Macaria or Makaria is the name of two figures from ancient Greek religion and mythology

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...

. Although they are not said to be the same and are given different fathers, they are discussed together in a single entry in both the 10th-century Byzantine

Byzantine

Byzantine usually refers to the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages.Byzantine may also refer to:* A citizen of the Byzantine Empire, or native Greek during the Middle Ages...

 encyclopedia the Suda

Suda

The Suda or Souda is a massive 10th century Byzantine encyclopedia of the ancient Mediterranean world, formerly attributed to an author called Suidas. It is an encyclopedic lexicon, written in Greek, with 30,000 entries, many drawing from ancient sources that have since been lost, and often...

and by Zenobius

Zenobius

Zenobius was a Greek sophist, who taught rhetoric at Rome during the reign of Emperor Hadrian .-Biography:He was the author of a collection of proverbs in three books, still extant in an abridged form, compiled, according to the Suda, from Didymus of Alexandria and "The Tarrhaean"...

.

Daughter of Heracles

In the Heracleidae

Heracleidae (play)

Herakles' Children is an Athenian tragedy by Euripides that was first performed c. 430 BC. It follows the children of Herakles as they seek protection from Eurystheus...

of Euripides

Euripides

Euripides was one of the three great tragedians of classical Athens, the other two being Aeschylus and Sophocles. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to him but according to the Suda it was ninety-two at most...

, Macaria ("she who is blessed") is a daughter of Heracles

Heracles

Heracles ,born Alcaeus or Alcides , was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, foster son of Amphitryon and great-grandson of Perseus...

. Even after Heracles's death, King Eurystheus

Eurystheus

In Greek mythology, Eurystheus was king of Tiryns, one of three Mycenaean strongholds in the Argolid, although other authors including Homer and Euripides cast him as ruler of Argos: Sthenelus was his father and the "victorious horsewoman" Nicippe his mother, and he was a grandson of the hero...

 pursues his lifelong vendetta against the hero by hunting down his children. Macaria flees with her siblings and her father's old friend Iolaus

Iolaus

In Greek mythology, Iolaus was a Theban divine hero, son of Iphicles, Heracles's brother, and Automedusa.He was famed for being Heracles's nephew and for helping with some of his Labors, and also for being one of the Argonauts...

 to Athens

History of Athens

Athens is one of the oldest named cities in the world, having been continuously inhabited for at least 7000 years. Situated in southern Europe, Athens became the leading city of Ancient Greece in the first millennium BCE and its cultural achievements during the 5th century BCE laid the foundations...

, where they are received by Demophon, the king.

Arriving at the gates of Athens with his army, Eurystheus gives Demophon an ultimatum, threatening war upon Athens unless Demophon surrenders Heracles's children. When Demophon refuses and begins to prepare for war, an oracle

Oracle

In Classical Antiquity, an oracle was a person or agency considered to be a source of wise counsel or prophetic predictions or precognition of the future, inspired by the gods. As such it is a form of divination....

 informs him that Athens will be victorious only if a noble maiden is sacrificed to Persephone

Persephone

In Greek mythology, Persephone , also called Kore , is the daughter of Zeus and the harvest-goddess Demeter, and queen of the underworld; she was abducted by Hades, the god-king of the underworld....

. Upon hearing this, Macaria sees that her only choice is immediate death on the altar or eventual death at the hands of Eurystheus. Since in neither case will she be granted a normal, happy life, she offers herself as the victim to save the welcoming city and its inhabitants and declines a lottery that would put other girls at risk. The Athenians honored her with lavish funeral rites, and the myth has an aetiological aspect: the spring where she died was named the Macarian in her honor.

Goddess

A goddess Macaria is named in the Suda

Suda

The Suda or Souda is a massive 10th century Byzantine encyclopedia of the ancient Mediterranean world, formerly attributed to an author called Suidas. It is an encyclopedic lexicon, written in Greek, with 30,000 entries, many drawing from ancient sources that have since been lost, and often...

. This Macaria is the daughter of Hades

Hades

Hades , Hadēs, originally , Haidēs or , Aidēs , meaning "the unseen") was the ancient Greek god of the underworld. The genitive , Haidou, was an elision to denote locality: "[the house/dominion] of Hades". Eventually, the nominative came to designate the abode of the dead.In Greek mythology, Hades...

 (no mother is mentioned). She seems to have embodied a blessed

Blessing

A blessing, is the infusion of something with holiness, spiritual redemption, divine will, or one's hope or approval.- Etymology and Germanic paganism :...

 death; the Suda connects her name to the figure of speech

Figure of speech

A figure of speech is the use of a word or words diverging from its usual meaning. It can also be a special repetition, arrangement or omission of words with literal meaning, or a phrase with a specialized meaning not based on the literal meaning of the words in it, as in idiom, metaphor, simile,...

 "be gone to blessedness," instead of misery or damnation, which may be euphemistic

Euphemism

A euphemism is the substitution of a mild, inoffensive, relatively uncontroversial phrase for another more frank expression that might offend or otherwise suggest something unpleasant to the audience...

, in the way that the dead are referred to as "the blessed ones." The phrase was proverbial for those whose courage endangered them.

Macaria may have been a more merciful counterpart of the death-god Thanatos

Thanatos

In Greek mythology, Thanatos was the daemon personification of death. He was a minor figure in Greek mythology, often referred to but rarely appearing in person...

or was perhaps somehow connected with the passage of souls to the Nesoi Makarioi (Islands of the Blest).

External links

• Makaria at The Theoi Project
• English translation of Euripides' Heracleidae