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[German version] (Greek Βασιλίσκος; Basilískos), ‘the king of the snakes’, fabulous snake of the Libyan desert, documented from Hellenistic times; detailed descriptions are given by Pliny (HN 8,78f.) and Isidore (12,4,6f.). Recognizable by a white spot on its head, ‘like a diadem’ (Pliny) and by its unsnakelike form of forward motion, the B. kills by its breath and smell: wherever it passes, it burns bushes and grass and breaks stones (Plin.). It can kill humans also by its mere gaze (Plin. HN 29,66…

[German version] (κῶμος; kômos, verb κωμάζειν; kōmázein) is the term for the ritualized, exuberant Greek procession to the music of the cithara or, especially, the flute (Ath. 14,9,618c). In its earliest occurrences, the word is not connected with Dionysus, but describes rites with musical accompaniment, probably also with singing and dancing. (In H. Hom. Merc. 481, Hermes gives Apollo the lyre for kṓmoi; in Ps.-Hes. Aspis 281, kōmázusi young men in a marriage procession dance rapturously to the sound of the flute; Pind. Pyth. 5,22 calls the performance of his song a kṓmos of men). Unt…

[German version] (Ἀλθαιμένης; Althaiménēs). Rhodian hero, son of the Cretan king Catreus. He left his homeland when an oracle prophesied that he would kill his father, and at Camerus he founded the mountain cult of Zeus Atabyrius. His father set out to find him, and during a nocturnal landing he was mistaken for a pirate and slain by A., unrecognized. A. wanders around aimlessly and dies in anguish (Diod. Sic. 5,59) or is swallowed up by the earth (thus Apollod. 3,12-16, in whose account he also murders his sister Apemosyne). Graf, Fritz (Columbus, OH)

 Only Latin Acoetes has been handed down; the Greek form Ἀκοίτης does not appear to be attested. [German version] [1] Mythical Helmsman Helmsman of a Tyrrhenian pirate ship, opposed the intention of his travelling companions to kidnap the beautiful child Dionysus, and therefore was the only one to escape transformation into a dolphin (Ov. Met. 3,582-691 as first-person account to Pentheus; Hyg. Fab. 134); perhaps following a common Hellenistic source that went back to Hom. H. 7; in all other accounts of this myth the name or the entire episode is missing [1]. Graf, Fritz (Columbus, OH) …

[German version] (Mid-Persian Ōhrmazd, Greek Ὀρομάζης, Ὀρομάσδης; Oromázēs, Oromásdēs). Highest God (‘the Wise Lord’) in the system of Zoroaster, the highest of the good powers ( ahuras), who is surrounded by a host of abstract deities (Amša Spntas) as mediators of his will and his deeds. He is creator and god of blessing, the one addressed in cults of the Zoroastrian community, and it was he that revealed his teachings to  Zoroaster. There is discussion regarding to what extent he is pre-Zoroastrian; in any case he co…

[German version] (Ἄργης; Árgēs). One of the three  Cyclopes, along with Brontes ( brontḗ, ‘thunder’) and Steropes ( steropḗ, ‘lightening’). His name comes from argḗs, a stock expression for lightening (Hes. Theog. 140; Apollod. 1,1). Graf, Fritz (Columbus, OH)

[German version] (Ἠρικεπαῖος; Ērikepaîos). Deity which is mentioned in Orphic poetry and the associated Bacchian mysteries; the late etymology of ‘life-giver’ (ζωοδοτήρ; zōodotḗr) cannot be verified (Malalas, Chronogr. 4,91; cf. Suda 660 s.v. Orpheus). The name is first mentioned with certainty in the papyrus Gurôb 1, a Dionysian mysteries text of the late 3rd cent. BC [1]; an earlier reference in a gold leaflet from Pherae is uncertain [2]. E. then becomes important in various Neoplatonic writings of the so-called r…

Suggestive heroic name: ‘Defender’. As such it is assigned to three figures, who are difficult to differentiate from each other. [German version] [1] Son of Ormenos, domiciled in Eleon Son of Ormenus, domiciled in Eleon in Boeotia, whom Autolycus robbed of a famous leather helmet (Hom. Il. 10,266; cf. 2,500; Pherec. fragment 38a FHG 4, 638). Graf, Fritz (Columbus, OH) [German version] [2] Likewise son of Ormenus, father of Phoenix Likewise son of Ormenus, father of Phoenix. The son seduced the concubine of his father, who cursed him with childlessness; Phoenix fle…

[German version] Roman goddess whose temple was vowed and founded on the Caelius mons by the first  Brutus immediately after the expulsion of the  Tarquinii; (Macrob. Sat. 1,12,31). Its foundation day is 1 June, the festival of the Carnaria (CIL III 3893). C. received offerings of bacon and bean gruel (Macrob. Sat. 1,12,32; cf. Ov. Fast. 6,169-182: Kalendae fabariae), which suggest a simple, old-fashioned way of life (Ovid) or which are meant to depict C. as a protector of physical strength (Macr.). The authors state that her role is the protection of …

[German version] A. General Points, Definition Mysteries or rather mystery cults (in order to avoid the misleading term ‘mystery religions’) are cults of the Greek and Roman world which, for classical and modern observers alike, constitute a circumscribed category of cults within Greek and Roman religion.  Their name derives from the Attic celebration of the Mysteria, the festival of Demeter and Kore/Persephone, celebrated annually over a period of days at the shrine of Eleusis, and known since the Ho…

(Ἀστυδάμεια; Astydámeia). [German version] [1] Daughter of the Dolopian king Amyntor Daughter of the Dolopian king Amyntor, by Hercules mother of Tlepolemus (Hes. fr. 232; Pind. Ol. 7,24). In Homer she is Astyocheia (Il. 2,658), in Apollod. 2,149 and Hyg. Fab. 162 Astyoche, daughter of Phylas of Ephyra (Apollod. 1,166). Graf, Fritz (Columbus, OH) [German version] [2] Wife of  Acastus of Iolcus Wife of  Acastus of Iolcus, who purified Peleus from his accidental killing of  Eurytion. When Peleus rejected her love, she slandered him to his wife  Antigone [2],…

[German version] (Αἰολίδαι; Aiolídai). Not only the sons of Aeolus, such as Sisyphus, Athamas and Cretheus, but also their descendants, e.g. Bellerophontes and Jason in Pindar, Minyas, Phrixus, Idmon in Apoll. Rhod. In Virgil's Aeneid (6,529) Anchises calls Odysseus Aeolides, in accordance with the tradition which makes him the son of Sisyphus (since Soph. Phil. 417). Graf, Fritz (Columbus, OH) Bibliography M. Scarsi, s. v. Eolide, EV 2,324.

[German version] Hermetic writings (HW; the terminus is modern) are Graeco-Egyptian texts, whose author is supposed to have been the Egyptian god Thot, Greekified as Hermes Trismegistus. His epithet (‘the thrice great H.’), which has only existed since the Imperial period, derives from the thrice repeated call to Hermes-Thot as ‘the greatest’ (which is already documented in Hellenistic Demotic and Greek sources). Clemens [3] of Alexandria (Strom. 6,4,35) describes a procession, in which 42 fundame…

[German version] (Ἀστραῖος; Astraîos). Titan, son of the Titans Creius (Crius) and Eurybia. With Eos he begot the winds ( Astraei fratres, Ov. Met. 14,545) which blow at the first light of dawn, the morning star and the other stars (Hes. Theog. 375-82; Apollod. 1,9). Besides that he is a giant, son of Tartarus and Ge (Hyg. praef. 4). Graf, Fritz (Columbus, OH) Bibliography E. Simon, s.v. A., LIMC 2. 1, 927.

[German version] (Καύκων; Kaúkōn). Eponymous hero of the Peloponnesian people of the  Caucones [1]; his genealogy is dependent on the ancient localization of the people first named in Hom. Od. 3. 366. His grave was shown in Lepreum in Triphylia (Paus. 5,5,5; Str. 8,345), and according to the Triphylian cult centre on Samicon, he is seen as the son of Poseidon (Ael. NA 1,24). Yet as a result of the Arcadian localization, C. is also the son of Arcas (schol. Hom. Od. 3,366) or of Lycaon (Apollod. 3,97…

[German version] (Ἀδράστεια; Adrásteia). Goddess related to the mountain mother of Asia Minor,   Cybele. She had a cult at Cyzicus (actually on the Adrásteia óros outside the city, Str. 12,8,11; 13,1,13) and on the Trojan Mount Ida (Aesch. fr. 158 TGF). A. was compared to Artemis (Demetrius of Scepsis apud Harpocr. 6,9; Solin. 7,26) and revered in Athens in association with Bendis (IG I3 383,142; cf. 369,67). In mythic poetry she was associated with the birth of Zeus: as daughter of Melisseus, sister of Ide and of Curetes, she helps with the care of the chil…

[German version] Named only in Tacitus (hist. 2,3; ann. 3,62,4), founder of the sanctuary of Aphrodite at Paphos, which was called  Aeria [3] after him. Father of Amathus, the founder of the second largest Cypriot Aphrodite sanctuary. Research derives the name partly from Greek ἀήρ, ‘air’, partly from ‘copper’ Latin aes, (Greek κύπρος). Graf, Fritz (Columbus, OH) Bibliography V. Pirenne-Delforge, L'Aphrodite grecque, 1994, 330-333.

(Αἴπυτος; Aípytos). [German version] [1] Arcadian hero Arcadian hero, son of Elatus, father of Peirithous (Hes. fr. 166). His grave, known already to Homer (Il. 2,604) was displayed on Mount Sepia at Cyllene, where he had been bitten by a snake. Pindar (O. 6,30) gives his residence as Phaesane at Alpheius; Pitane promises him her daughter by Poseidon, Evadne, who, by Apollo, will become mother of the seer Iamus. Graf, Fritz (Columbus, OH) [German version] [2] King of Arcadian Trapezus King of Arcadian Trapezus, son of Hippothous, father of Cypselus. He went blind because he…

[German version] (Ἀδμήτη; Ádmḗtē). Daughter of Eurystheus, Hera priestess in Argus, for whom Hercules secured the belt of Hippolyte, the queen of the Amazons (Apollod. 2,99). She fled with the cult image to Samos and there became a priestess of Hera; the cultic aetiology of the Samian festival of the Tonaia (Ath. 15,672) is dependent on this.  Hera. Graf, Fritz (Columbus, OH) Bibliography M. Schmidt, s. v. A., LIMC 1.1, 216-218.

[German version] (Ἡρόδωρος; Heródōros) from Heraclea on the Pontus. Mythographer, father of  Bryson of the Megarian School, wrote in Ionian dialect around 400 BC, often cited in the MSS as  Herodotus. Monographs on individual mythical figures (Heracles in at least 17 bks., Pelops, Oedipus) or groups ( Argonaútai, Orphéōs kaì Musaíou historía = ‘Orpheus and Musaeus’), of which a few fragments are extant (FGrH 31), are conceivable in the titles. Accordingly H. adopted the mythical traditions especially of  Hellanicus and  Pherecydes of Athens. The…