According to the myth, she was the original owner of the site of theOracle of Delphi before gifting it to her grandson Apollo. Her name, meaning "bright", was also given to a number of lunar goddesses like Artemis and later the Roman goddessesLuna andDiana, but Phoebe herself was not actively seen as a moon goddess in her own right in ancient religion or mythology.
The Greek nameΦοίβηPhoíbē is the feminine form ofΦοῖβοςPhoîbos meaning "pure, bright, radiant", anepithet given toApollo as asun-god.[3][4][5]Phoebe was also an epithet ofArtemis as amoon-goddess.[3][6] Due to Apollo's role in myth, the name additionally came to mean "prophet",[4] giving words likeφοιβάζωphoibázō "to prophesize".[7] As an adjective, it was also used to refer to "clear, pure" water.[7]
Phoebe is a Titaness, one of the twelve (orthirteen) divine children born toUranus (Sky) andGaia (Earth). Phoebe's consort was her brotherCoeus, with whom she had two daughters, firstLeto, who boreApollo andArtemis, and thenAsteria, a star goddess who bore an only daughter,Hecate.[8]
Through Leto, Phoebe was the grandmother of Apollo and Artemis. The namesPhoebe andPhoebus (masculine) came to be applied as synonyms for Artemis/Diana and Apollo respectively,[9] as well as forLuna andSol, the lunar goddess and the solar god, by the Roman poets; the late-antiquity grammarianServius writes that "Phoebe is Luna, like Phoebus is Sol."[10]
Phoebe was, like Artemis, identified by Roman poets with the Roman moon goddess Diana.[11] Phoebe means "bright" but is functionally only a name; in mythology, the role of moon goddess is fulfilled by other deities as her grandchildren inherit her name.[12] Because of this Apollo is sometimes known as "Phoebeus Apollo".
Hesiod in theTheogony describes Phoebe as "χρυσοστέφανος" (khrysostéphanos, meaning "golden-crowned").[1]
According to a speech thatAeschylus puts into the mouth of the Delphic priestess herself inThe Eumenides, Phoebe received control of the Oracle at Delphi from her sisterThemis, who herself had received it from their mother Gaia, and then passed it on Apollo, her grandson, as a gift for his birthday:[13]D. S. Robertson noted "Phoebe in this succession seems to be his private invention," reasoning that in the three great allotments of oracular powers at Delphi, corresponding to the three generations of the gods, "Ouranos, as was fitting, gave the oracle to his wife Gaia and Kronos appropriately allotted it to his sister Themis."[14] Robertson also speculates that in Zeus' turn to make the gift, Aeschylus could not report that the oracle was given directly to Apollo, who had not yet been born, and thus Phoebe was interposed.[14] These supposed male delegations of the powers at Delphi as expressed by Aeschylus are not borne out by the usual modern reconstruction of the sacred site's pre-Olympian history.[citation needed]
Phoebe and Asteria fighting Giants on thePergamon Altar.
Due to her minimal presence in both mythology and religion, Phoebe was traditionally not depicted in ancient Greek or Roman art, so she has no distinct iconography. Nevertheless, Phoebe appears on the southeast corner of thePergamon Altar which depicts theGigantomachy,[15] fighting against aGiant with animal features, similar to the one her daughter Leto is fighting.[16] Phoebe, wearing a diadem and a very creased dress, is seen wielding a flaming torch and fighting next to her other daughter Asteria.[17]
Phoebe, one of themoons ofSaturn is named after this goddess, as the sister ofCronus,Saturn's Greek equivalent.[18]Phoebe (also spelled Phebe) is also a popular feminine given name in the English-speaking world.
^Although usually the daughter of Hyperion and Theia, as inHesiod,Theogony371–374, in theHomeric Hymn to Hermes (4),99–100, Selene is instead made the daughter of Pallas the son of Megamedes.
Aeschylus,Eumenides inAeschylus, with an English translation by Herbert Weir Smyth, Ph.D. in two volumes. 2. Eumenides. Herbert Weir Smyth, Ph.D. Cambridge, MA.Harvard University Press. 1926.
Maurus Servius Honoratus,In Vergilii carmina comentarii. Servii Grammatici qui feruntur in Vergilii carmina commentarii; recensuerunt Georgius Thilo et Hermannus Hagen. Georgius Thilo. Leipzig. B. G. Teubner. 1881.Online version at the Topos Text.
