Listed 57 sub titles with search on: Homeric world for wider area of: "NORTH AEGEAN Region GREECE" .
LEMNOS (LIMNOS) (Island) NORTH AEGEAN
Diomede a daughter of Phorbas of Lemnos, was beloved by Achilles. (Hom. Il. ix. 665; Eustath. ad Hom., and Dict. Cret. ii. 19, where her name appears in the poetical form of Diomedeia.) There are three other mythical beings of this name. (Apollod. iii. 10.3; Hygin. Fab. 97)
VRISSA (Ancient city) LESVOS
The origin of the name Briseis (or rather of Briseus) is uncertain. Fick writes Breseis, referring it to Bresa, a town in Lesbos, where there was also a Chryse, holding that in the oldest legends both ladies were captured in a raid on Lesbos; see 9.129, 660. To Homer, however, Briseis comes from Lyrnessos, not far from Thebe (19.291-300);
CHIOS (Island) NORTH AEGEAN
Orion. A celebrated giant, said by one legend to have been the
son of Poseidon and Euryale. His father, according to this same account, gave
him the power of wading through the depths of the sea, or, as others say, of walking
on its surface. He married Side, whom Here cast into Erebus for contending with
her in beauty. Another and more common account makes Hyria, a town of Boeotia,
to have been the birthplace of Orion, and the story of his origin is told as follows:
As Zeus, Poseidon, and Hermes were taking a ramble upon earth, they came, late
in the evening, to the house of a farmer named Hyrieus. Seeing the wayfarers,
Hyrieus, who was standing at his door, invited them to enter, and pass the night
in his humble abode. The gods accepted the kind invitation, and were hospitably
entertained. Pleased with their host, they inquired if he had any wish which he
desired to have gratified. Hyrieus replied that he once had a wife whom he tenderly
loved, and that he had sworn never to marry another. She was dead; he was childless;
his vow was binding; and yet he was desirous of being a father. The gods took
the hide of his only ox, which he, on discovering their true nature, had sacrificed
in their honour: they buried it in the earth; and ten months afterwards a boy
came to light, whom Hyrieus named Urion or Orion (apo tou ourein). This legend
owes its origin to the name Orion, and was the invention of the Athenians. In
Hyginus, Hyrieus is Byrseus, from the hide (bursa).
When Orion grew up, he went, according to this same account,
to the island of Chios, where he became enamoured of Aero or Merope, the daughter
of Oenopion, son of Dionysus and Ariadne. He sought her in marriage; but, while
wooing, seized a favourable opportunity and offered her violence. Her father,
incensed at this conduct, and having made Orion drunk, blinded him, and cast him
on the seashore. The blinded hero contrived to reach Lemnos, and came to the forge
of Hephaestus, who, taking pity on him, gave him Cedalion (Guardian), one of his
men, to be his guide to the abode of the Sun. Placing Cedalion on his shoulder,
Orion proceeded to the East; and there, meeting the sun-god, was restored to vision
by his beams. Anxious for revenge on Oenopion, he returned to Chios; but the Chians,
aware of his intention, concealed the object of his search under the ground, and
Orion, unable to find him, returned to Crete. The death of Orion is variously
related. As all the legends relating to him are evidently later than the time
of Homer, none ventures to assign any other cause to it than the goddess Artemis,
whose wrath (though Homer rather says the contrary) he drew on himself. Some said
that he attempted to offer violence to the goddess herself; others to Opis, one
of her Hyperborean maidens, and that Artemis slew him with her arrows; others,
again, that it was for presuming to challenge the goddess at the discus. It was
also said that, when he came to Crete, he boasted to Leto and Artemis that he
was able to kill anything that would come from the earth. Indignant at his boast,
they sent a scorpion, which stung him, and he died. It was said, finally, that
Artemis loved Orion, and was even about to marry him. Her brother was highly displeased,
and often reproached her, but to no purpose. At length, observing one day Orion
wading through the sea with his head just above the waters, he pointed it out
to his sister, and maintained that she could not hit that black thing on the water.
To show her skill she took aim and hit it, thus slaying Orion. Asclepius attempted
to restore him to life, but was slain by Zeus with a thunderbolt.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Artemis slew Orion in Delos. They say that he was of gigantic stature and born
of the earth; but Pherecydes says that he was a son of Poseidon and Euryale. Poseidon
bestowed on him the power of striding across the sea. He first married Side, whom
Hera cast into Hades because she rivalled herself in beauty. Afterwards he went
to Chios and wooed Merope, daughter of Oenopion. But Oenopion made him drunk,
put out his eyes as he slept, and cast him on the beach. But he went to the smithy
of Hephaestus, and snatching up a lad set him on his shoulders and bade him lead
him to the sunrise. Being come thither he was healed by the sun's rays, and having
recovered his sight he hastened with all speed against Oenopion. But for him Poseidon
had made ready a house under the earth constructed by Hephaestus. And Dawn fell
in love with Orion and carried him off and brought him to Delos; for Aphrodite
caused Dawn to be perpetually in love, because she had bedded with Ares. But Orion
was killed, as some say, for challenging Artemis to a match at quoits, but some
say he was shot by Artemis for offering violence to Opis, one of the maidens who
had come from the Hyperboreans.
Commentary:
1. The same account of Orion's parentage was given by Hesiod, whom Pherecydes
probably followed.
2. As Side means "pomegranate" in Greek, it has been supposed that the
marriage of Orion to Side is a mythical expression for the ripening of the pomegranate
at the season when the constellation Orion is visible in the nightly sky.
3. The name of the guide whom Orion took on his back to guide him to the sunrise
was Cedalion. Sophocles made the story the theme of a satyric drama called Cedalion,
of which a few fragments have come down to us.
This extract is from: Apollodorus, Library and Epitome (ed. Sir James George Frazer, 1921). Cited Dec 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
LEMNOS (LIMNOS) (Island) NORTH AEGEAN
He was a son of Zeus and Hera (Il. 1.570 etc.), god of fire and metallurgy (Il. 8.195, Od. 4.615, 15.117). His mother hurled him from Olympus because she could not bare his ugliness and lameness, but he was saved by Thetis and Eurynome, with whom he lived for nine years (Il. 18.395 etc.).
Grace was his wife (Il. 18.382, Paus. 9,35,4) and was depicted in gold on the pedestal supporting the throne of the statue of Zeus in Olympia (Paus. 5,11,8).
Hephaestus fell in the island of Lemnos, when Zeus hurled him from Olympus because he wanted to help his mother. There the Sintians tended him (Il. 1.590).
After the request of Thetis, Hephaestus constructed the new arms of Achilles, among which the great shield, that represented the earth, the sky and scenes from human life (Il. 18.468 etc.).
Hephaestus, (Hephaistos). In Greek mythology, the god of fire,
and of the arts which need fire in the execution. Roscher proposes various derivations
of the name--from haphe (hapto), "a lighting," or from the root of phaino,
"to shine." He was said to be the son of Zeus and Here, or, according
to Hesiod, of the latter only. Being ugly, and lame in both feet, his mother was
ashamed of him, and threw him from Olympus into the ocean, where he was taken
up by Eurynome and Thetis and concealed in a subterranean cavern. Here he remained
for nine years, and fashioned a number of exquisite works of art, among them a
golden throne with invisible chains, which he sent to his mother by way of revenge.
She sat down in it, and was chained to the seat so fast that no one could release
her. On this it was resolved to call Hephaestus back to Olympus. Ares wished to
force him back, but was frightened off by his brother with firebrands. Dionysus
at length succeeded in making him drunk and bringing him back in this condition
to Olympus. But he was destined to meet with his former luck a second time. There
came a quarrel between Zeus and Here, and Hephaestus took his mother's part; whereupon
Zeus seized him by the leg and hurled him down from Olympus. He fell upon the
island of Lemnos, where the Sintians, who then inhabited the island, took care
of him and finally revived him. From this time Lemnos was his favourite abode.
His lameness was, in the later story, attributed to this fall.
The whole story--the sojourn of Hephaestus in the cavern under
the sea and his fondness for Lemnos--is, in all probability, based upon volcanic
phenomena--the submarine activity of volcanic fires and the natural features of
the island of Lemnos. Here there was a volcano called Mosychlus, which was in
activity down to the time of Alexander the Great. The friendship existing between
Dionysus and Hephaestus may be explained by the fact that the best and finest
wines are grown in the volcanic regions of the South.
As a master in the production of beautiful and fascinating
works of art, Hephaestus is in the Iliad the husband of a Charis, and in the Odyssey
of Aphrodite, and in Hesiod of Aglaea. The story of his marriage with Aphrodite
was not, apparently, widely known in early antiquity. Through his artistic genius
he appears, and most especially in the Athenian story, as the intimate friend
of Athene. In Homer he lives and works on Olympus, where he makes palaces of brass
for himself and the other deities; but he has a forge also on Mount Mosychlus
in Lemnos; the later story gives him one under Aetna in Sicily, and on the sacred
island, or island of Hephaestus, in the Lipari Islands, where he is heard at work
with his companions the Cyclopes. All the masterpieces of metal which appear in
the stories of gods and heroes-- the aegis of Zeus, the arms of Achilles, the
sceptre of Agamemnon, the fatal necklace of Harmonia, the fire-breathing bulls
of Aeetes, the golden torchbearers in the palace of Alcinous, and others --were
attributed to the art of Hephaestus. To help his lameness he made, according to
Homer, two golden maidens, with the power of motion, to lean upon when he walked.
He was much worshipped in Lemnos, where there was an annual festival in his honour.
All fires were put out for nine days, during which rites of atonement and purification
were performed. Then fresh fire was brought on a sacred ship from Delos, the fires
were kindled again, and a new life, as the saying went, began. At Athens he was
worshipped in the Academy, in connection with Athene and Prometheus. In October
the smiths and smelters celebrated the Chalkeia, a feast of metal-workers, in
his honour and that of Athene; at the Apatouria sacrifices were offered to him,
among other gods, as the giver of fire, and torches were kindled and hymns were
sung; at the Hephaisteia, finally, there was a torch-race in his honour. The Greeks
frequently set small dwarf-like images of Hephaestus near their fireplaces. In
works of art he is represented as a vigorous man with a beard, equipped, like
a smith, with hammer and tongs; his left leg is shortened, to show his lameness.
The Romans identified him with their Vulcanus.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Hephaestus, (Hephaistos), the god of fire, was, according to the Homeric account,
the son of Zeus and Hera. (Il. i. 578, xiv. 338, xviii. 396, xxi. 332, Od. viii.
312.) Later traditions state that he had no father, and that Hera gave birth to
him independent of Zeus, as she was jealous of Zeus having given birth to Athena
independent of her. (Apollod. i. 3.5; Hygin. Fab. Praef.) This, however, is opposed
to the common stor, that Hephaestus split the head of Zeus, and thus assisted
him in giving birth to Athena, for Hephaestus is there represented as older than
Athena. A further development of the later tradition is, that Hephaestus sprang
from the thigh of Hera, and, being for a long time kept in ignorance of his parentage,
he at length had recourse to a stratagem, for the purpose of finding it out. He
constructed a chair, to which those who sat upon it were fastened, and having
thus entrapped Hera, he refused allowing her to rise until she had told him who
his parents were. (Serv. ad Aen. viii. 454, Eclog. iv. 62.) For other accounts
respecting his origin, see Cicero (de Nat. Deor. iii. 22), Pausanias (viii. 53.2).
and Eustathius (ad Hom.).
Hephaestus is the god of fire, especially in so far as it manifests
itself as a power of physical nature in volcanic districts, and in so far as it
is the indispensable means in arts and manufactures, whence fire is called the
breath of Hephaestus, and the name of the god is used both by Greek and Roman
poets as synonymous with fire. As a flame arises out of a little spark, so the
god of fire was delicate and weakly from his birth, for which reason he was so
much disliked by his mother, that she wished to get rid of him, and dropped him
from Olympus. But the marine divinities, Thetis and Eurynome, received him, and
he dwelt with them for nine years in a grotto, surrounded by Oceanus, making for
them a variety of ornaments. (Hom. Il. xviii. 394, &c.) It was, according to some
accounts, during this period that he made the golden chair by which he punished
his mother for her want of affection, and from which he would not release her,
till he was prevailed upon by Dionysus. (Paus. i. 20.2; Hygin. Fab. 166.) Although
Hephaestus afterwards remembered the cruelty of his mother, yet he was always
kind and obedient towards her, nay once, while she was quarrelling with Zeus,
he took her part, and thereby offended his father so much, that he seized him
by the leg, and hulled him down from Olympus. Hephaestus was a whole day falling,
but in the evening he came down in the island of Lemnos, where he was kindly received
by the Sintians. (Hom. Il. i. 590, &c. Val. Flacc. ii. 8.5; Apollod. i. 3.5, who,
however, confounds the two occasions on which Hephaestus was thrown from Olympus.)
Later writers describe his lameness as the consequence of his second fall, while
Homer makes him lame and weak from his birth. After his second fall he returned
to Olympus, and subsequently acted the part of mediator between his parents. (Il
i. 585.) On that occasion he offered a cup of nectar to his mother and the other
gods, who burst out into immoderate laughter on seeing him busily hobbling through
Olympus from one god to another, for he was ugly and slow, and, owing to the weakness
of his legs, he was held up, when he walked, by artificial supports, skilfully
made of gold. (Il. xviii. 410, &c., Od. viii. 311, 330.) Iis neck and chest, however,
were strong and muscular. (Il. xviii. 415, xx. 36.)
In Olympus, Hephaestus had his own palace, imperishable and shining
like stars: it contained his workshop, with the anvil, and twenty bellows, which
worked spontaneously at his bidding. (Il. xviii. 370, &c.) It was there that he
made all his beautiful and marvellous works, utensils, and arms, both for gods
and men. The ancient poets and mythographers abound in passages describing works
of exquisite workmanship which had been manufactured by Hephaestus. In later accounts,
the Cyclopes, Brontes, Steropes, Pyracmon, and others, are his workmen and servants,
and his workshop is no longer represented as in Olympus, but in the interior of
some volcanic isle. (Virg. Aen. viii. 416, &c.) The wife of Hephaestus also lived
in his palace: in the Iliad she is called a Charis, in the Odyssey Aphrodite (Il.
xviii. 382, Od. viii. 270), and in Hesiod's Theogony (945) she is named Aglaia.
the youngest of the Charites. The story of Aphrodite's faithlessness to her husband,
and of the manner in which he surprised her, is exquisitely described in Od. viii.
266-358. The Homeric poems do not mention any descendants of Hephaestus, but in
later writers the number of his children is considerable. In the Trojan war he
was on the side of the Greeks, but he was also worshipped by the Trojans, and
on one occasion he saved a Trojan from being killed by Diomedes. (Il. v. 9, &c.)
His favourite place on earth was the island of Lemnos, where he liked
to dwell among the Sintians (Od. viii. 283, &c., Il. i. 593; Ov Fast. viii. 82);
but other volcanic islands also, such as Lipara, Hiera, Imbros. and Sicily, are
called his abodes or workshops. (Apollon. Rhod iii. 41; Callim. Hymn. in Dian.
47; Serv. ad Aen. viii. 416; Strab.; Plin. H. N. iii. 9; Val. Flace. ii. 96.)
Hephaestus is among the male what Athena is among the female deities,
for, like her, he give skill to mortal artists, and, conjointly with her, he was
believed to have taught men the arts which embellish and adorn life. (Od. vi.
233, xxiii. 160. Hymn. in Vaulc. 2. &c.) But he was. nevertheless, conceived as
far inferior to the sublime character of Athena. At Athens they had temples and
festivals in common. (See Dict of Ant. s. v. Hephaisteia, Chalkeia.) Both also
were believed to have great healing powers, and Lemnian earth (terra Lemnia) from
the spot on which Hephaestus had falleen was believed to cure madness, the bites
of snakes, and haemorrhage, and the priests of the god knew how to cure wounds
inflicted by snakes. (Philostr. Heroic. v. 2; Eustath. ad Hom.; Dict. Cret. ii.
14.) The epithets and surnames by which Hephaestus is designated by the poets
generally allude to his skill in the plastic arts or to his figure and his lameness.
He was represented in the temple of Athena Chalcioecus at Sparta, in the act of
delivering his mother (Paus. iii. 17.3); on the chest of Cypselus, giving to Thetis
the armour for Achilles (v. 19.2); and at Athens there was the famous statue of
Hephaestus by Alcamenes, in which his lameness was slightly indicated. (Cic. de
Nat. Deor. i. 30; Val. Max. viii. 11.3.) The Greeks frequently placed small dwarf-like
statues of the god near the hearth, and these dwarfish figures seem to have been
the most ancient. (Herod. iii. 37; Aristoph. Av. 436; Callim. Hymnn. in Dian.
60.) During the best period of Grecian art, he was represented as a vigorous man
with a beard, and is characterised by his hammer or some other instrument, his
oval cap, and the chiton, which leaves the right shoulder and arm uncovered. (Hirt,
Mythol. Bilderb. i. 42, &c.) The Romans, when speaking of the Greek Hephaestus,
call him Vulcanus, although Vulcanus was an original Italian divinity.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Nov 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Charis. A name applied by Homer ( Il.xviii. 382) to the wife of Hephaestus. In the Odyssey, on the other hand (viii. 267), Aphrodite is named as his spouse. It amounts to the same thing in the figurative explanation of the myth, since Grace and Beauty were both regarded as the characteristics of Hephaestus's labours.
Charis, the personification of Grace and Beauty, which the Roman poets translate
by /Gratia and we after them by Graec. Homer, without giving her any other name,
describes a Charis as the wife of Hephaestus (Il. xviii. 382). Hesiod (Theog.
945) calls the Charis who is the wife of Hephaestus, Aglaia, and the youngest
of the Charites (Comp. Eustath. ad Hom.). According to the Odyssey, on the other
hand, Aphrodite was the wife of Hephaestus, from which we may infer, if not the
identity of Aphrodite and Charis, at least a close connexion and resemblance in
the notions entertained about the two divinities. The idea of personified grace
and beauty was, as we have already seen, divided into a plurality of beings at
a very early time, probably to indicate the various ways in which the beautiful
is manifested in the world and adorns it. In the Iliad itself (xiv. 269) Pasithea
is called one of the younger Charites, who is destined to be the wife of Sleep,
and the plural Charites occurs several times in the Homeric poems (Od. xviii.
194).
The parentage of the Charites is differently described; the most common
account makes them the daughters of Zeus either by Hera, Eurynome, Eunomia, Eurydomene,
Harmonia, or Lethe (Hesiod. Theog. 907, &c.; Apollod. i. 3.1; Pind. Ol. xiv. 15;
Phurnut. 15; Orph. Hymn. 59. 2; Stat. Thcb. ii. 286; Eustath. ad Hom.). According
to others they were the daughters of Apollo by Aegle or Euanthe (Paus. ix. 35.1),
or of Dionysus by Aphrodite or Coronis. The Homeric poems mention only one Charis,
or an indefinite number in the plural, and from the passage in which Pasithea
is mentioned, it would almost seem as if the poet would intimate that he was thinking
of a great number of Charites and of a division of them into classes. Hesiod distinctly
mentions three Charites, whose names are Euphrosyne, Aglaia, and Thalia, and this
number as well as these names subsequently became generally established, although
certain places in Greece retained their ancient and established number. Thus the
Spartans had only two Charites, Cleta and Phaenna, and the Athenians the same
number, Auxo and Hegemone, who were worshipped there from the earliest times.
Hermesianax added Peitho as a third (Paus. ix. 35). Sostratus (ap. Eustath. ad
Hom.) relates that Aphrodite and the three Charites, Pasithea, Cale, and Euphrosyne,
disputed about their beauty with one another, and when Teiresias awarded the prize
to Cale he was changed by Aphrodite into an old woman, but Cale rewarded him with
a beautiful head of hair and took him to Crete. The name Cale in this passage
has led some critics to think that Homer also (Il. xviii. 393) mentions the names
of two Charites, Pasithea and Cale, and that kale should accordingly be written
by a capital initial.
The character and nature of the Charites are sufficiently expressed
by the names they bear: they were conceived as the goddesses who gave festive
joy and enhanced the enjoyments of life by refinement and gentleness. Gracefulness
and beauty in social intercourse are therefore attributed to them (Horat. Carm.
iii. 21, 22; Pind. Ol. xiv. 7, &c.). They are mostly described as being in the
service or attendance of other divinities, as real joy exists only in circles
where the individual gives up his own self and makes it his main object to afford
pleasure to others. The less beauty is ambitious to rule, the greater is its victory;
and the less homage it demands, the more freely is it paid. These seen to be the
ideas embodied in the Charites. They lend their grace and beauty to everything
that delights and elevates gods and men. This notion was probably the cause of
Charis being called the wife of Hephaestus, the divine artist. The most perfect
works of art are thus called the works of the Charites, and the greatest artists
are their favourites. The gentleness and gracefulness which they impart to man's
ordinary pleasures are expressed by their moderating the exciting influence of
wine (Hor. Carm. iii. 19. 15; Pind. Ol. xiii. 18), and by their accompanying Aphrodite
and Eros (Hom. Od. viii. 364, xviii. 194; Paus. vi. 24.5). They also assist Hermes
and Peitho to give grace to eloquence and persuasion (Hesiod. Op. 63), and wisdom
itself receives its charms from them. Poetry, however, is the art which is especially
favoured by them, whence they are called erasimolpoi or philesimolpoi. For the
same reason they are the friends of the Muses, with whom they live together in
Olympus (Hes. Theog. 64; Eurip. Herc. fur. 673; Theocrit. xvi. in fin.). Poets
are inspired by the Muses, but the application of their songs to the embellishment
of life and the festivals of the gods are the work of the Charites. Late Roman
writers describe the Charites (Gratiae) as the symbols of gratitude and benevolence,
to which they were led by the meaning of the word gratia in their own language
(Senec. De Benef. i. 3; comp. Diod. v. 73).
The worship of the Charites was believed to have been first introduced
into Boeotia by Eteoclus or Eteocles, the son of Cephissus, in the valley of that
river (Paus. ix. 35.1; Theocrit. xvi. 104; Pind. Ol. xiv.). At Orchomenos and
in the island of Paros a festival, the charisia or charitesia, was celebrated
to the Charites (Eustath. ad Hom.; Apollod. iii. 15.7). At Orchomenos they were
worshipped from early times in the form of rude stones, which were believed to
have fallen from heaven in the time of Eteocles (Paus ix. 38.1; Strab. ix.). Statues
of them are mentioned in various parts of Greece, as at Sparta, on the road from
Sparta to Amyclae, in Crete, at Athens, Elis, Hermione, and others (Paus. i. 22.8,
ii. 34.10, iii. 14.6, vi. 24.5). They were often represented as the companions
of other gods, such as Hera, Hermes, Eros, Dionysus, Aphrodite, the Horae, and
the Muses. In the ancient statues of Apollo at Delos and Delphi, the god carried
the Charites on his hand. In the early times the Charites were represented dressed,
but afterwards their figures were always made naked, though even Pausanias (ix.
35.2) did not know who had introduced the custom of representing them naked. Specimens
of both dressed and naked representations of the Charites are still extant. Their
character is that of unsuspicious maidens in the full bloom of life, and they
usually embrace one another. Their attributes differ according to the divinities
upon whom they attend; as the companions of Apollo they often carry musical instruments,
and as the companions of Aphrodite they carry myrtles, roses, or dice, the favourite
game of youth.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Nov 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Sing, clear-voiced Muse, of Hephaestus famed for inventions. With bright-eyed
Athena he taught men glorious crafts throughout the world, --men who before used
to dwell in caves in the mountains like wild beasts. But now that they have learned
crafts through Hephaestus the famed worker, easily they live a peaceful life in
their own houses the whole year round. Be gracious, Hephaestus, and grant me success
and prosperity.
Commentary
The fact that Hephaestus and Athena were joined in a common cult at Athens, and
(as far as is known) in no other Greek city, gives colour to Baumeister's suggestion
that this hymn is Athenian. The two deities were worshipped together as patrons
of all arts and crafts; the shops of braziers and ironmongers were near the temple
of Hephaestus, in which stood a statue of Athena ( Paus.i. 14. 6), and the festival
called Chalceia was sacred to both. According to Plato (Critias 109 C), Athena
and Hephaestus became joint patrons of Attica; Athena was Ergane, the Worker;
but in a wider sense she was the giver of all civilization; Hephaestus, the Fire-god
and the divine smith, gave men the skill which differentiated them from wild beasts.
Aeschylus, indeed, attributes these gifts of civilization to Prometheus; but the
importance of the Titan was mainly mythological; in practical cult Hephaestus
appropriated most of the credit.
But this aspect of Athena and Hephaestus was by no means exclusively
Athena Attic. was the patron of arts in Homer (Il. 5.61 , u 78), and under titles
such as Ergane, Kalliergos, and Machanitis, she was worshipped in many parts of
Greece. In Hesiod she instructs Pandora, the creation of Hephaestus, in weaving.
We may therefore fairly look for Epic rather than Athenian influence in the mythology
of this hymn.
The Return of Hephaistos. The subject is the Return of Hephaistos
to Olympus. Because of his lameness, the god of fire was not respected by his
parents Zeus and Hera, who flung him out of Olympus so that he fell to earth (Hom.
Il. 1.590-94; Hom. Il. 18.395-97). To trick them into recalling him, the crafty
god sent Hera a throne; she sat on it and was unable to rise, and only Hephaistos
knew how to release her. Ares was sent to bring him back, but Hephaistos drove
him off with hot coals. Dionysos succeeded with a gentler method, getting him
drunk on wine, putting him on a donkey, and bringing him back amid a raucous procession
of satyrs. A comic version of the story was included in the Komastai of Epicharmos,
a Sicilian contemporary of the Kleophrades Painter, but the subject had long been
a favorite with Attic vase-painters.
Artifices. It is proposed in this article to touch on the general condition of
the artisans in Greece and Rome, and the estimation in which they were held, without
treating of the agricultural labourers, or going into the special technical details
of the different manufactures.. For the latter, the reader is referred to the
articles treating of the separate trades.
I. GREEK
Among the Homeric Greeks we find gods and heroes engaged on
the works of artisans. Thus Hephaestus himself works at the forge (Il.
xviii. 371), and Athena at the loom (Il. viii. 386). Odysseus makes his own bed
(Od. xxiii. 189), Arete spins (Od vi. 306), and Nausicaa washes her own clothes
(Od. vi. 31). This shows that much was done in the family which in later times
would have been the work of slaves or hired workmen. But in Homeric times there
were professional artisans who worked for the people, demioergoi,--a term which
probably comprised all kinds of artisans, and not merely the few mentioned as
examples in Od. xvii. 384; viz. physicians, soothsayers, shipwrights, and singers.
Some acquired such reputation that they used to be called in (kalein, Od. i. 416,
xvii. 382--the regular term) from their town (allothen) to another. They were
free Greeks, not barbarians (cf. e.g. Il. vii. 221), not forming anything like
a caste, of which there is not the slightest trace in Homer. They appear to have
been remunerated generally by a feast (Od. xv. 506; cf. Il. xviii. 558), though
the called-in artisans may have also received presents as xenoi. They almost always
belonged to the lower classes (cherees). Work was no shame at that period; idleness
was shame (Hes. Op. 301). (On the Homeric workmen generally, see Riedenauer, Handwerk
und Handwerker in den homerischen Zeiten, 1873; Buchholz, Die homerischen Realien,
ii. 1, 27 ff., 1881).
The patriarchal times gave place to a period of unrest while Greece
was moving about and settling itself (Thuc. i. 12). During this period the warriors
were everything; the artisans were of small account. These latter came to be looked
down on, as they are in every military society. Accordingly, when the aristocratically
governed Dorians took possession of Laconia, they made the perioeci and the slaves
[p. 195] practise all the manual arts. An artisan could not be a citizen; nor
could a citizen learn a manual art. The allies were almost all artisans (see the
story in Plut. Ages. 26). Similarly, the Thespians did not allow their citizens
to be either mechanics or agricultural labourers, and were accordingly very poor,
says Heraclides Ponticus (De polit. Graec. 43). In other aristocratical communities
the laws were not so strict. If a man had ceased to be a mechanic for ten years
at Thebes, he was eligible for magistracies (Arist. Pol. vii. (vi.) 7, § 5, compared
with iii. 3, § 4). Still less strict were the timocratical and democratical communities;
least strict of all the Corinthians (Herod. ii. 167). Manufacture involves work
and brings wealth, and work and wealth make a state in peace contented and happy.
The Athenian legislators knew this, and enacted that every father should have
his son taught a trade, or else the son should not be under any obligations towards
him (Plut. Sol. 22); anyone who had no visible means of support, and yet was idle,
was liable to an argias graphe, a law with which we can find no fault (Herod.
ii. 177); citizenship was offered to strangers who were skilled as artisans and
were willing to settle at Athens (Plut. Sol. 24). Themistocles advised the people
to encourage the artisans by freeing them from all tribute (Diod. Sic. xi. 43).
Any one abusing another on account of his trade was liable to a kakegorias dike
(Dem. c. Eubul. p. 1308, § 30).
This latter enactment gives a very clear hint as to the way artisans
were regarded, even in democratic Athens. They were recognised and protected by
the law, had a share in the deliberations of the assembly (Aeschin. Timarch. §
27; Thuc. ii. 40; Xeu. Mem. iii. 7, § 6), but looked down upon by the upper classes,
and so suffered in general repute, as they did in all ancient states (Herod. ii.
167). Leisure (argia), they considered with Socrates, was the sister of Freedom
(Ael. Var. Hist. x. 14); but work was to be resorted to in order to escape from
poverty (Thuc. ii. 40). Thus in Macedonian times, when Athens became poor, we
find many even of the free women turning to menial occupations, such as nurses
and mowers and vintagers (Dem. c. Eubul. p. 1313, § 57). Phaenarete, the mother
of Socrates, had been a midwife (Plat. Theaet. 149 A). According to genuine Greek
minds, such as Plato's, no native should engage in the employments of artisans
(demiourgika technemata); he has quite as much as he can do to maintain and further
the honour of the state (Legg. 846 D). Aristotle holds similar views (Pol. iii.
3, § 2). Phaleas of Chalcedon in his constitution allowed no artisans except slaves
belonging to the state (Aristot. Pol. ii. 4, § 13). The Greeks had many reasons
for this contempt for manufacturing industry. Mechanical labour (banausia, properly
labour over a furnace, Suidas s. v.) prevents the full development of the body,
and consequently of the mind, owing both to the sedentary and confined nature
of the various employments and to the want of leisure they entail. The mechanics
are thus unable to attend to the interests of their friends or of the state (Xen.
Oec. 4, § 2; Aristot. Pol. v. (viii.) 2, § 1). Again, even the free artisans were
in a manner slaves to their employers for their hire; and as most of the artisans
were either actually slaves or strangers (Aristot. Pol. iii. 3, § 2), all came
to be regarded together as forming one class, viz. banausoi (also called technitai,
chernetes, cheirotechnai, cheironaktes, chrematistai). For it must be carefully
borne in mind that the greater mass of the artisans were foreigners (metoikoi)
or slaves; in the list of workmen at the Erechtheum (C. L. A. i. 324) the foreigners
are twice as numerous as the citizens.
What is most remarkable to us in the low opinion of the ancients with
regard to manual labour is that they made no radical distinction between the artist
and the artisan, as long as both took pay for their services. No doubt Phidias
was thought more of than a fuller; but still even the greatest statuary or painter,
if he took pay, was regarded even till the latest times as a banausos kai cheironax
kai apocheirobiotos. See the striking speeches of Statuary (Hermogluphike) and
Culture (Paideia) in Lucian's Somnium, 6-9, the whole tone of which dialogue is
most instructive. (Cf. Plut. Praecept. reip. ger. 5, 7 = ii. 802.) Aristotle,
too, deprecates professional skill being displayed in music (Pol. v. (viii.) 6,
§ 2, 3). If, however, the artist took no pay, this raised him in public estimation:
e. g. Polygnotus, who painted the Stoa Poecile gratis (Plut. Cim. 4). How one
who took money for services was in a manner lowered in social estimation may be
felt from the way professional athletes are still regarded.
Such states as Phocis and Locris deserve a passing notice. They were
poor and had for a long time no slaves, so that all the artisans were citizens.
We hear that they strenuously resisted, as depriving them of their daily bread,
a capitalist Mnason, who wanted to compete against them with slave labour on an
extensive scale (Athen. vi. p. 264 d); for, says Athenaeus, it was customary for
the younger to help the elder in their different houses.
This leads us on to the consideration of the question whether there
were any castes of artisans among the Greeks as there were among the Egyptians.
We may say generally that there were not (cf. Grote, iii. p. 51), though we occasionally
meet with something like them: thus the functions of the heralds, flute-players,.
and cooks were hereditary in certain families at Sparta (Herod. vi. 60). The sculptors
at Athens called themselves Daedalidae (Plat. Euthyphr. 11 C); and some priesthoods
appear to have been confined to certain families, the Eteobutadae at Athens (Aeschin.
de Fals. Leg. 47, § 155), the Telliadae and Iamidae in Elis (Herod. ix. 37, 33).
But by an individual member of a family holding a priesthood that family was not
rendered holy or separated from the rest. (On the absence of castes in Greece,
see especially Drumann, Arbeiter, § 6.) Neither did the trades form corporations
till late in Roman times and under Roman influence. The artisans appear to have
had partners, sunergoi (C. L A. i. 324, p. 173), and apprentices (mathetai, Plat.
Meno, 90 D). But, besides these small artisans, we find large workshops (ergasteria),
the owners of which managed them by foremen (ergon epistatai, epitropoi, ngemones
tou ergasteriou) taken from among their slaves or freedmen (Dem. c. Aphob. 819,
§ 24; Aeschin. Tim. 14, § 97). In the two factories of the father of Demosthenes
there were fifty-two slaves (Dem. c. Aphob. 816, [p. 196] § § 11, 12); and Lysias
and his brother Polemarchus had a shield-factory with 120 slaves (Lys. contra
Eratosth. § § 8, 19). Thus the establishments do not appear to have been large.
The work of the slaves in them was probably severe. Most of the 20,000 slaves
who deserted in the Decelean war to the Spartans were cheirotechnai (Thuc. vii.
27). The owners of these workshops were generally considered highly respectable
members of society; the father of Demosthenes was something more than one of the
middle-class citizens (metrion, Dem. de Cor. p. 228, § 10), yet was called a cutler
(Mayor on Juv. x. 130); and we may well suppose that some of the tanners, cobblers,
lamp-makers, &c. satirized by Aristophanes, were owners of such factories (cf.
Hermann-Blumner, Privatalterthumer, 399, notes 2, 3). The workers in these factories
were mostly slaves, though sometimes no doubt day-labourers were hired (thetes,
misthotoi). Indeed, there was not much difference between the condition of slaves
and such artisans: Aristotle (Pol. iii. 3, § 3) says, hoi men heni leitourgountes
ta toiauta douloi, hoi de koine banausoi kai thetes. Masters, too, often allowed
their slaves to be hired. These day-labourers were sometimes called at Athens
Kolonitai, as the place where they congregated for hire was the kolonos en tei
agorai para to Eurusakeion (Poll. vii. 133). The united artisans celebrated the
festival of the Chalkea in honour of Athena and Hephaestus (A. Mommsen, Heortologie,
313 foll.). On manufactories in Greece, see Drumann, op. cit. § 11.
The state interfered very little with the artisans. They appear to
have sometimes removed unsanitary factories, e. g. tanneries, outside the walls
(Artem. Oneirocr. i. 53); and at Sybaris, noisy ones (Athen. xii. 518 c). We find
at Paros the agoranomi seeing that fair contracts were enforced between employer
and employed (see the important inscription in honour of Cillus at Paros in Rangabe,
Antiq. hellen. ii. 366 ff.). There are stray allusions to a cheironaxion or tax
on trades generally (Aristot. (Oec. ii. 1, 4, and C. I. C. 4863 b). Each man was
allowed to exercise as many trades as he liked, though Plato (Legg. 846 E) would
not have tolerated it; yet, as a matter of fact, the extension of the principle
of division of labour (cf. Xen. Mem. ii. 7, 6) must have practically limited the
exercise of more businesses than one. We have allusions to patents for discoveries
(Athen. xii. 521 d); and to the selling of good--will (Lys. pro Inval. § 6). The
rates of wages may be seen from the following:--Farm-labourer, 4 obols a day (Lucian,
Tim 6); hodman, 3 obols (Aristoph. Eccl. 312); stonecutter and such as worked
at the Erechtheum, 1 drachma (C. I. A. i. p. 173); nightwork at the mill, 2 drachmas
(Athen. iv. p. 168).
The principal works on the subject are Drumann, Die Arbeiter und Communisten
in Griechenland und Rom, 1860; Frohberger, De opificum apud veteres Graecos conditione,
1866; Buchsenschutz, Besitz und Erwerb im Griechischen Alterthsume, 1869, esp.
249-292, 316-355; Caillemer in D. and S., 1874; Becker-Goll, Charikles, iii. 93-97;
Hermann-Blumner, Privatalterthumer, § § 41, 42.
II. ROMAN.
It has been epigrammatically remarked that whereas with the Greeks
every handicraft was an art, with the Romans every art was a handicraft. But both
agreed in looking down on all manual labour for hire, whether art or handicraft.
Seneca (Epist. 88, 18) hesitates about classing a painter among the practisers
of liberal arts (see Marquardt, Privatleben, p. 589 seq.). For the distinction
of liberal and sordid or common (volgares) arts was that adopted by the Romans,
the former being those which involved greater skill and produced greater advantage,
the latter those which required mere labour (opera), not skill, the wages for
which constituted an obligation of slavery (auctoramentum servitutis, Cic. Off.
i. 4. 2, 150). Now it is to be noticed, firstly, that the practical Roman valued
in any art the greater advantage, not the aesthetic excellence, of what was produced,
always making profession before the people of being quite unskilled in aesthetic
judgment (e. g. Cic. Verr. ii. 3. 5, 87); and, secondly, that the professors of
the liberal arts were in strictness called artifices, while opifices or sellularii
was the name given to those who exercised the artes operosae or sordidae (Cic.
Off. l. c.). The artifices were painters, sculptors, engineers, architects, musicians,
actors, &c. These latter appear to have been specially called artifices (Weissenborn
on Livy, v. 1, § 5). However, it will be convenient here to treat of the whole
class of what we call artisans.
The earliest notice we have of such artisans is that king Numa (Plut.
Numa, 17) instituted nine guilds: viz. auletai, tibicines; chrusochooi, aurifices;
tektones, fabri; bapheis, tinctores, or, according to Marquardt, fullones; skutotomoi,
sutores; skutodephai, coriarii; chalkeis, aerarii; kerameis, figuli; and all the
rest of the mechanics formed the ninth collegium. Mommsen remarks (R. H. i. 202,
Eng. trans,) that there are no workers in iron, so that we may infer that iron
was a late introduction. The skilled artisans no doubt united in order to preserve
the traditions of their art. There are no signs of monopoly by these guilds, or
protection in their interest (Mommsen, l. c.). These collegia remained in existence
all through the republic.
The simplicity of the early times and the paucity of skilled slaves
must have caused the artisans to be held at first in high esteem. But of this
they were deprived by the Servian timocratic organisation, which excluded artisans
(except the carpenters, coppersmiths, and musicians) from serving in the army,
not formally but practically, because service was connected with a freehold, which
the artisans did not possess (Mommsen, l. c.). Later the increase of capital in
a few hands led to the employment by these capitalists of slaves or freedmen as
artisans, and this prevented any middle class growing up in Rome. Most of the
requirements of life were produced in this way. Manufacture was spread throughout
Italy. The Ficoroni casket was made by a Praenestine. Cato advises the Campanian
farmer to buy the different necessaries of his calling at the most various places
(de Re Rustica, 135 [136]),--a highly important passage given by Wordsworth, Fragm.
and Specimens, p. 334. It shows that Mommsen, R. H. ii. 379, is misleading. That
cloth-working must have been fairly extensive is to be inferred from the frequent
mention of the fullers in Roman comedy. A considerable list of manufacturers may
be seen in Plaut. Aulul. [p. 197] iii. 5, 34 if. The strike of the tibicines recorded
in Liv. ix. 30 reminds one of a modern trades-union. The rate of wages appears
to have been about 12 asses a day (about 8d.) for an ordinary journeyman labourer
(Cic. Rosc. Com. 10, 28). On the whole, it must be confessed with Mommsen (R.
H. i. 203) that about the state of trade during the Republic we know next to nothing.
The artifices, properly so called, except the architects, came mostly
from Greece: painters, e. g. Metrodorus (Plin. H. N. xxxv. § 135, who gives numerous
other examples); statuaries, e. g. Pasiteles (Plin. H. N. xxxvi. § 40), Arcesilaus
(ib. § 156); architects, e. g. Hermodorus (Cic. de Orat. i. 14, 62); and for many
more see Drumann, Arbeiter, § § 29, 30. But few Romans practised these arts. One
of the Fabian gens got the honorary title of Pictor for painting the temple of
Salus, in 304 B.C. The poet Pacuvius was also celebrated as a painter, but after
him the art was seldom seen in respectable hands ( honestis manibus, Plin. H.
N. xxxv. § § 19, 20). See, too, the scoff of Naevius in Mommsen, R. H. ii. 478.
Spurius Carvilius (Consul 293 B.C.) made a colossal bronze statue of Jupiter (Plin.
H. N. xxxiv. § 43). A Roman architect, Cossutius, is found building a temple to
Honor and Virtus at Rome, and later engaged on the temple of Zeus at Athens in
170 B.C. (Vitruv. vii., Pref. § 15). That actors were either slaves, freedmen,
or strangers; and that, though in later times they were much admired and received
enormous salaries, they were always considered unworthy of citizenship, is well
known (see Cic. Arch. 5, 10; Tac. Ann. xiv. 21; and Drumann, op. cit. § § 31,
32). All these professions were to the Romans mediocres artes, second-rate arts
(Cic. de Orat. i. 2, 6), leviores artes (Cic. Brut. 1, 2).
The great boon of the empire was peace. Industry increased vastly
in all departments. The division of labour was of the most extensive kind; see,
for example, the immense number of different workmen engaged in the making of
clothes, as given in Marquardt, Privatleben, pp. 566-7, and indeed the whole volume;
also Friedlander, i.4 286, and his quotation from St. Augustine (Civ. Dei, vii.
4). Now a capital feature of the empire was the tendency to concentrate the different
kinds of handicraftsmen in collegia. An interesting and full account of these
collegia of workmen, which were at once trades-unions and clubs, insurance and
burial societies, is given in Boissier, La Religion Romaine, ii. 238 foll. They
were the most conservative element of society. It was mostly foreigners and freedmen
who carried on the different trades; though rich people and even the emperors
put their money into large businesses (Hermann Schiller, Rom. Kaiserzeit. 424),
e. g. the purple-manufacturers (Marquardt, Privatleben, p. 498). The artisans
in these large workshops were slaves or freedmen (Friedlander, i.4 285, 291).
The working dress of the lower orders appears to have been the tunica (Hor. Ep.
i. 7, 65). The coppersmiths used to wear a cap and apron: pilion kai perizoma
(Epictet. Diatrib. iv. 8, 16). A considerable contempt, natural in a slave state,
hung round the exercise of trade: at Tarsus we find a number of the small artisans
outside the state (Dio Chrys. vol. ii. 43 and 45, Reiske). This contempt did not
merely attach to trade, but also to what we call art: see Sen. Ep. 88, 18, and
also ap. Lactant. Inst. ii. 2, 14, simulacra deorum venerantur . . . fabros qui
illa fecere contemnunt. The technical skill and inventiveness of several of the
artisans was of the highest order, details of which will be found in the articles
treating of the different handicrafts.
The trades were sometimes taxed. Caligula exacted one-eighth of their
gains from the porters (Suet. Calig. 40). Alexander Severus, and apparently before
him Antoninus Pius (Justin Martyr, Apol. i. 27), laid a tax on several classes
of artisans,--braccarii, linteones, vitrarii, pelliones, claustrarii, argentarii,
aurifices--mostly makers of articles of luxury. (Lampr. Alex. Sev. 24.)
In post-Diocletian times all artisans were scheduled and formed in
each community a corporation. Each corporation paid a fixed tax, called lustralis
collatio (Cod. Theod. xiii. 1; and especially Marquardt, v. 230). During the same
period the lower class of artisans and traders was organised into the Collegiati,
while a number of artifices by a law of Constantine obtained special exemption
from all state burdens, in order that they might have more time to apply themselves
each to his special art and to teach it to their sons (Cod. Theod. xiii. 4, 2;
Cod. Just. x. 66). In the schedule to this law, which enumerates thirty-five different
kinds of artisans concerned, architects, physicians, painters, sculptors, goldsmiths,
fullers, potters, &c., all appear to be on an equality. Special immunities, too,
are granted to architects, engineers, builders and painters (see the whole title
Cod. Theod. xiii. 4, De excusationibus artificum ). Compare, for similar immunities
granted to military artisans, Dig. 50, 6, 7 (6). The idea was that the artisans
were not rich enough to undertake munera patrimonii; but if the artisan or manufacturer
grew rich, he became liable (Dig. 27, 1, 17, 2).
This text is from: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Amphigyeeis (Amphigueeis), lame or limping on both feet, a surname of Hephaestus, given him because Zeus threw him from Olympus upon the earth for having wished to support Hera. (Hom. Il. i. 599; comp. Apollod. i. 3.5)
He was the god of Sleep and twin brother of Death (Il. 14.231, 242, 270, 286, 16.454, 672, 682). Hera went to the island of Lemnos in order to find him (Il. 14.230).
Somnus (Hupnos). The god of sleep; the son of Nyx and twin-brother of Thanatos
or Mors ( Il.xiv. 231; xvi. 672). With his brother, according to Hesiod, he dwelt
in the eternal darkness of the farthest West (Theog. 759). Thence he swept over
land and sea, bringing sleep to men and gods, since he had power over all alike,
and could lull to sleep even Zeus himself. On the chest of Cypselus at Olympia,
both brothers were depicted as boys sleeping in the arms of their mother, Death
being painted in black and Sleep in white (Pausan. v. 18, 1). Sleep was represented
in art in various forms and situations, and frequently with the wings of an eagle
or a butterfly on his forehead, and a poppy-stalk and a horn, from which he dropped
slumber upon those whom he lulled to rest. The earlier conception made Dreams
the sisters of Sleep, but in later times the dream-god figures as his son. Hermes
was also a god of sleep.
CHIOS (Island) NORTH AEGEAN
Helenos the son of Oinops (Oenipion)
LESVOS (Island) NORTH AEGEAN
She was the daughter of Phorbas from the island of Lesbos and was captured by Achilles (Il. 9.665).
CHIOS (Island) NORTH AEGEAN
An island of the Aegean Sea, which is mentioned by Homer (Od. 3.170).
CHRYSSI (Homeric island) LEMNOS (LIMNOS)
LEMNOS (LIMNOS) (Island) NORTH AEGEAN
An island to the N of the Aegean Sea, which is mentioned by Homer (Il. 1.593, 2.722, Od. 8.283).
LESVOS (Island) NORTH AEGEAN
The island is mentioned by Homer (Il. 24.544, Od. 3.169).
LEMNOS (LIMNOS) (Island) NORTH AEGEAN
Thoas, son of Dionysus by Ariadne, was the king of Lemnos and father of Hypsipyle (Il. 14.230, 23.745).
Thoas. Son of Dionysus and Ariadne, king of Lemnos, and married to Myrina, by whom he became the father of Hypsipyle and Sicinus. When the Lemnian women killed all the men in the island, Hypsipyle saved and concealed her father, Thoas. The patronymic Thoantias is given to Hypsipyle, as the daughter of Thoas.
Radamanthis gave Lemnos to Thoas (Diod. Sic. 5,79).
The daughter of Thoas, queen of Lemnos and mother of Euneus by Jason (Il. 7.469).
Daughter of Thoas of Lemnos. The Lemnian women had, from jealousy of their Thracian maids, killed all the men of the island; Hypsipyle alone spared her father Thoas, having been the means of aiding his flight. When the Argonauts landed at Lemnos and united with the women, Hypsipyle bore twin sons to Iason-- Euneus, who in Homer figures as king of Lemnos and carries on trade with the Greeks before Troy; and Thoas (also called Deiphilus and Nebrophonus), who is sometimes described as a son of Dionysus. When the news of her father's escape was rumoured among the Lemnian women, Hypsipyle was forced to flee for her life, and was captured by pirates, who sold her to Lycurgus of Nemea. There, as the nurse of Opheltes, the infant son of the king, she accidentally caused his death by a snake, and was exposed to the greatest danger, from which she was only rescued by the intervention of her sons, who were sent to her aid by Dionysus.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Euneus (Euneos). He was the son of Jason by Hypsipyle (Il. 7.465, 23.747).
Euneus, (Euneos), a son of Jason by Hypsipyle, in the island of Lemnos, from whence he supplied the Greeks during their war against Troy with wine. He purchased Lycaon, a Trojan prisoner, of Patroclus for a silver urn. (Hom. Il. vii. 468, xxiii. 741, &c.; Strab. i.) The Euneidae, a famous family of cithara-players in Lemnos, traced their origin to Euneus. (Eustath. ad Hom.; Hesych. s. v. Euneidai.)
LESVOS (Island) NORTH AEGEAN
The name or patronymic of a king of the island of Lesbos (Od. 4.343, 17.134).
He was the father of Diomede and king of Lesvos (Il. 9.665).
A son of Aeolus and king of Lesbos(Il. 24.544).
Macareus, (Makareus). A son of Aeolus, who committed incest with his sister Canace. Hence Isse, the daughter of Macareus, is called Macareis. After the suicide of Canace, Macareus fled to Delphi, where he became the priest of Apollo. His story is told by Ovid in the Heroides, xi.
Macar or Macareus (Makar or Makareus). A son of Helios and Rhodos, or, according to others, a son of Crinacus, who after the murder of Tenages fled from Rhodes to Lesbos. (Hom. Il. xxiv. 544; Diod. v. 56; Plat. de Leg. viii. p. 838; Arnob. adv. Gent. iv. 24; Hgen, ad Hymn. Hom. p. 203.)
Macar. The founder of Lesbos, was a son of Crineus and a grandson of Zeus. (Diod. v. 81.)
Canace (Kanake), a daughter of Aeolus and Enarete, whence she is called Aeolis (Callim. Hymn. in Cer. 100), who had several children by Poseidon. (Apollod. i. 7.3, &c.) She entertained an unnatural love for her brother Macareus, and on this account was killed by her own father; but according to others, she herself, as well as Macareus, put an end to her life. (Hygin. Fab. 238, 242; Ov. Her. 11.)
ATHERAS (Mountain) AGIOS KIRYKOS
The adjective "pramnian' derives from Pramne, a mountain in Ithaca, which is not mentioned by Homer (Il. 11.639, Od. 10.235).
LEMNOS (LIMNOS) (Island) NORTH AEGEAN
Aegis (aigis). The storm-cloud and thundercloud of Zeus, imagined in Homer as
a shield forged by Hephaestus, blazing brightly and fringed with tassels of gold,
and displaying in its centre the awe-inspiring Gorgon 's head. When Zeus shakes
the aegis, it thunders and lightens, and horror and perdition fall upon those
against whom it is lifted. It is borne not only by Zeus "the aegis-bearer", but
by his daughter Athene, and occasionally by Apollo. As the same word means a goat-skin,
it was explained in later times as the skin of the goat Amalthea, which had suckled
Zeus in his infancy. At the bidding of the oracle, he drew it over his thunder-shield
in the contest with the Giants, and fastened on it the Gorgon 's head. When the
aegis became a standing attribute of Athene, it was represented as a skin either
shaggy or scaly, with a fringe of snakes and the Gorgon 's head in the middle,
and either serving the goddess as a breastplate, or hanging behind to screen the
back and shoulders, or fastened like a shield on the left arm. Though the aegis
properly belongs to Zeus, it is seldom found in works of art as his attribute.
A cameo engraved by Nisus, however, of which a cut.
The Roman emperors also assumed the aegis, intending thereby to exhibit
themselves in the character of Iupiter.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Dec 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Aigis (originally emblematic of the ‘storm-cloud,’ cf. epaigizo): the aegis, a terrific shield borne by Zeus, or at his command by Apollo or by Athena, to excite tempests and spread dismay among men; the handiwork of Hephaestus; adorned with a hundred golden tassels, and surmounted by the Gorgon's head and other figures of horror, Il. 5.738, Il. 2.448.
A people, probably of thracian origin, that dwelt in the island of Lemnos (Il. 1.594, 8.294).
Lemnos was sacred to Hephaistos on account of what was called the
'Lemnian Fire' on Mount Mosychlos. This is commonly taken to mean that Mosychlos
was a volcano. But the present state of the island forbids the assumption of volcanic
agency, and the fire was probably only a jet of natural gas, such as may have
existed for a time and then disappeared. For the references to the Lemnian Fire
see Jebb on Soph. Phil.800, and pp. 242-5. The supposed disappearance of the 'volcano'
Mosychlos is geologically untenable. The Sinties are named as inhabitants of the
island by Hellanikos fr. 112, while Thuk. ii. 98, 1 speaks of the Sintoi as a
tribe on the coast of Thrace. What their connexion may have been with the 'Pelasgian'
inhabitants of Lemnos expelled by Miltiades about 500 B.C., or with the authors
of the (Etruscan ?) inscription recently discovered on the island, we naturally
cannot say.
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