Apaturia (Greek mythology)

Apaturia (Ancient Greek: Ἀπατουρία) was an epithet given to more than one goddess in Greek mythology. The name meant "the deceitful".

Athena

The name Apaturia was given to the goddess Athena by Aethra, the mother of Theseus, who received a dream from Athena urging her to travel to the island of Sphairia to pour a libation for a charioteer of Pelops. After Aethra awoke she traveled to the island and was there raped by the god Poseidon.[1]

Aethra later established there a temple to this aspect of the goddess, and started a custom where brides would offer up their maidenhood belts before marriage to Athena Apaturia.[2][3][4] Athena Apaturia continued to be worshipped by the Troezenians in this manner.[5]

Aphrodite

Apaturia was an epithet of the goddess Aphrodite at Phanagoria and other places in the Taurian Chersonesus, where it originated, according to tradition, in this way: Aphrodite was attacked by giants, and called Heracles to her assistance. He concealed himself with her in a cavern, and as the giants approached her one by one, she surrendered them to Heracles to kill them.[6][7]

Notes
  1. Pausanias, Description of Greece 2.33.1
  2. Rigoglioso, Marguerite (2009). The Cult of Divine Birth in Ancient Greece. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 76. ISBN 9780230620919. Retrieved 2016-02-19.
  3. Håland, Evy Johanne (2014). Rituals of Death and Dying in Modern and Ancient Greece: Writing History from a Female Perspective. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. pp. 139, 436. ISBN 9781443868594. Retrieved 2016-02-19.
  4. Monaghan, Patricia, ed. (2014). "Aethra". Encyclopedia of Goddesses and Heroines. New World Library. p. 222. ISBN 9781608682188. Retrieved 2016-02-19.
  5. Hammond, N.G.L., ed. (1924). The Cambridge Ancient History. 3. Cambridge University Press. p. 716. ISBN 9780521224963. Retrieved 2016-02-19.
  6. Strabo, Geographica xi. p.495
  7. Stephanus of Byzantium, Ethnica, s.v Ἀπάτουρον

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Schmitz, Leonhard (1870). "Apaturia". In Smith, William (ed.). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. 1. p. 220.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.