InGreek mythology, theHysminai orHysminae (Ancient Greek:Ὑσμῖναι,lit. 'Combats, Fights, Battles', from the plural ofὑσμίνη)^[1] are collectively thepersonification of combat. InHesiod'sTheogony, the Hysminai are listed among the children ofEris (Strife).^[2] Like all of the children of Eris given by Hesiod, the Hysminai are a personified abstraction, allegorizing the meaning of their name, and representing one of the many harmful things which might be thought to result from discord and strife, with no other identity.^[3]

ThePosthomerica ofQuintus Smyrnaeus describes the images decorating the shield ofAchilles, which, among others such as Eris, theFuries, and the war-goddessEnyo, also included the Hysminai, alongsideThanatos (Death):

Around him [Death] could be seen the ill-sounding goddesses of Combat [Hysminai] whose limbs dripped blood and sweat to the ground.^[4]

The Roman mythographerHyginus has "Fighting", the similar singular personification of the meaning of the Latin wordpugna (fight, battle, combat)^[5] as the offspring of Ether [Aether] and Earth [Terra].^[6]

Hesiod'sTheogony, line 228, lists four personified plural abstractions, theHysminai (Combats), theMachai (Battles), thePhonoi (Murders), and theAndroktasiai (Slaughters), as being among the offspring of Eris (Strife):

Ὑσμίνας τε Μάχας τε Φόνους τ’ Ἀνδροκτασίας τε^[7]

These four abstractions were associated in other ancient poetry. The nearly identical line, listing the same four (without capitalizations, and with different case endings), in the same order, occurs in Homer'sOdyssey, whereOdysseus describes the decorations on Heracles' golden belt:

ὑσμῖναί τε μάχαι τε φόνοι τ᾿ ἀνδροκτασίαι τε.^[8]

The abstractionὑσμῖναί (combats) was also associated withμάχαι (battles) in theHomeric Hymn 5To Aphrodite.^[9]

• Caldwell, Richard,Hesiod's Theogony, Focus Publishing/R. Pullins Company (June 1, 1987).ISBN 978-0-941051-00-2.Internet Archive.
• Gantz, Timothy,Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, Two volumes:ISBN 978-0-8018-5360-9 (Vol. 1),ISBN 978-0-8018-5362-3 (Vol. 2).
• Hard, Robin,The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology", Psychology Press, 2004,ISBN 9780415186360.Google Books.
• Homer,Iliad, Volume I: Books 1-12, translated by A. T. Murray, revised by William F. Wyatt,Loeb Classical Library No. 170, Cambridge, Massachusetts,Harvard University Press, 1999.Online version at Harvard University Press.ISBN 978-0-674-99579-6.
• Homer,Iliad, Volume II: Books 13-24, translated by A. T. Murray, revised by William F. Wyatt,Loeb Classical Library No. 171, Cambridge, Massachusetts,Harvard University Press, 1999.Online version at Harvard University Press.ISBN 978-0-674-99580-2.
• Homer,Odyssey, Volume I: Books 1-12, translated by A. T. Murray, revised by George E. Dimock,Loeb Classical Library No. 104, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1998 (first published 1919).ISBN 978-0-674-99561-1.Online version at Harvard University Press.
• Homeric Hymn 5To Aphrodite, inHomeric Hymns. Homeric Apocrypha. Lives of Homer, edited and translated by Martin L. West,Loeb Classical Library No. 496, Cambridge, Massachusetts,Harvard University Press, 2003.ISBN 978-0-674-99606-9.Online version at Harvard University Press.
• Hyginus, Gaius Julius,Fabulae inApollodorus'Library and Hyginus'Fabulae: Two Handbooks of Greek Mythology, Translated, with Introductions by R. Scott Smith and Stephen M. Trzaskoma, Hackett Publishing Company, 2007.ISBN 978-0-87220-821-6.
• Hyginus, Gaius Julius,Fabulae.Latin text at packhum.org.
• Liddell, Henry George,Robert Scott,A Greek-English Lexicon, revised and augmented throughout by Sir Henry Stuart Jones with the assistance of Roderick McKenzie,Clarendon Press Oxford, 1940.Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Most, G.W. (2018a),Hesiod, Theogony, Works and Days, Testimonia, Edited and translated by Glenn W. Most,Loeb Classical Library No. 57, Cambridge, Massachusetts,Harvard University Press, 2018.ISBN 978-0-674-99720-2.Online version at Harvard University Press.
• Most, G.W. (2018b),Hesiod: The Shield, Catalogue of Women, Other Fragments,Loeb Classical Library, No. 503, Cambridge, Massachusetts,Harvard University Press, 2007, 2018.ISBN 978-0-674-99721-9.Online version at Harvard University Press.
• Quintus Smyrnaeus,Posthomerica, edited and translated by Neil Hopkinson,Loeb Classical Library No. 19, Cambridge, Massachusetts,Harvard University Press, 2018.ISBN 978-0-674-99716-5.Online version at Harvard University Press.
• West, M. L. (1966),Hesiod: Theogony, Oxford University Press.ISBN 0-19-814169-6.

• Children of Eris (mythology)
• War goddesses
• Greek war deities
• Greek goddesses
• Personifications in Greek mythology

• Articles containing Ancient Greek (to 1453)-language text
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata