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InGreek mythology,Angelos (Ancient Greek:Ἄγγελος) orAngelia (Ἀγγελία) was a daughter ofZeus andHera.
Angelos' story only survives inscholia onTheocritus'Idyll 2. Angelos was raised bynymphs to whose care her father had entrusted her. One day she stole her mother Hera's anointments and gave them away toEuropa. To escape Hera's wrath, she had to hide first in the house of a woman in labor, and next among people who were carrying a dead man. Hera eventually ceased from prosecuting her, and Zeus ordered theCabeiroi to cleanse Angelos. They performed the purification rite in the waters of theAcherusia Lake in theUnderworld. Consequently, she received the world of the dead as her realm of influence, and was assigned an epithetkatachthonia ("she of the underworld").[1]
The story of Angelos is cited by the scholiast in a series of rare myths concerning the birth ofHecate, which makes it possible to think that Angelos was essentially equal to Hecate. This is to some extent confirmed by the fact that, according toHesychius,[2]Angelos was a surname ofArtemis inSyracuse, being that Artemis as goddess of the moon was identified with Hecate.[3] Angelos could be an early version of Hecate, the one that pertained both to theupper world and the underworld, similar to the position ofPersephone.[4]
