Hemithea (mythology)
Encyclopedia
In Greek mythology
, the name Hemithea (Ἡμιθέα: "demigoddess") refers to:
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...
, the name Hemithea (Ἡμιθέα: "demigoddess") refers to:
- Originally named Molpadia, daughter of StaphylusStaphylusStaphylus is almost always associated with grapes or wine. In Greek mythology, he was:# The son of wine-god Dionysus and Ariadne. His brothers include Oenopion , Thoas, Peparethus, Phanus and Euanthes . Both Staphylus and Phanus are counted among the Argonauts...
and ChrysothemisChrysothemisChrysothemis or Khrysothemis , is a name ascribed to several characters in Greek mythology.Most prominently among these, Chrysothemis was a daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra...
, sister of Parthenos and RhoeoRhoeoIn Greek mythology, Rhoeo was a daughter of Staphylus and Chrysothemis, sister to Parthenos and Molpadia or Hemithea. Parthenius relates that she once experienced a great jealosy of her sister Hemithea when Staphylus arranged for the latter to spend a night with Lyrcus, his guest, whom both...
. According to Diodorus SiculusDiodorus SiculusDiodorus Siculus was a Greek historian who flourished between 60 and 30 BC. According to Diodorus' own work, he was born at Agyrium in Sicily . With one exception, antiquity affords no further information about Diodorus' life and doings beyond what is to be found in his own work, Bibliotheca...
, she and Parthenos were put in charge of watching after their father's wine but fell asleep while performing this duty, and while they were asleep, the wine jar was broken by the swine their family kept. When the sisters woke up, they saw what had happened and, in fear of their father's wrath, threw themselves off a cliff. Apollo, who was in love with Rhoeo, would not let her sisters die and carried them to two different cities in Chersonesus, Molpadia to Castabus and Parthenos to Bubastus, where both received divine honors; Molpadia's name was changed to Hemithea upon her deification. PartheniusParthenius of NicaeaParthenius of Nicaea or Myrlea in Bithynia was a Greek grammarian and poet. According to the Suda, he was the son of Heraclides and Eudora, or according to Hermippus of Berytus, his mother's name was Tetha. He was taken prisoner by Cinna in the Mithridatic Wars and carried to Rome in 72 BC. He...
makes Hemithea mother of Basileus by LyrcusLyrcusLyrcus is the name of two Greek figures, one a figure in a 1st-century BC Romance by Parthenius of Nicaea, the other the eponymous legendary founder of Lyrceia...
; in his version of the story, Hemithea apparently had this name since birth and nothing is said of her deification; however, Staphylus and his daughters' home is located in Bubastus, right where Hemithea came to be worshipped in Diodorus' account.
- The sister of TenesTenesIn Greek mythology, Tenes was the eponymous hero of the island of Tenedos. He was the son either of Apollo or of King Cycnus of Colonae by Proclia, daughter or granddaughter of Laomedon. Cycnus' second wife Philonome, daughter of Tragasus or Cragasus, falsely accused Tenes of rape, bringing in a...
, who was placed into a chest and set into the sea together with her brother. They landed on an island which was later named TenedosTenedosTenedos or Bozcaada or Bozdja-Ada is a small island in the Aegean Sea, part of the Bozcaada district of Çanakkale province in Turkey. , Tenedos has a population of about 2,354. The main industries are tourism, wine production and fishing...
, of which Tenes became king. Tenes ended his life in a battle with AchillesAchillesIn Greek mythology, Achilles was a Greek hero of the Trojan War, the central character and the greatest warrior of Homer's Iliad.Plato named Achilles the handsomest of the heroes assembled against Troy....
, who then attempted to rape Hemithea. She ran off to escape him and was swallowed up in a chasm of the earth.