In Greek mythology, Queen Arete ( /əˈriːtiː/ ; [1] Ancient Greek : Ἀρήτη means "she who is prayed for") of Scheria was the wife of Alcinous and mother of Nausicaa and Laodamas.
In Greek mythology, Queen Arete ( /əˈriːtiː/ ; [1] Ancient Greek : Ἀρήτη means "she who is prayed for") of Scheria was the wife of Alcinous and mother of Nausicaa and Laodamas.
Arete was the daughter of Rhexenor. She was a descendant of Poseidon, who, making love to Periboea, begot Nausithous, who in turn had two sons, Rhexenor, her father and Alcinous, her uncle and later on, her husband. Her name appears to be associated with the Ionic noun ἀρητή, meaning "sacred", "cursed" or "prayed." Some sources claim that it means "righteous", while others connect it with Ares, the Greek god of war.
Arete was also depicted as an intelligent and generous hostess by Apollonius in Book 4 of the Argonautica, where he recounts the story of Jason and Medea.
When the Argonauts arrived at the island, Arete and her husband received them and Medea hospitably. The Colchians arrived soon after in pursuit of Medea and demanded to take her back to face punishment for the death of her father, Aeëtes. Medea appealed to Arete, and Arete in turn appealed to her husband to grant mercy to Medea. When Alcinous compromised with the declaration, "If she be yet a maid I decree that they carry her back to her father; but if she shares a husband's bed, I will not separate her from her lord; nor, if she bear a child beneath her breast, will I give it up to an enemy," [2] Arete went to Jason and Medea in the night and told them what to do so that Medea's life would be spared. Through her efforts, the two were wed and the Colchians were forced to return to their homeland without Medea. [3]
In the Odyssey , Arete appears as a noble and active superintendent of the household of her husband. When Odysseus arrived in Scheria, he appealed first to Arete for reception and protection, and she treated him hospitably. [4] He did so on Nausicaa and Athena's instructions, the goddess having described Arete thus:
Her Alcinous made his wife, and honored her as no other woman on earth is honored, of all those who in these days direct their households in subjection to their husbands; so heartily is she honored, and has ever been, by her children and by Alcinous himself and by the people, who look upon her as upon a goddess, and greet her as she goes through the city. For she of herself is no wise lacking in good understanding, and for the women to whom she has good will she makes an end of strife even among their husbands. [5]
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Jason was an ancient Greek mythological hero and leader of the Argonauts, whose quest for the Golden Fleece is featured in Greek literature. He was the son of Aeson, the rightful king of Iolcos. He was married to the sorceress Medea, the granddaughter of the sungod Helios. He was also the great-grandson of the messenger god Hermes, through his mother's side.
The Argonauts were a band of heroes in Greek mythology, who in the years before the Trojan War accompanied Jason to Colchis in his quest to find the Golden Fleece. Their name comes from their ship, Argo, named after its builder, Argus. They were sometimes called Minyans, after a prehistoric tribe in the area.
In Greek mythology, Pelopia or Pelopea or Pelopeia was a name attributed to four individuals:
In Greek mythology, Aeson was a king of Iolcus in Thessaly. He was the father of the hero Jason. According to one version of the story, he was imprisoned by his half-brother Pelias, and when Pelias intended to kill him he committed suicide. In another story, he was killed by Jason's wife Medea, who brought him back to life as a young man.
The name Nausithous is shared by the following characters in Greek mythology:
In Greek mythology, Alcinous was a son of Nausithous and brother of Rhexenor. After the latter's death, he married his brother's daughter Arete who bore him Nausicaa, Halius, Clytoneus and Laodamas. In some accounts, Alcinous' father was Phaeax, son of Poseidon and Corcyra, and brother of Locrus.
Nausicaa, also spelled Nausicaä or Nausikaa, is a character in Homer's Odyssey. She is the daughter of King Alcinous and Queen Arete of Phaeacia. Her name means "burner of ships".
In Greek mythology, Pisidice or Peisidice was one of the following individuals:
Scheria or Scherie, also known as Phaeacia or Faiakia, was a region in Greek mythology, first mentioned in Homer's Odyssey as the home of the Phaeacians and the last destination of Odysseus in his 10-year journey before returning home to Ithaca. It is one of the earliest descriptions of a utopia.
Aeaea, Ææa or Eëä was a mythological island said to be the home of the goddess-sorceress Circe.
"Circe would fain have held me back in her halls, the guileful lady of Aeaea, yearning that I should be her husband"..
King Echetus, in Greek mythology, is a king of Epirus and son of Euchenor and Phlogea (Φλόγεα).
In Greek mythology, Absyrtus or Apsyrtus was a Colchian prince and the younger brother of Medea. He was involved in Jason's escape with the golden fleece from Colchis
In Greek mythology, Idyia or Eidyia was a daughter of the Titans Oceanus and Tethys, and queen to Aeëtes, king of Colchis. She was the mother of Medea, Chalciope and Absyrtus. According to Apollonius of Rhodes, she was the youngest of the Oceanides. Her name means "the fair-faced" or "the knowing one" derived from the Greek word εἴδω meaning "to see" or "to know".
Hippotes may refer to a number of people from Greek mythology:
The Argonautica is a Greek epic poem written by Apollonius Rhodius in the 3rd century BC. The only entirely surviving Hellenistic epic, the Argonautica tells the myth of the voyage of Jason and the Argonauts to retrieve the Golden Fleece from remote Colchis. Their heroic adventures and Jason's relationship with the dangerous Colchian princess/sorceress Medea were already well known to Hellenistic audiences, which enabled Apollonius to go beyond a simple narrative, giving it a scholarly emphasis suitable to the times. It was the age of the great Library of Alexandria, and his epic incorporates his research in geography, ethnography, comparative religion, and Homeric literature. However, his main contribution to the epic tradition lies in his development of the love between hero and heroine – he seems to have been the first narrative poet to study "the pathology of love". His Argonautica had a profound impact on Latin poetry: it was translated by Varro Atacinus and imitated by Valerius Flaccus, it influenced Catullus and Ovid, and it provided Virgil with a model for his Roman epic, the Aeneid.
In Greek mythology and religion, Corcyra or Korkyra is the naiad daughter of the river-god Asopos and the nymph Metope, herself the daughter of the river-god Ladon. She is the personification and tutelary goddess of the ancient Greek city and island of Korkyra, now better known as Corfu.
In Greek mythology, the name Clytie or Clytia may refer to:
In Greek mythology, Anchiale or Ankhiale was the name of the following personages:
In Greek mythology, Argus or Argos may refer to the following personages
In Greek mythology, Clytoneus or Clytonaeus may refer to two different individuals:
