Libya (from Greek: Λιβύη) is the name given to both a region of North Africa (Ancient Libya) and a daughter of Epaphus, King of Egypt, in both Greek and Roman mythology.
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Greek mythology
In Greek mythology, Libya, like Ethiopia or Scythia was one of the mythic outlands that encircled the familiar Greek world of the Hellenes and their "foreign" neighbors.
Personified as an individual, Libya was the daughter of Epaphus — a son of Zeus and King of Egypt — and Memphis. Libya was ravished by the god Poseidon to whom she bore twin sons, Belus and Agenor. Some sources name a third son, named Lelex. Such genealogies, when applied to a personification of a land, were suggestive to Greek audiences, but need some explication for ordinary modern readers.
Roman mythology
In Roman mythology, Libya was the daughter of Epaphus, King of Egypt, and his wife Cassiopeia. She married Neptune, a foreigner of much power whose real name is unknown. Libya and Neptune had a son called Busiris, whom became a brutal tyrant of Upper Egypt. [1]
The territory that she ruled, Ancient Libya, and the country of modern day Libya are named after her.[2]
Argive genealogy in Greek mythology
Notes
- ^ Virginia Brown's translation of Giovanni Boccaccio’s Famous Women, pp. 24-25; Harvard University Press 2001; ISBN 0-674-01130-9
- ^ Id., p. 25
References
- Isidore, Etymologiae xiv.4.1, 5.1
- Augustine, De civitate dei xviii.12
- Lactantius Placidus, Commentarii in Sattii Thebaida iv.737
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