General Notes

[FAMILY.FTW]

AEGA, or Aegia, is one of those persons of ancient myth whose identity is obscured by variant versions of a story. According to one tradition, she was a daughter of Olenus, son of Hephaestus, and sister of Helice. The sisters are said to have nursed Zeus in Crete, and Aega was later changed by him into the constellation Capella. Another tradition made her the daughter of Melisseus, king of Crete, and she was chosen to suckle the infant Zeus. She could not manage this, so the goat Amaltheia was brought into service. Still others say that Aega was a daughter of Helios and, as the daughter of the sun, dazzling in appearance. She therefore frightened the Titans who were assailing Olympus, and they begged Gaea, their mother, the earth, to remove her from their sight. Gaea accordingly confined her in a cave in Crete, and there she became the nurse of Zeus. Later on, while fighting Titans, Zeus was commanded by an oracle to cover himself with Aega's skin (aegis); he did so and raised her among the stars. So, even with three separate fathers assigned by different writers, we can see that in all the stories Aega was regarded as a nurse of Zeus. No attempt seems to be made to combine her office in this matter with the services of Adrasteia and Ida, who are usually called the nurses of Zeus (they too were daughters of Melisseus).
The entity of Aega, like that of Amaltheia, seems to be confused between human being and goat. One would hope that it was the goat identity from which Zeus obtained his aegis. By some kind of mythological teleportation Aega became the wife of Arcadian Pan. Never missing an opportunity, Zeus became the father of Aegipan by her, although some claim that Zeus coupled with a goat to produce him. Again there is this strong identification with goats, and it is probably safe to say that the name Aega was translated as "goat," even though some have contended that "gale of wind" might be better, since the rise of the constellation Capella brings storms and tempests. [Hyginus, Poetic Astronomy 2.13; Aratus, Phenomena 150.]

AEGLE (1), the most beautiful of the Naiades, was the daughter of Zeus and Neara. According to some, by Helios she was the mother of the Charites, but their mother more often was called Eurynome.
[Virgil, Eclogues 6.20; Pausanias 9.35.5.]

AEGLE (2) was a sister of Phaethon, and daughter of Helios and Clymene. In her grief at the death of her brother she and her sister Heliadae were changed into poplars. [Hyginus, Fables 154,156.]

AEGLE (5) was one of the daughters of Asclepius by Lampetia, the daughter of Helios, or by Epione. Her name means "Brightness" or "Splendor," and she might have personified the glowing healthfulness of the human body. At least, with the exception of Podaleirius and Machaon, her other brothers and sisters seemed to be personifications of the powers ascribed to their father (e.g., Alexanor, Hygieia, Panaceia).

AETHERIA was a daughter of Helios and Clymene, and one of the Heliadae or Phaethontiades.

CELAENO was one of the Pleiades. By Poseidon she was the mother of Lycus and Eurypylus. According to some, she was mother of Lycus and Chimaereus by Prometheus, who was considered to be her husband. Others call her also mother of Triton, but that distinction is usually Amphitrite's. Nothing is known of Lycus except that he was transferred by his father to the Isles of the Blessed. Eurypylus was among the heroes of Hyria. He went to Cyrene in Libya, where he became connected with the Argonauts. It was he who gave Euphemus a clod of earth when the Argonauts passed through Lake Tritonis. Possession of this clod later established the right to rule over Libya. Eurypylus was married to Sterope, the daughter of Helios, by whom he became the father of Lycaon and Leucippus. [Apollodorus 3.10.1; Ovid, Heroides 19.135; Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius 4.1561; Tzetzes on Lycophron 132,902.]

CLYMENE was one of the Oceanides, a daughter of Oceanus and Tethys. By her uncle Iapetus she was the mother of Atlas, Prometheus, Menoetius, and Epimetheus. Iapetus was regarded as the ancestor of the human race, although it was his son Prometheus who fashioned men out of clay. It is to be expected that there was confusion in the genealogies of the beings involved in setting up the world. Clymene was also called the mother by Prometheus of Hellen and Deucalion. This mother/son liason would not be particularly usual in the confusing descent of the gods, but Prometheus' wife was usually called Celaeno. Somewhere along the way, probably after the confinement of Iapetus in Tartarus with other Titans, Clymene married Merops, a king of the Ethiopians. Clymene was unfaithful to him and gave herself to her cousin (and brother-in-law) Helios, the sun. By him she had the Heliades and Phaethon.
Clymene's children were pivotal in the contest of the gods against the Titans and in the development of the human race. Atlas and Menoetius were both punished for their roles in the conflict with the Olympians. Atlas was condemned to bear the heavens on his head and shoulders, but not before he became father of the Pleiades, the Hyades, the Hesperides, and other beings. Menoetius was struck by Zeus with a thunderbolt and thrown into Tartarus. Prometheus and Epimetheus were the parents of Deucalion and Pyrrha, respectively, and these offspring were responsible for repopulating the earth after the great flood. For going contrary to the will of Zeus in regard to the human race, Prometheus was punished atop Mount Caucasus by having his liver pecked out daily by an eagle and having it restored each successive day. Pandora, the wife of Epimetheus, let loose all the troubles of the world by opening a forbidden chest. Phaethon, the son of Clymene and Helios, almost caused the destruction of the world. He begged his father to let him drive the chariot of the sun across heaven. He proved too weak to handle the dazzling horses, and the chariot fell toward the earth. Zeus struck him from the chariot, and he plummeted to earth. Helios recovered the reins in time to keep the earth from burning to a cinder. Phaethon's mother was also called Merope, Prote, or Rhode. [Hesiod, Theogony 351,507; Hyginus, Fables 156; Apollodorus 1.2.3; Ovid, Metamorphoses 1.763, Tristia 3.4.30.]