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."]

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.]

MEROPE was one of the Pleiades. In the constellation of the Pleiades she is the seventh and least visible star because she was ashamed of having had intercourse with a mortal man. This mortal was Sisyphus, and Merope should have been ashamed not so much that he was mortal but because of the type of mortal he was. He was the son of Aeolus and Enarete, and brother of Cretheus, Athamas, Salmoneus, Deion, Magnes, Perieres, and Macareus. He eventually reigned in Corinth, since Medea gave him the sovereignty when she left. He promoted commerce and helped make the city important. He was of bad character however, as Merope was soon to discover. She bore him Glaucus, Ornytion, Thersander, and Halmus. Sisyphus meanwhile had twin sons by his niece Tyro, but she killed them at their birth. Of Merope's sons we know Glaucus best, not only as the father of Bellerophon but also as the breeder of flesh-eating mares. When Sisyphus was on his deathbed, he begged Merope not to bury him. She complied, and when he got to the underworld he complained that he was neglected and needed to return to the upper world to punish his wife. Once there he refused to return, and Hermes, transporter of the dead, had to carry him back by force. [Apollodorus 1.9.3,3.10.1; Ovid, Fasti 4.175; Homer, Iliad 6.153; Eustathius on Homer's Iliad 1155; Pausanias 2.4.3, 6.20.9, 9.34.5; Hyginus, Fables 60.]


PANDORA over the centuries has become a kind of equivalent of Eve, the first created woman. Much blame was assigned to both because of a foolish mistake (provided we remove the element of destiny). Pandora, whose name literally meant All Gifts, came into being when Zeus had her created by the master artisan Hephaestus to punish Prometheus for stealing fire from heaven. Right there we have an anomaly, since the theft of fire presupposed an already existing population of the earth. But perhaps only males existed at that point, and Zeus had other ideas for propagation. It is interesting that he saw the creation of a woman as a punishment. Whatever the reason, Pandora was created as the first woman, and all the gods came forward to endow her with gifts. Aphrodite gave her beauty, Hermes gave her cunning, and other gods and goddesses gave her various powers that Zeus had calculated to bring about the ruin of man. Finally he had Hermes deliver her to Epimetheus, the not-so-bright brother of Prometheus. Epimetheus was utterly charmed by this marvelous creation, although he had been warned by Prometheus never to accept a gift from Zeus. He forgot his promise to his brother to think before acting, because Aphrodite's gift had certainly included the ability of Pandora to give her husband ultimate sexual pleasure. Life was happy for Pandora and especially so for Epimetheus. But already destiny was at work. In the house was a covered earthen vessel (or box or chest) that either had been placed in the safekeeping of Epimetheus or given to Pandora along with other gifts. In either case it was forbidden to open it. But its unknown contents plagued Pandora (she had been given curiosity along with everything else). One day while Epimetheus was away, she could stand the temptation no longer and peeked into the vessel. She found out soon enough why she should not have opened the pot, for out swarmed all the calamities of mankind--from tidal waves to premature balding. It was too late to stop them as they spread out through the window and across the world. Pandora dropped the lid back in time to prevent the excape of the final occupant of the vessel. This was Elpis, and no matter how bad things became for people then and in the future, there was always hope. Pandora became the mother of Pyrrha by Epimetheus. Pyrrha married Deucalion, son of Prometheus, and these two people repopulated the earth when Zeus, finally disgusted with man, sent a flood to wipe out the human race. There is no record of Pandora's final history. It is not really certain whether or not she was considered immortal. In later writings she became associated with infernal divinities such as Hecate, Persephone, and the Erinyes.
In one or two versions of the allegory, Pandora brought the fatal vessel Epimetheus and, using her newly fashioned wiles, prevaied upon him to open it. It is interesting to observe the parallel of this story to that of Eve in the garden of Eden urging Adam to taste the forbidden apple. Some said the vessel contained only benefits for mankind, but these were allowed to escape. In any case, the result was intended to be the same. The birth of Pandora was represented on the pedestal of the statue of Athena in the Parthenon. [Hesiod, Theogony 571, Works and Days 30,50,96; Hyginus, Fables 142; Apollodorus 1.7.2; Ovid, Metamorphoses 1.350; Orphica, Argonautica 974.]

PLEIONE was one of the Oceanides and mother of the Pleiades by Atlas. Atlas was the son of Iapetus and Clymene, and leader of the Titans in the war against Zeus and the Olympians. He was condemned to bear the heavens on his head and shoulders. Pleione had to share him with Aethra, who according to some, became the mother of the Hyades and Hesperides by him. He had children by other women as well. The Pleiades mated with gods for the most part, but interestingly only one of Pleione's grandchildren--Hermes--was one of the immortal Olympian gods. An interesting question might be why he was different, since Zeus, his father, had sons by two of the other Pleiades. [Apollodorus 3.10.1; Diodorus Siculus 4.27; Scholiast on Homer's Iliad 18.486, Odyssey 5.272; Hyginus, Fables 192,248.]