Asteria

Asteria and Phoebe on the Pergamon Altar.

In Greek mythology, Asteria was a name attributed to five individuals:

Amazon

Asteria was the sixth Amazon killed by Heracles when he came for Hippolyte's girdle.^{[citation needed]}

Daughter of Coeus

Asteria was the daughter of the titans Coeus and Phoebe and sister of Leto.^[1] According to Hesiod, by Perses she had a daughter Hecate.

The Titan goddess of oracles, prophetic dreams, astrology and necromancy, Asteria flung herself into the Aegean Sea in the form of a quail in order to escape the advances of Zeus. She became the island of the same name. Later, the island Asteria was identified with Delos, which was the only piece of earth to give refuge to the fugitive Leto when, pregnant with Zeus's children, she was pursued by vengeful Hera.^[2]

According to a lost poem of Eudoxus of Cnidus (c. 355 BCE)^[3] by Zeus she became the mother of the Heracles in the form in which Hellenes thought they recognized him (by interpretatio graeca) as he was worshipped among Phoenicians at Tyre.

Heliades

Asteria or Astris was one of the Heliades, daughters of Helios, either by the Oceanid Clymene or the Oceanid Ceto. She married the river god Hydaspes and became mother of Deriades, king of India.

Danaid

Asteria was one of the Danaids, daughters of Danaus who, with one exception, murdered their husbands on their weddings nights. She was, briefly, the bride of Chaetus.

Alkyonides

Asteria was one of the Alkyonides. Along with her sisters, she flung herself into the sea and was transformed into a kingfisher.

References

External links

• Theoi Project: Asteria

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