| Taygete | |
|---|---|
| Member of the Pleiades | |
.jpg) The Pleiades byElihu Vedder | |
| Abode | Mt. Cyllene onArcadia, later Mt. Taygetos onLaconia |
| Genealogy | |
| Parents | (a)Atlas andPleione orAethra (b)Agenor |
| Siblings | (a)Hyades
|
| Consort | (1)Zeus(2)Lacedaemon |
| Children | (1) Lacedaemon andEurotas(2)Himerus |
In ClassicalGreek mythology,Taygete (/teɪˈɪdʒətiː/;[1]Ancient Greek:Ταϋγέτη,Ancient Greek:[taːyɡétɛː],Modern Greek:[taiˈʝeti]) was anymph, one of thePleiades according to theBibliotheca (3.10.1) and a companion ofArtemis, in her archaic role aspotnia theron, "Mistress of the animals", with its likely roots in prehistory.Mount Taygetos inLaconia, dedicated to the goddess, was her haunt.
| Greek deities series |
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| Nymphs |
TheTaygetus mountain on thePeloponnese was named after her.[1]
As he mastered each of the local nymphs one by one, Olympic Zeus pursued Taygete, who invoked her protectress Artemis. The goddess turned Taygete into adoe with golden horns,[2] any distinction between theTitaness in her human form and in her doe form is blurred: the nymph who hunted the doe in the company of Artemisis the doe herself. AsPindar conceived themyth-element in his third Olympian Ode, "the doe with the golden horns, which once Taygete had inscribed as a sacred dedication toArtemis Orthosia", ("right-minded" Artemis)[3] was the veryCeryneian Hind thatHeracles later pursued. For the poet, the transformation was incomplete, and the doe-form had become an offering. Pindar, who was a very knowledgeable mythographer, hints that the mythic doe, even when slain and offered to Artemis, alsocontinues to exist, to be hunted once again (although not killed) by Heracles at a later time.[4]Karl Kerenyi points out (The Heroes of the Greeks) "It is not easy to differentiate between the divine beast, the heroine and the goddess".
According toPausanias (3.1.2, etc.) Taygete conceivedLacedaemon, the mythical founder of Sparta, through Zeus, andEurotas. Pausanias noted, atAmyclae, that the rape of Taygete was represented on the throne.[5]
According toPseudo-Plutarch,[6] Taygete was the wife of Lacedaemon, sometimes referred to asSparta, whose name was given to the city of Sparta. Their son was namedHimerus.
In a rare variant of the myth, Taygete was called the daughter ofAgenor.[7]
Media related toTaygete (Pleiad) at Wikimedia Commons.jpg)
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