Metis (/ˈmiːtɪs/;Ancient Greek:Μῆτις,romanized: Mêtis;Modern Greek: Μήτις, meaning 'Wisdom', 'Skill', or 'Craft'), inancient Greek religion andmythology, was the pre-Olympian goddess of wisdom, counsel and deep thought, and a member of theOceanids.[1] She is notable for being the advisor and first wife ofZeus, the king of the gods. She first helped him to free his siblings from their fatherCronus's stomach and later helped their daughterAthena to escape from the forehead of Zeus, who swallowed both mother and child after it was foretold that she would bear a son mightier than his father.
By the era ofGreek philosophy in the 5th century BC, Metis had become the first deity of wisdom and deep thought, but her name originally connoted "magical cunning" and was as easily equated with thetrickster powers ofPrometheus as with the "royalmetis" ofZeus, who is titledMetieta (Ancient Greek:Μητίετα,lit. 'the wise counsellor') in the Homeric poems.[3] TheStoic commentatorsallegorised Metis as the embodiment of "prudence", "wisdom" or "wise counsel", in which form she was inherited by theRenaissance.[4]
The Greek wordmetis meant a quality that combined wisdom and cunning. This quality was considered to be highly admirable, the heroOdysseus being the embodiment of it, for example using such a strategy againstPolyphemus, son ofPoseidon. In the Classical era,metis was regarded by Athenians as one of the notable characteristics of the Athenian character.[5]
Metis was anOceanid, one of the 3000 daughters of theTitansOceanus andTethys,[6] and a sister of theriver-gods, which also numbered 3000. Metis gave her cousinZeus an emetic potion to cause his fatherCronus, the supreme ruler of the cosmos, to vomit out his siblings –Hestia,Demeter,Hera,Hades, andPoseidon – whom their father had swallowed out of fear of being overthrown.[7] After Zeus and his siblings won theTitanomachy, the 10-year war among the Titans and theOlympians, he pursued Metis and they got married.[8][3]
Metis was both an indispensable aid and a threat to Zeus.[9] He lay with her, but immediately feared the consequences, for it had been prophesied byGaia andUranus that Metis would bear a daughter who would be wiser than her mother, and then a son more powerful than his father, who would eventually overthrow Zeus and become the king of the cosmos in his place.[10] In order to forestall these consequences, Zeus tricked Metis into turning herself into a fly and promptly swallowed her.[11] However, she was already pregnant with their first and only child,Athena, whom Metis raised in Zeus's mind. It is from this position that Metis continues to give Zeus advice as a ruler.
Once Athena fully grew up, Metis crafted robes, an armor, a shield, and a spear for her daughter, who banged her spear and shield together in order to give her father a terrible headache. Soon, Zeus could not take his headache anymore and had the smith godHephaestus – a son of Hera, now Zeus's queen – cut his head open to let out whatever was in there on theriver Triton's banks. Athena emerged from Zeus's mind full grown, wearing the armor her mother made for her. She was soon made the goddess of wisdom, warfare, and crafts.
But Zeus lay with the fair-cheeked daughter of Ocean and Tethys apart fromHera ... deceiving Metis although she was full wise. But he seized her with his hands and put her in his belly, for fear that she might bring forth something stronger than his thunderbolt: therefore did Zeus, who sits on high and dwells in the aether, swallow her down suddenly. But she straightway conceived Pallas Athena: and the father of men and gods gave her birth by way of his head on the banks of the river Trito. And she remained hidden beneath the inward parts of Zeus, even Metis, Athena's mother, worker of righteousness, who was wiser than gods and mortal men.[12]
According to ascholiast on theTheogony, Metis had the ability ofchanging her shape at will. Zeus tricked her and swallowed his pregnant wife when she transformed into aπικρὰν[a] (pikràn).[13] As Keightley notes,πικρὰ ("bitter") makes little or no sense in that context, and it has been variously corrected toμυῖαν[a] (muîan, meaning "fly") orμικρὰν[a] (mikràn, meaning "small thing") instead.[14]
According toApollodorus, Metis was raped by Zeus and changed many forms in order to escape him after he pursued her.[15]
An alternative version of the same myth makes theCyclops Brontes rather than Zeus the father of Athena before Metis is swallowed.[16]
The similarities between Zeus swallowing Metis and Cronus swallowing his children have been noted by several scholars. This also caused some controversy in regard to reproduction myths.[18][19]
Grimal, Pierre,The Dictionary of Classical Mythology, Wiley-Blackwell, 1996.ISBN978-0-631-20102-1.
Hard, Robin,The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology", Psychology Press, 2004,ISBN9780415186360.Google Books.
