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Amalthea (mythology)

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This article is about the mythological figure. For other uses, see Amalthea (disambiguation).
Amalthea holds a cornucopia, out of which the young Zeus eats. Marble relief from the 2nd century AD, Vatican Museum.[1]
Amalthea and Jupiter's goat, by Pierre Julien, 1787 (Louvre Museum). A long line coiled around the goat's horns acts as a tether.

In Greek mythology, Amalthea or Amaltheia (Ancient Greek: Ἀμάλθεια) is the most commonly mentioned nurse of the infant Zeus. She is usually described as a nymph who suckles the child on the milk of a goat, though in later Hellenistic sources she is often depicted as the goat itself.

Etymology and origins

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The etymology of Ἀμάλθεια is unknown.[2] Though various derivations were propounded by 19th-century scholars,[3] Alfred Chilton Pearson discounts these, and states that the name is possibly related to ἀμαλός and ἀμάλη.[4] The verb ἀμαλθεύειν, meaning "to nurture",[5] which Otto Gruppe saw as coming from Amalthea's name, has since been found in a fragment of Sophocles, refuting Gruppe's proposal;[6] according to Pearson, the two words should instead be understood as having existed alongside each other, with this notion of "abundance" or "plenty" finding embodiment in certain mythological figures.[7]

Hesiod's Theogony, which provides the earliest known account of Zeus's birth,[8] does not mention Amalthea.[9] Hesiod, does, however, describe the newborn Zeus as being taken to a cave on "the Aegean mountain" in Crete,[10] which some scholars interpret as meaning "Goat's Mountain", a reference to the story of Amalthea;[11] Richard Wyatt Hutchinson views this as possible indication that the tradition in which Amalthea is a goat, though only attested from the Hellenistic period, may have existed earlier than that of her as a nymph.[12] Other scholars, however, including M. L. West, see no reason to view Hesiod's name for the mountain as a reference to Amalthea.[13] According to Lewis Richard Farnell, the Cretan goddess Dictynna, whose name is likely related to Mount Dicte (sometimes considered the birthplace of Zeus), may have been associated at an early point with Amalthea, the "sacred goat-mother" who reared Zeus.[14]

Mythology

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Horn of Amalthea

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The "horn of Amalthea", referred to in Latin literature as the cornucopia,[15] is a magical horn generally described as being able to produce an inexhaustible supply of any food or drink desired.[16] The tale of this horn seems to have originated as an independent tradition to the raising of Zeus, though it is uncertain when the two merged.[17] The "horn of Amalthea" is mentioned as early as the archaic period by poets such as Anacreon and Phocylides,[18] and is commonly referenced in comedies, such as those by Aristophanes and Cratinus.[19] According to Apollodorus, the mythographer Pherecydes, who described the horn's ability to provide endless food and drink as desired, considered it to belong to the nymph Amalthea.[20] In a lost poem of Pindar, Heracles fights against the river-god Achelous (who battles him in the form of a bull) for the hand of Deianeira, and during the fight Heracles pulls off one of Achelous's horns; the god then reclaims his horn by trading it for the magical horn which he obtains from Amalthea, a daughter of Oceanus.[21] In the same passage in which he cites Pherecydes, Apollodorus retells this story, and describes the nymph Amalthea as the daughter of Haemonius, whose name, meaning "Thessalian", indicates that this Amalthea is separate to the nurse of Zeus.[22] In other versions of the myth, told by Diodorus Siculus and Strabo, the horn of Amalthea is identified with that of Achelous,[23] while, according to Philemon and Apollodorus, Amalthea's horn was that of a bull,[24] seemingly a result of confusion with the bull's horn of Achelous.[25]

Nurse of Zeus

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Amalthea is the most frequently mentioned nurse of the infant Zeus,[26] and is in this role more commonly described as a nymph.[27] In the account of Zeus's upbringing attributed to the legendary poet Musaeus by Pseudo-Eratosthenes,[28] Rhea gives the newborn Zeus to Themis, who herself hands the child over to the nymph Amalthea, who has the young Zeus nursed by a she-goat.[29] Pseudo-Eratosthenes goes on to describe that this goat was the daughter of Helios, and was so horrific in appearance that the Titans, out of fear, asked Gaia to hide her in a cave on Crete; Gaia complied, entrusting the goat to Amalthea.[30] After Zeus reaches adulthood, he receives an oracle advising him to use the goat's skin as a weapon in his war against the Titans (due to its terrifying nature).[31] According to the Roman mythographer Hyginus, who similarly recounts the narrative from Musaeus,[32] this weapon, used by Zeus against the Titans, is the aegis.[33] In the account given by the Greek writer Didymus, the infant Zeus is raised by the nymphs Amalthea and Melissa, daughters of the Cretan king Melisseus, who feed him honey and the milk of a goat.[34]

Various accounts of Zeus's upbringing rationalise Amalthea as a goat;[35] these versions start appearing in the Hellenistic period.[36] The first author to describe her as a goat seems to have been Callimachus,[37] who relates that, after Zeus's birth, the god is taken by the Arcadian nymph Neda to a hidden location in Crete, where she is nursed by the nymph Adrasteia, and fed the milk of Amalthea.[38] In his description of Zeus suckling Amalthea's breast, Callimachus employs the word μαζόν, which typically denotes the breast of a human (rather than the teat of a goat), thereby, according to Susan Stephens, "call[ing] attention to his own rationalizing variant of the myth".[39] According to a scholium on Callimachus's account, from one of Amalthea's horns flows ambrosia, and from the other comes nectar.[40] In Apollodorus's version of Zeus's infancy, the god is born in a cave on Cretan Mount Dicte, where he is raised by the nymphs Adrasteia and Ida, the daughters of Melisseus, who feed him on the milk of Amalthea.[41] Similarly, Diodorus Siculus states that the child is reared on Amalthea's milk and honey, by nymphs (whom he does not name),[42] and adds that Amalthea is the source of Zeus's epithet αἰγίοχος ("aegis-bearing").[43] An account which is largely the same as that given by Pseudo-Eratosthenes is found in a scholium on the Iliad, though the scholiast describes Amalthea herself as the goat whose hide Zeus uses in his fight against the Titans (rather than the owner of the goat).[44]

In Greek works of astral mythology, the tale of the goat who nurses the young Zeus is adapted to provide an aition for certain stars.[45] Aratus, in his description of the constellation of the Charioteer (Auriga) and the surrounding stars, explains that the star of the Goat (Capella) sits above the Charioteer's left shoulder.[46] He appears to identify this goat with Amalthea,[47] describing her as the goat who suckled the young Zeus;[48] in this passage, he employs the word μαζόν for the goat's breast, similarly to Callimachus,[49] who may be his source for this information.[50] He also states that the "interpreters of Zeus" refer to her as the Olenian goat, which may be an allusion to a version in which Zeus is reared, by a goat, near Olenos in Achaea, or to location of the star, on the arm (ὠλένη) of Auriga;[51] alternatively, it may indicate that the Goat's father is Olenus (the son of Hephaestus),[52] an interpretation given in a scholium on the passage.[53] Pseudo-Eratosthenes, at the end of his account of the goat belonging to Amalthea (attributed to Musaeus), appears to state that Zeus places the goat among the stars, which, in the Catasterismi, the god would have done for her role in his defeat of the Titans.[54]

Merging of traditions

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According to Robert Fowler, the nursing of Zeus by a goat and the originally independent tradition of the magical horn had become "entangled" by the time of Pherecydes;[55] Jan N. Bremmer, however, states that it was not until Ovid that the two tales were brought together.[56] In Ovid's account, presented in his Fasti,[57] Amalthea is once again the owner of the goat,[58] and is described as a naiad who lives on Mount Ida.[59] She hides the young Zeus in Crete (away from his father, Cronus), where he is suckled by a she-goat.[60] On one occasion, the goat snaps off one of its horns on a tree, and Amalthea, filling the broken horn with fruit, brings it back to the young Zeus;[61] this tale, an aition for the cornucopia, appears to be the earliest attempt at providing an origin for the object.[62] Zeus later places the goat (and perhaps her broken-off horn)[63] in the heavens, with the goat becoming the star Capella.[64] Ovid's narrative brings together elements from multiple earlier accounts, which he elegantly intertwines.[65] His source for the narrative's overall outline appears to be Eratosthenes: he describes Amalthea as a nymph,[66] and seemingly alludes to Zeus's war with the Titans,[67] though he notably departs from the Eratosthenic story by describing the goat as "beautiful" (formosa) and possessing majestic horns.[68] Ovid harks back to Aratus's account in the first words of his narrative, which mirror the opening phrase of the Aratean story,[69] as well as through his description of the goat as "Olenian".[70] Barbara Boyd also sees in Ovid's narrative significant influence from the Callimachean account of Zeus's infancy.[71]

Though Ovid's Fasti is the first source to clearly narratively merge the tradition of Zeus's upbringing with that of Amalthea's magical horn, John Miller points to a (somewhat garbled) scholium on Aratus as evidence that the two tales may have already been connected by the time of Ovid.[72] The scholiast, who appears to mix two differing versions, one in which Zeus's nurse is an Arcadian woman,[73] and another in which she is a goat, describes this nurse's horn as being the horn of Amalthea, which he associates with the constellation of the Goat; Amalthea's horn here would seem to be the magical horn of plenty, though the two are not explicitly identified.[74] Miller also points, as possible further evidence of a tradition in which the two tales were connected, to the scholium on Callimachus, whose mention of ambrosia and nectar flowing from the goat's horns may have been related to the young Zeus's nourishment, and a 2nd-century AD marble relief, which seems to show Amalthea feeding the young Zeus from a large cornucopia.[75]

See also

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  • Auðumbla, primeval cow in Norse mythology who nourished the primordial entities Ymir and Búri
  • Romulus and Remus, suckled by a she-wolf

Notes

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  1. ^ Henig, p. 582; LIMC 45698 (Amaltheia 1).
  2. ^ Pearson, p. 60.
  3. ^ See, for instance, those collected by Gruppe, pp. 824–5 n. 9 to p. 824 and Roscher, p. 265; cf. Keller, pp. 225–6.
  4. ^ Pearson, p. 60.
  5. ^ Montanari, s.v. ἀμαλθεύω, p. 83.
  6. ^ Pearson, p. 60; Sophocles, fr. 95 TrGF (Radt, p. 148) [= Photius, Lexicon s.v. Ἀμαλθεύειν (Reitzenstein, p. 86)].
  7. ^ Pearson, p. 60. He adds that the association of the horn of Amalthea with various deities suggests that Amalthea was "not a distinctively conceived personality".
  8. ^ Hutchinson, p. 201.
  9. ^ Gantz, p. 28; West 1966, p. 300 on line 484.
  10. ^ Hard 2004, p. 74; Hesiod, Theogony 484 (pp. 40, 41).
  11. ^ Willetts, p. 120; Astour, p. 340 n. 18; Hutchinson, pp. 201–2.
  12. ^ Astour, p. 340 n. 23.
  13. ^ West 1966, p. 300 on line 484; López-Riuz, p. 45.
  14. ^ Farnell 1896b, p. 478.
  15. ^ Sevasti, p. 127; Hard 2004, p. 280.
  16. ^ Fontenrose, p. 350; Henig, p. 582.
  17. ^ Miller, p. 223; Fowler 2013, pp. 323–4; Brill's New Pauly, s.v. Amalthea (1); West 1983, p. 131. On when the tradition of this horn was first integrated with that of Zeus's infancy, see § Merging of traditions.
  18. ^ Fowler 2013, p. 324; Gantz, p. 41; Anacreon, fr. 361 PMG (Page, p. 184) [= Strabo, 3.2.14 (II pp. 58, 59)]; Phocylides, fr. 7 Gerber, pp. 396, 397.
  19. ^ Brill's New Pauly, s.v. Amalthea (1); Fowler 2013, p. 324; Aristophanes, fr. 707 PCG (Kassel and Austin, III.2 p. 362); Cratinus, fr. 261 PCG (Kassel and Austin, IV p. 255); Antiphanes, fr. 108 PCG (Kassel and Austin, II p. 368); Philemon, fr. 68 PCG (Kassel and Austin, VII p. 261).
  20. ^ Fowler 2013, p. 324; Stephens, p. 64 on lines 48–9; Pherecydes, fr. 42 Fowler, p. 303 [= FGrHist 3 F42 = Apollodorus, 2.7.5].
  21. ^ Davies, pp. xii–xiii; Gantz, p. 28; Pindar, fr. 70b (249a) Snell and Maehler, p. 77 [= Scholia D on Homer's Iliad, 21.194 (Dindorf, II p. 218)].
  22. ^ Fowler 2013, p. 323; Apollodorus, 2.7.5.
  23. ^ RE, s.v. Amaltheia (1); Diodorus Siculus, 3.35.3–4; Strabo, 10.2.19 (V pp. 56, 57). For other versions of this myth, including those in which Amalthea is not mentioned, see Achelous § Heracles and Deianeira.
  24. ^ Gantz, p. 42; Henig, p. 582; Apollodorus, 2.7.5; Philemon, fr. 68 PCG (Kassel and Austin, VII p. 261). According to Gantz, Apollodorus' source for this may be Pherecydes, who he cites immediately afterwards.
  25. ^ Hard 2004, p. 280; cf. Henig, p. 581.
  26. ^ Kerenyi, p. 93.
  27. ^ Nilsson, p. 466.
  28. ^ Musaeus fr. 8 Diels, pp. 181–2 [= Eratosthenes, Catasterismi (Hard 2015, p. 44)]. The Catasterismi, written by Eratosthenes, survives only through an epitome of the work, written by an unknown author referred to as "Pseudo-Eratosthenes". According to West 1983, pp. 41–3, 122, and Gantz, p. 41, the narrative recounted by Pseudo-Eratosthenes would likely have come from the Eumolpia, attributed to Musaeus.
  29. ^ Gee, p. 131–2; Gantz, p. 41; Frazer 2015a, p. 120.
  30. ^ Gee, p. 132; Gantz, p. 41.
  31. ^ Gantz, p. 41.
  32. ^ Frazer 2015b, p. 12; Musaeus, fr. 84 III Bernabé, II.3 p. 43 [= Hyginus, De astronomia 2.13.6–7].
  33. ^ Gantz, p. 41. According to Gantz, this conclusion is "clearly intended" in Pseudo-Eratosthenes' account.
  34. ^ Brill's New Pauly, s.v. Melisseus; Braswell, p. 158; Didymus on Pindar, fr. 14b Braswell, pp. 155–7 [= Lactantius, Divine Institutes 1.22.18–19 (p. 114)].
  35. ^ Brill's New Pauly, s.v. Amalthea (1).
  36. ^ Fowler 2013, p. 324.
  37. ^ Hard 2004, p. 75; Gantz, p. 41.
  38. ^ Boyd, p. 73; Callimachus, Hymn to Zeus (1) 1.33–49 (pp. 186, 187).
  39. ^ Stephens, p. 64 on lines 48–9; cf. McLennan, pp. 81–2.
  40. ^ Campbell, p. 322; Miller, p. 223; Hansen, p. 325; Scholia on Callimachus' Hymn to Zeus (1), 1.49 (Miller, p. 223 n. 9).
  41. ^ West 1983, p. 122; Apollodorus, 1.1.6–7.
  42. ^ Larson, p. 185; Diodorus Siculus, 5.70.2–3.
  43. ^ Farnell 1896a, p. 97; Diodorus Siculus, 5.70.6, with Oldfather's n. 33.
  44. ^ Gantz, p. 41; Scholia D on Homer's Iliad, 15.229 (Dindorf, II p. 72). This version also specifies that it is Themis who provides the oracle, directing Zeus to use the goat's skin. Part of the scholium's account also seems to have been preserved in P. Oxy. 3003 col. ii.15–9 (Parsons, p. 17); see Parsons, p. 19.
  45. ^ Hard 2015, p. 46.
  46. ^ Kidd, pp. 239, 240 on line 156; Aratus, Phaenomena 155–61 (pp. 218, 219), with Mair's n. g and n. h.
  47. ^ Kidd, p. 240 on line 156; Chrysanthou, p. 166; Mair's n. a to Aratus, Phaenomena 164 (pp. 218, 219).
  48. ^ Hard 2015, pp. 46–7; Aratus, Phaenomena 163.
  49. ^ McLennan, p. 81.
  50. ^ Kidd, p. 242 on line 163.
  51. ^ Hard 2015, p. 47; Aratus, Phaenomena 164, with Mair's n. a. For the first interpretation, see Strabo, 8.7.5 (IV pp. 222, 223).
  52. ^ Fowler 2013, p. 323 n. 212; Boyd, p. 73 n. 28.
  53. ^ Henig, p. 582; Scholia on Aratus, 164 (Kidd, p. 243 on line 164); cf. Hyginus, De astronomia 2.13.5. For a more detailed discussion of possible explanations for this word, see Bomer, pp. 298–9 on line 113; Frazer 2015b, pp. 11–2; Boyd, p. 73 with n. 28.
  54. ^ Gee, p. 132; Hard 2015, p. 47; Santoni, p. 190 n. 118; Eratosthenes, Catasterismi 13 (Hard 2015, p. 42); cf. Hyginus, De astronomia 2.13.7. The Greek passage contains a lacuna, see Olivieri, p. 17 with n. 22–3.
  55. ^ Fowler 2013, pp. 323–324.
  56. ^ Brill's New Pauly, s.v. Amalthea (1); cf. Miller, p. 223.
  57. ^ Ovid, Fasti 5.111–28 (pp. 268, 269).
  58. ^ Gantz, p. 41; Campbell, p. 322.
  59. ^ Gee, p. 131; Hard 2015, p. 47.
  60. ^ Boyle and Woodard, p. 258 on lines 5.111–4.
  61. ^ Gantz, p. 41; Hard 2004, p. 280; cf. Ovid, Metamorphoses 9.87–8 (pp. 8, 9), where a similar scene is described for the horn of Achelous.
  62. ^ Gantz, p. 41.
  63. ^ On the ambiguity of Ovid's Latin as to this detail, see Gee, p. 131 n. 17.
  64. ^ Gee, p. 131; Boyle and Woodard, pp. 258 on lines 1.111–4, 259 on lines 5.127–8. According to Boyle and Woodard, the horn may become the constellation Capricornus.
  65. ^ Miller, pp. 218, 225.
  66. ^ Miller, pp. 219–20, 222; Frazer 2015b, p. 12.
  67. ^ Gee, p. 132.
  68. ^ Miller, p. 220.
  69. ^ The initial phrase of Ovid's narrative is Ab Iove surgat opus (rendered as "Begin the work with Jupiter" in Frazer's translation), while Aratus begins with Ἐκ Διὸς ἀρχώμεσθα ("Let us begin from Zeus").
  70. ^ Miller, p. 221–2. Miller also points to Ovid's choice to describe the goat as having two kids, which hints at the constellation of the Kids, metioned by Aratus as sitting beside that of the goat (and as being her offspring).
  71. ^ Boyd, p. 72. According to Boyd, in Ovid "makes Callimachus both the primary model and the focus of his narrative". In response, Miller, p. 218, argues that Boyd "downplays the extent of Ovid’s engagement with Aratus here, and correspondingly somewhat overemphasizes the admittedly important Callimachean background".
  72. ^ Miller, p. 223; Scholia on Aratus, 156 (Martin, pp. 158–9).
  73. ^ On the scholiast's apparent placement of the myth in Arcardia, see Gee, p. 134 n. 27.
  74. ^ Gee, p. 134. According to Gee, "we can surmise this from our knowledge of the tradition recorded by Pherecydes" (though the horn is there part of a different story).
  75. ^ Miller, p. 223. For Miller's discussion of this representation, and its apparent parallels to Ovid's account, see Miller, pp. 223–5.

References

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