Harmonia (mythology) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...

, Harmonia is the immortal goddess

Goddess

A goddess is a female deity. In some cultures goddesses are associated with Earth, motherhood, love, and the household. In other cultures, goddesses also rule over war, death, and destruction as well as healing....

of harmony and concord. Her Roman

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

counterpart is Concordia

Concordia (mythology)

In Roman religion, Concord was the goddess of agreement, understanding, and marital harmony. Her Greek version is Harmonia, and the Harmonians and some Discordians equate her with Aneris. Her opposite is Discordia ....

, and her Greek opposite is Eris

Eris (mythology)

Eris is the Greek goddess of strife and discord, her name being translated into Latin as Discordia. Her Greek opposite is Harmonia, whose Latin counterpart is Concordia. Homer equated her with the war-goddess Enyo, whose Roman counterpart is Bellona...

, whose Roman counterpart is Discordia.

Origins

According to one account, she is the daughter of Ares

Ares

Ares is the Greek god of war. He is one of the Twelve Olympians, and the son of Zeus and Hera. In Greek literature, he often represents the physical or violent aspect of war, in contrast to the armored Athena, whose functions as a goddess of intelligence include military strategy and...

and Aphrodite

Aphrodite

Aphrodite is the Greek goddess of love, beauty, pleasure, and procreation.Her Roman equivalent is the goddess .Historically, her cult in Greece was imported from, or influenced by, the cult of Astarte in Phoenicia....

; by another, the daughter of Aphrodite

Aphrodite

and Hephaestus

Hephaestus

Hephaestus was a Greek god whose Roman equivalent was Vulcan. He is the son of Zeus and Hera, the King and Queen of the Gods - or else, according to some accounts, of Hera alone. He was the god of technology, blacksmiths, craftsmen, artisans, sculptors, metals, metallurgy, fire and volcanoes...

. By yet another account, Harmonia was from Samothrace

Samothrace

Samothrace is a Greek island in the northern Aegean Sea. It is a self-governing municipality within the Evros peripheral unit of Thrace. The island is long and is in size and has a population of 2,723 . Its main industries are fishing and tourism. Resources on the island includes granite and...

and was the daughter of Zeus and Electra

Electra (Pleiad)

The Pleiad Electra of Greek mythology was one of the seven daughters of Atlas and Pleione. Electra was the wife of Corythus. She was raped by Zeus and gave birth to Dardanus, who became the founder of Troy, ancestor of Priam and his house. According to one legend, she was the lost Pleiad,...

, her brother Iasion

Iasion

In Greek mythology, Iasion or Iasus was usually the son of Electra and Zeus and brother of Dardanus. Iasion founded the mystic rites on the island of Samothrace. With Demeter, he was the father of twin sons named Ploutos and Philomelus, and another son named Korybas...

being the founder of the mystic rites celebrated on the island. Finally, Harmonia is rationalized as closely allied to Aphrodite Pandemos, the love that unites all people, the personification of order and civic unity, corresponding to the Roman goddess Concordia

Concordia (mythology)

.

Almost always, Harmonia is the wife of Cadmus

Cadmus

Cadmus or Kadmos , in Greek mythology was a Phoenician prince, the son of king Agenor and queen Telephassa of Tyre and the brother of Phoenix, Cilix and Europa. He was originally sent by his royal parents to seek out and escort his sister Europa back to Tyre after she was abducted from the shores...

. With Cadmus, she was the mother of Ino

Ino (Greek mythology)

In Greek mythology Ino was a mortal queen of Thebes, who after her death and transfiguration was worshiped as a goddess under her epithet Leucothea, the "white goddess." Alcman called her "Queen of the Sea" , which, if not hyperbole, would make her a doublet of Amphitrite.In her mortal self, Ino,...

, Polydorus

Polydorus (son of Cadmus)

Polydorus was the only son of Cadmus and Harmonia and king of Thebes. His sisters were Semele, Ino, Agave, and Autonoë.Upon his father's death, Pentheus, the son of his sister Agave and Echion, one of the Spartoi, ruled Thebes. Pentheus, however, ruled only for a short time, before Dionysus caused...

, Autonoë

Autonoe

In Greek mythology, Autonoë was a daughter of Cadmus, founder of Thebes, Greece, and the goddess Harmonia. She was the wife of Aristaeus and mother of Actaeon and possibly Macris...

, Agave

Agave (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Agave was the daughter of Cadmus, the king and founder of the city of Thebes, Greece, and of the goddess Harmonia. Her sisters were Autonoë, Ino and Semele, and her brother was Polydorus. She married Echion, one of the five Spartoi, and was the mother of Pentheus, a king of...

and Semele

Semele

Semele , in Greek mythology, daughter of the Boeotian hero Cadmus and Harmonia, was the mortal mother of Dionysus by Zeus in one of his many origin myths. In another version of his mythic origin, he is the son of Persephone...

. Their youngest son was Illyrius

Illyrius

Illyrius is a name known in different stories found in ancient Greek mythology.-Cadmus and Harmonia:According to the Library and Epitome of Apollodorus, Illyrius was the youngest son of Cadmus and Harmonia who eventually ruled Illyria and became the eponymous ancestor of the whole Illyrian people...

.

Those who described Harmonia as a Samothracian related that Cadmus, on his voyage to Samothrace, after being initiated in the mysteries, perceived Harmonia, and carried her off with the assistance of Athena. When Cadmus was obliged to quit Thebes

Ancient Thebes (Boeotia)

See Thebes, Greece for the modern city built on the ancient ruins.Ancient Thebes was a Boeotian city-state , situated to the north of the Cithaeron range, which divides Boeotia from Attica, and on the southern edge of the Boeotian plain...

, Harmonia accompanied him. When they came to the Encheleans, they assisted them in their war against the Illyrians

Illyrians

The Illyrians were a group of tribes who inhabited part of the western Balkans in antiquity and the south-eastern coasts of the Italian peninsula...

, and conquered the enemy. Cadmus then became king of the Illyrians. The gods then turned her into a serpent, unable to stand watching her in her dazed state.

Necklace

Harmonia is renowned in ancient story chiefly on account of the fatal necklace she received on her wedding day. When the government of Thebes

Thebes, Greece

Thebes is a city in Greece, situated to the north of the Cithaeron range, which divides Boeotia from Attica, and on the southern edge of the Boeotian plain. It played an important role in Greek myth, as the site of the stories of Cadmus, Oedipus, Dionysus and others...

was bestowed upon Cadmus by Athena

Athena

In Greek mythology, Athena, Athenê, or Athene , also referred to as Pallas Athena/Athene , is the goddess of wisdom, courage, inspiration, civilization, warfare, strength, strategy, the arts, crafts, justice, and skill. Minerva, Athena's Roman incarnation, embodies similar attributes. Athena is...

, Zeus

Zeus

In the ancient Greek religion, Zeus was the "Father of Gods and men" who ruled the Olympians of Mount Olympus as a father ruled the family. He was the god of sky and thunder in Greek mythology. His Roman counterpart is Jupiter and his Etruscan counterpart is Tinia.Zeus was the child of Cronus...

gave him Harmonia. All the gods honored the wedding with their presence. Cadmus presented the bride with a robe and necklace, which he had received either from Hephaestus or from Europa

Europa (mythology)

In Greek mythology Europa was a Phoenician woman of high lineage, from whom the name of the continent Europe has ultimately been taken. The name Europa occurs in Hesiod's long list of daughters of primordial Oceanus and Tethys...

. This necklace, commonly referred to as the Necklace of Harmonia

Necklace of Harmonia

The Necklace of Harmonia was a fabled object in Greek mythology that, according to legend, brought great misfortune to all of its wearers or owners, who were primarily queens and princesses of the ill-fated House of Thebes...

, brought misfortune to all who possessed it. Other traditions stated that Harmonia received this necklace (op/uos) from some of the gods, either from Aphrodite or Athena.

Polyneices, who inherited the necklace, gave it to Eriphyle

Eriphyle

In Greek mythology, Eriphyle , daughter of Talaus, was the mother of Alcmaeon and the wife of Amphiaraus. Eriphyle persuaded Amphiaraus to take part in the raid that initiated the mythic tale of the Seven Against Thebes, though she knew he would die...

, that she might persuade her husband, Amphiaraus

Amphiaraus

In Greek mythology, Amphiaraus was the son of Oecles and Hypermnestra, and husband of Eriphyle. Amphiaraus was the King of Argos along with Adrastus— the brother of Amphiaraus' wife, Eriphyle— and Iphis. Amphiaraus was a seer, and greatly honored in his time...

, to undertake the expedition against Thebes. Through Alcmaeon, the son of Eriphyle, the necklace came into the hands of Arsinoe, next into those of the sons of Phegeus

Phegeus

Phegeus was a Greek mythological king who offered succor and his daughter, Arsinoe , to Alcmaeon, who was fleeing from the Erinyes. Alcmaeon left his mother's, Eriphyle's, jewelry and clothing with him and then returned for it later in order to please the river god Achelous and have his daughter,...

, Pronous and Agenor

Agenor, son of Phegeus

Agenor was a son of Phegeus, king of Psophis, in Arcadia. He was brother of Pronous and Arsinoe, who was married to, and later abandoned by, the Argive Alcmaeon...

, and lastly into those of the sons of Alcmaeon, Amphoterus and Acarnan

Acarnan

In Greek mythology, Acarnan , one of the Epigones, was a son of Alcmaeon and Callirrhoe, and brother of Amphoterus. Their father was murdered by Phegeus , when they were yet very young, and Calirrhoe prayed to Zeus to make her sons grow quickly, that they might be able to avenge the death of their...

, who dedicated it in the temple of Athena Pronoea at Delphi

Delphi

Delphi is both an archaeological site and a modern town in Greece on the south-western spur of Mount Parnassus in the valley of Phocis.In Greek mythology, Delphi was the site of the Delphic oracle, the most important oracle in the classical Greek world, and a major site for the worship of the god...

. The necklace had wrought mischief to all who had been in possession of it, and it continued to do so even after it was dedicated at Delphi. Phayllus, the tyrant, stole it from the temple to gratify his mistress, the wife of Ariston

Ariston

Ariston was a king of Sparta, 14th of the Eurypontids, son of Agasicles, contemporary of Anaxandrides.He ascended the Spartan throne before 560 BC, and died somewhat before , or at any rate not long after, 510 BC...

. She wore it for a time, but at last her youngest son was seized with madness, and set fire to the house, in which she perished with all her treasures.

Hyginus gives another version. According to him, the thing which brought ill fate to the descendents of Harmonia is not a necklace, but a robe "dipped in crime", given to Harmonia by Hephestus and Athena.

Origins

Necklace

See also