Listed 17 sub titles with search on: Mythology for wider area of: "LIBYA Country NORTH AFRICA" .
KYRINI (Ancient city) LIBYA
Antenorides, a patronymic from Antenor, and applied to his sons and descendants. (Virg. Aen. vi. 484; Hom. Il. xi. 221.) At Cyrene, where Antenor according to some accounts had settled after the destruction of Troy, the Antenoridae enjoyed heroic honours. (Pind. Pyth. v. 108)
KYRINAIKI (Ancient country) LIBYA
Triton, the son of Poseidon and Amphitrite (or Celaeno), and described
as living with them in a golden palace in the depths of the sea. The mythical
Lake Tritonis, near the Mediterranean coast of Libya, was regarded as his peculiar
abode, especially in the story of the Argonauts. He was represented as a man in
his upper parts, terminating in a dolphin's tail; his special attribute is a twisted
sea-shell, on which he blows, now violently, now gently, to raise or calm the
billows. In Triton. (From a Roman lamp.) the course of time there grew up the
notion of a large number of Tritons, all represented as beings of double form
and sometimes with the fore-feet of a horse as well as a human body and a fish's
tail (called Centaurotritones or Ichthyotauri). They were, however, always regarded
as attendants on the other sea-gods while riding or driving over the waves; and
they were represented accordingly in works of art.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Ichthyocentaurus (Ichthuokentauros), that is, a fish-centaur, or a particular kind of Triton. Ichthyocentauri were fabulous beings, the upper part of whose body was conceived to have a human form, and the lower that of a fish, while the place of the hands was occupied by a horse's feet. They differed from the ordinary Tritons by the fact that the latter were simply half men and half fish, and had not the feet of horses. (Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 34, 886, 892.)
KYRINI (Ancient city) LIBYA
Aristaeus (Aristaios), an ancient divinity worshipped in various parts of Greece,
as in Thessaly, Ceos, and Boeotia, but especially in the islands of the Aegean,
Ionian, and Adriatic seas, which had once been inhabited by Pelasgians. The different
accounts about Aristaeus, who once was a mortal, and ascended to the dignity of
a god through the benefits he had conferred upon mankind, seem to have arisen
in different places and independently of one another, so that they referred to
several distinct beings, who were subsequently identified and united into one.
He is described either as a son of Uranus and Ge, or according to a more general
tradition, as the son of Apollo by Cyrene, the grand-daughter of Peneius. Other,
but more local traditions, call his father Cheiron or Carystus (Diod. iv. 81,
&c.; Apollon. Rhod. iii. 500, &c. with the Schol.; Pind. Pyth ix. 45, &c.). The
stories about his youth are very marvellous, and shew him at once as the favourite
of the gods. His mother Cyrene had been carried off by Apollo from mount Pelion,
where he found her boldly fighting with a lion, to Libya, where Cyrene was named
after her, and where she gave birth to Aristaeus. After he had grown up, Aristaeus
went to Thebes in Boeotia, where he learned from Cheiron and the muses the arts
of healing and prophecy. According to some statements he married Autonoe, the
daughter of Cadmus, who bore him several sons, Charmus, Calaicarpus, Actaeon,
and Polydorus (Hesiod. Theog. 975). After the unfortunate death of his son Actaeon,
he left Thebes and went to Ceos, whose inhabitants he delivered from a destructive
drought, by erecting an altar to Zeus Icmaeus. This gave rise to an identification
of Aristaeus with Zeus in Ceos. From thence he returned to Libya, where his mother
prepared for him a fleet, with which he sailed to Sicily, visited several islands
of the Mediterranean, and for a time ruled over Sardinia. From these islands his
worship spread over Magna Graecia and other Greek colonies. At last he went to
Thrace, where he became initiated in the mysteries of Dionysus, and after having
dwelled for some time near mount Haemus, where he founded the town of Aristaeon,
he disappeared (Comp. Paus. x. 17.3). Aristaeus is one of the most beneficent
divinities in ancient mythology: he was worshipped as the protector of flocks
and shepherds, of vine and olive plantations; he taught men to hunt and keep bees,
and averted from the fields the burning heat of the sun and other causes of destruction;
he was a Deos nomios, agreus, and alexeter. The benefits which he conferred upon
man, differed in different places according to their especial wants: Ceos, which
was much exposed to heat and droughts, received through him rain and refreshing
winds; in Thessaly and Arcadia he was the protector of the flocks and bees (Virg.
Georg. i. 14, iv. 283, 317). Justin (xiii. 7) throws everything into confusion
by describing Nomios and Agreus, which are only surnames of Aristaeus, as his
brothers.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
LIBYA (Country) NORTH AFRICA
AMMONIA (Ancient country) LIBYA
Ammonians got their name, too; for the Egyptians call Zeus "Amon"
KYRINI (Ancient city) LIBYA
Cyrene. The daughter of Hypseus and Chlidanope, Cyrene was not the least bit
interested in men and marriage, and was completely dedicated to hunting on Mt.
Pelion.
One day Apollo was out walking, and saw Cyrene wrestling with a lion.
This was too much for the god, and he abducted the young woman and made her queen
of Libya, where a city with
her name was founded.
Cyrene bore Apollo two sons: Aristaeus and Idmon. The former was a
hunter like his mother, while the latter took after his father and had the gifts
of prophecy and healing, and also was one of the Argonauts. Idmon was widely worshipped,
and was killed by a snake in the country of the Mariandynians.
By Ares Cyrene had Diomedes, who became king in Thrace,
where he fed his horses with human flesh.
This text is cited Sept 2003 from the In2Greece URL below.
LIBYA (Country) NORTH AFRICA
Daughter of Epaphus, the region of Libya named after her, mother of Agenor and Belus by Poseidon, statue of L. crowning Battus.(Paus., i.44.3; Apollod., ii.1.4, iii.1.1)
IRASSA (Ancient city) KYRINAIKI
Antaeus. A king of Irasa, a town in the territory of Cyrene, who was sometimes identified by the ancients with the giant Antaeus. He had a daughter Alceis or Barce, whom he promised to him who should conquer in the foot race. The prize was won by Alexidamus. (Pind. Pyti. ix. 183, &c., with the Schol.). A third personage of this name occurs in Virg. Aen. x. 561.
LIBYA (Country) NORTH AFRICA
The Gorgon, daughter of Phorcus, reigned at Lake Tritonis in Libya, account of Medusa given by Procles, slain by Perseus, beheaded by Perseus, mother of Pegasus by Poseidon, sisters of Medusa pursue Perseus, head of Gorgon Medusa turns Iodama to stone, Medusa's hair guards Tegea against capture, threatened by Herakles in Hades, gilt head of Gorgon Medusa on wall, ivory head of Medusa on Athena's breast, stone head of Medusa, Gorgon Medusa wrought on shield.
Chrysaor (Chrusaor), a son of Poseidon and Medusa, and consequently a brother of Pegasus. When Perseus cut off the head of Medusa, Chrysaor and Pegasus sprang forth from it. Chrysaor became by Callirrhoe the father of the three-headed Geryones and Echidna. (Hesiod, Theog. 280, &c.; Hygin. Fab. Praef. and 151)
Lamiae (Lamiai). Fabulous monsters, the vampires of ancient legend, commonly
represented with the head and breast of a woman and the body of a serpent. According
to some, they changed their forms at pleasure, and, when about to ensnare their
prey, assumed such appearances as were most seductive and calculated to please.
The blood of young persons was believed to possess peculiar attractions for them,
and for the purpose of quaffing this they were wont to take the forms of beautiful
women, the better to allure young men. The Lamiae possessed also another means
of accomplishing their object. This was a species of hissing sound emitted by
them, so soothing and attractive in its nature that persons found themselves irresistibly
allured by it. When not in disguise and when they had sated their horrid appetites,
their form was hideous, their visages glowed like fire, their bodies were besmeared
with blood, and their feet appeared of iron or of lead. Sometimes they showed
themselves completely blind; at other times they had a single eye, either in the
forehead or on one side of the visage. The popular belief made them frequent Africa
and Thessaly, in both of which countries they watched along the main roads and
seized upon unwary travellers.
The fable of Queen Lamia has some analogy to this fiction,
and both, in all probability, owe their origin to one and the same source. Lamia,
according to Diodorus Siculus and other ancient authorities, was a queen of Africa,
remarkable for beauty, who, on account of her cruel disposition, was eventually
transformed into a wild beast. Having lost, it seems, her own children by the
act of Here, who was jealous of Lamia's intercourse with Zeus, she sought to console
her sorrow by seizing the children of her subjects from their mothers' arms, and
putting them to death. Hence the transformation inflicted upon her by the gods.
The Lamiae figured extensively in the nursery-legends of antiquity, and their
names and attributes were standing objects of terror to the young.
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
Lamia. A female phantom, by which children were frightened. According to tradition, she was originally a Libyan queen, of great beauty, and a daughter of Belus. She was beloved by Zeus, and Hera in her jealousy robbed her of her children. Lamia, from revenge and despair, robbed others of their children, and murdered them; and the savage cruelty in which she now indulged rendered her ugly, and her face became fearfully distorted. Zeus gave her the power of taking her eyes out of her head, and putting them in again. (Diod. xx. 41; Suidas, s. v.; Plut. de Curios. 2; Schol. ad Aristoph. Pac. 757; Strab. i.) Some ancients called her the mother of Scylla. (Eustath. ad Hom. p. 1714; Arist. de Mor. vii. 5.) In later times Lamiae were conceived as handsome ghostly women, who by voluptuous artifices attracted young men, in order to enjoy their fresh, youthful, and pure flesh and blood. They were thus in ancient times what the vampires are in modern legends. (Philostr. Vit. Apollon. iv. 25; Horat. de Art. Poet. 340; Isidor. Orig. viii. 11; Apulei. Met. i. p. 57; comp. Spanheim, ad Callim. Hymn. in Dian. 67)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2006 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Empusa (Empousa), a monstrous spectre, which was believed to devour human beings. It could assume different forms, and was sent out by Hecate to frighten travellers. It was believed usually to appear with one leg of brass and the other of an ass. (Aristoph Ran. 294, Eccles. 1094.) Whenever a traveller addressed the monster with insulting words, it used to flee and utter a shrill sound. (Philostr Vit. Apoll. ii. 4.) The Lamiae and Mormolyceia, who assumed the form of handsome women for the purpose of attracting young men, and then sucked their blood like vampyrs and ate their flesh, were reckoned among the Empusae. (Philostr Vit. Apoll. iv. 25; Suid. s. v.)
KYRINAIKI (Ancient country) LIBYA
A Nereid, wife of Poseidon, and mother of Triton.
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