saturnalia 1.12; Gellius 13.22; Servius on Virgil's Aeneid 8.130; Pausanias 8.17.1.]