Curetes
Priests of Rhea who attended the infant Zeus according to Minoan tradition. While the baby was being suckled by the she-goat Amalthea, they clashed their weapons, or cymbals, together to mask the sound of the baby’s cries. Their name, cognate with kouros, "youth," specifically identifies them as attendants on the baby Zeus. They are closely allied to the Corybantes who attended the Asiatic mother goddess Cybele, whose cult was merged with that of Zeus’s mother, Rhea.
Curiatii
Collective name for three brothers from Alba Longa who fought and lost a battle to the Horatii.
Curium
Near to this town on Cyprus lies a sanctuary to Apollo, one of the major sanctuaries on the island. Apollo’s cult was practiced here from around the eighth century B.C. to the fourth century A.D. Most of the visible remains today date from the first century A.D. The site has great archaeological importance, as the total layout gives a clear impression of the ways in which ritual and secular needs were combined within a single sanctuary complex.
Curtius, Mettius
Sabine champion who led his people against Romulus following the rape of the Sabine women. Overconfident, he foundered on his horse in the swamps on the site of what was later to become the Forum. Some commentators say that it was from this incident that the Lacus Curtius in the Forum derived its name.
Cybe~le, ~be Greco-Roman Ancient Phrygian mother goddess and goddess of caves whose cult centered on Pessinus in Phrygia and at Mount Dindymus in Mysia, where the origins of its rites were attributed to the Argonauts. She was depicted wearing a mural crown as protectress of her people and, as a goddess of wild places, rides in a chariot drawn by lions. Her youthful consort was Attis and her acolytes, the Corybantes, and, in Roman times, the self-mutilating Galli. Her cult was eventually merged with that of Rhea or, in some places, Demeter, though in Piraeus, for example, she was worshipped under her own name along with Attis. She was said to have been married to Gordius, king of Phrygia, and was considered by some as the mother of Midas. Her cult spread to as far as Rome, possibly being taken there by the Trojan refugees who traveled with Aeneas.
Cyclades
Greek Kikladhes, a roughly circular group of about two hundred islands in the south Aegean Sea lying between Greece and Turkey. A department of modern Greece, it has its capital at Hermouplois on Sfros. Among the group is Delos, the island supposed to have been raised by Poseidon and then anchored to the seabed by Zeus. It became an important center for the worship of Apollo. Also within the group is Naxos, the island on which Theseus was said to have abandoned Ariadne and where she was later found and married by Dionysos. It became the center of worship of Dionysos.
Cyclop(e)s
Although the Cyclopes are usually described as the children of Uranos and Ge, their purpose differs. Hesiod describes them as Titans, whereas Homer says they were one-eyed giant shepherds living on Sicily, their leader being named as Polyphemus. Later tradition said they were the helpers of Hephaistos living either on, or actually within, Mount Etna.
The three original Cyclopes, the one-eyed giant sons of Uranos and Ge, are usually named as Brontes (Thunderer), Sterope (Lightener), and Arges (Bright), the brothers of the three Hecatoncheires or Centimani and the 12 original Titans. Rebelling against their father, they were imprisoned in Tartarus by Uranos but released for a short while by the Titans when Cronos deposed his father. However, they were soon reimprisoned along with their brothers, the Hecatoncheires.
During the ten-year war known as the Titanomachia, the Cyclopes remained in their Underworld prison but were finally released after Ge had promised Zeus victory in his epic struggle to become supreme on the condition that he did just that. They presented Zeus with his thunderbolt, Hades with his helmet of darkness, and Poseidon with his trident. With the aid of these fabulous weapons Zeus and his brothers won their battle.
Great builders, the Cyclopes were said to have built the massive walls of Tiryns and, later, of Mycenae, these walls of unhewn stone being today referred to as Cyclopean. Later tradition added to the number of Cyclopes, making them a numerous tribe of savage pas-toralists who lived without laws, feeding on dairy produce except when human flesh should chance their way. Most famous of these "other" Cyclopes was Polyphemus, a son of Poseidon who lived in a cave on the west coast of Sicily. Odysseus and his companions took refuge in his cave, and when Polyphemus entered with his flocks they found themselves trapped, two of Odysseus’s companions being devoured by the giant. By the following evening only Odysseus and six of his companions remained, so they got Polyphemus drunk with a sweet and extremely potent wine before putting out his single eye. The next morning they escaped by clinging to the bellies of Polyphemus’s sheep and so made it safely to their ship, but thereafter they had to contend with the vengeful hostility of Poseidon.
A further tradition concerns the fateful love of Polyphemus for the nymph Galatea and his disposal of his rival for her attentions, Acis. In these later traditions these giant one-eyed beings are usually referred to as Cyclops, Polyphemus often being referred to simply as "the cyclops."
Cycnus
1. The father of Tenes, king of Tenedos. He was killed, along with his son, by Achilles when the Greek forces landed on the island, in sight of Troy, on their way to the Trojan War.
2. A son of Ares who was killed in combat by Heracles. Apollodorus tells his story twice, each time giving him a different mother, each giving a different account of his life. In the first he and his mother are separated by Ares, whereas in the second he is killed by Heracles.
3. King of the Ligurians and a friend of Phaethon. When Phaethon was killed he mourned his friend’s death unrelentingly until he was transformed into a swan and transferred to the heavens as the constellation Cygnus.
4. One of the numerous sons of Poseidon; king of Colonae. He fought on the side of Troy during the Trojan War but was killed by Achilles, after which he was transformed into a swan.
Cygnus
Astronomical: "The Swan." Several legends tell how this constellation came into being. One says that it is the swan, really Zeus in disguise, that wooed Leda. Another says it was Cycnus, transferred to the heavens upon being changed into a swan after mourning the death of his friend Phaethon. The constellation is located in the northern celestial hemisphere between approximate right ascensions 19h05m and 22h00m, declination from +27° to +62°.
Cyllar~os, ~us
The horse owned by Castor that was possibly named in memory of a handsome centaur killed at the marriage feast of Peirithous during the famous battle between the centaurs and the Lapithae.
Cyllene
Lofty peak in Arcadia; a cavern said, in the Hymn of Hermes (c. 600 B.C.), to have been the birthplace of the messenger god Hermes— hence Cyllenius.
Cyllenius
Name sometimes used to refer to Hermes due to his connection with Mount Cyllene in Arcadia.
Cynthia
Name sometimes used to refer to Artemis, as she was said to have been born on the slopes of Mount Cynthus.
Cynthus
A mountain on Delos where Leto was said to have borne the twins Apollo and Artemis. While Artemis is sometimes referred to as Cynthia due to this association, Apollo is more simply known as Cynthus.
Cyprus
Large Mediterranean island that is known, through archaeological evidence, to have sheltered Neolithic peoples from at least the fourth millenium B.C. It was later colonized successively by Phoenicians, Greeks, Egyptians, Persians, and Romans.
According to Hesiod, it was the island near to which Aphrodite was born from the sea that had been fertilized with blood dripping from the wound inflicted on Uranos by Cronos. She was said to have traveled straight to Paphos on the island, one of the most important centers of her cult; there she was worshipped as a fertility goddess, and from there the Phoenicians took her worship to Cythera.
Cyrene
The daughter of Hypseus, king of the La-pithae, and one of those athletic maidens of Greek mythology who was much more given to hunting and outdoor pursuits. Apollo fell in love with her after he had witnessed her prowess wrestling a lion on Mount Pelion. On the advice of Cheiron, Apollo lay with her and then carried her off to Libya, where the city of Cyrene was named after her. This northern African port was colonized from Crete c. 630 B.C. and later became subject to Egypt and then to Rome. It was there that she gave birth to Aristaeus, the child born out of her union with Apollo.
Cythera
An island off Laconia in the southeastern Peloponnesos that was colonized by Phrygians. Some accounts say that near this island Aphrodite rose from the sea, though an alternative version says that the goddess rose near the island of Cyprus, and that her cult was brought to Cythera from Paphos on that island. The island was sacred to Aphrodite, who was thence surnamed Cytherea.
Cytherea
Surname applied to the goddess Aphrodite after the island of Cythera, which was sacred to her.
Dactyli
Mythical early inhabitants of Mount Ida in Phrygia said to have discovered iron and the art of working it with fire. Some sources refer to them as a group of daemones, possibly due to their mastery of iron, and associated them with Cybele, the Phrygian Mother Goddess, and later with Rhea and one of Cybele’s Greek analogs, Adrasteia. In addition to being masters of iron, they were considered masters of sorcery and amulets as well as the inventors of certain musical genres.
Later tradition transposed them from Phrygia to Crete, saying that they instead lived on the Cretan Mount Ida, identifying them further with the Curetes, the priests of Rhea said to have guarded the infant Zeus. Their name means "fingers," and this later tradition said that they were named from the marks made when their mother, Rhea, in this tradition, pressed her fingers into the earth while in labor. Their names were given as Heracles, Epimedes, Idas, Paeonius, and Iasus.
Daedal~os, ~us
Also: Daidal~os, ~us
The inventor of sculpture and other engineering and mechanical arts, the son of Eupalamus and a descendant of Erechtheus. His name is a masculine word form that means "idol" or "carved image." When his apprentice-nephew, Talos or Perdix, invented the chisel, saw, and compasses and boded to be a better artist than Daedalus himself, he threw him headlong from Athene’s temple on the Acropolis at Athens. Athene changed Perdix into a partridge, and Daedalus was banished by the Areopagus. He fled to Crete. It is interesting to note that Daedalus’s sister was also named Perdix.
Arriving in Crete, he was first commissioned by Minos to build a wooden cow inside of which his wife, Pasiphae, could lie to mate with the Cretan Bull. He is, however, most famous for his next commission, the building of the Cretan Labyrinth in which the Minotaur, the result of Pasiphae’s union with the Cretan Bull, would be imprisoned. This he built, according to Pliny, by modeling it on the so-called Egyptian Labyrinth, the temple of Amenehet III.
Homer says that he built a dance floor for Ariadne, Minos’s daughter, in the form of a maze, an allegory on the labyrinth itself, for the dance now becomes the story of the hero Theseus as he threads his way into the winding passages of the maze to kill the Minotaur, aided by the ball of thread given to him by Ariadne. Theseus was also, in Homer at least, said to have received instructions from Daedalus himself as to how to penetrate the labyrinth.
Minos now imprisoned Daedalus and his son, Icarus, in the labyrinth he had constructed. Daedalus thus constructed father-son sets of wings out of feathers set into a wax base, and using these they escaped from Crete, having been released from the labyrinth by Pasiphae. Icarus, however, flew too close to the sun, the wax on his wings melted, and he plunged to his death.
Daedalus made it to safety, first seeking sanctuary at Cumae before traveling on to Sicily. Minos tracked him down by asking each king he met to thread a snail’s shell. When Cocalos (whose name means "shell"), king of Sicily, managed to do this, Minos knew that Daedalus had been that way, but Minos was then murdered by Cocalos with the aid of his daughters, some accounts saying the deed was done while the Cretan king lay in a ceremonial bath and either boiling water was poured over him or molten metal was poured down the bath taps. Finally Daedalus went to Sardinia, where his track is lost.
Discoveries such as the excavation of the great labyrinthine palace at Knossos on Crete give legends such as these special significance, for they would seem to suggest that they have at least some foundation in history.
Daemon
A term used to refer to a spirit or divinity when the speaker is not certain which particular deity is at work. However, the word is most commonly used in its plural form to refer to groups or collections of superhuman beings who are rarely referred to individually, such as the Dactyli, Curetes, and nymphs.
Many daemones restricted themselves to particular habitats, such as the sea nymphs, the Nereides.
Later, neoplatonic philosophy provided the daemones with an important role as mediators between men and gods, the next step being provided by Christianity, which declared that all pagan gods were daemones, thus giving the word all the connotations of the modern word demon. They dwelled in rivers and groves as of old, as well as statues and pagan temples. Thus the destruction of pagan works of art and buildings was said to be to extirpate the demons that dwelled in them.
Daidal~os, ~us
Alternative form of the great engineer and architect Daedalus.
Damocles Greco-Roman A historical figure who lived in the fourth century B.C., residing at the court of Dionysius I, the tyrannical ruler of Syracuse, Sicily, possibly at the same time as Damon and Phintias. Legend says that Damocles once flattered
Dionysius I, extolling his happiness, his wealth, and his power. As a result Damocles was invited by Dionysius I to attend a banquet with a sword suspended by a single hair, or very fine thread, hanging over his head. Damocles thus came to realize that those things he had praised were ephemeral and did not bring true happiness but rather illustrated the insecurity of the rich and powerful. This episode has passed into modern usage: Impending disaster is referred to as the "sword of Damocles."
Damon Greco-Roman A historical figure, a courtier of Dionysius I of Syracuse, Sicily, possibly residing in the palace of the tyrannical ruler at the same time as Damocles. His friend, Phintias, plotted against Dionysius I and, having been caught and tried, was sentenced to death. Phintias needed time to settle his affairs, so Damon stood bail for him under the threat of being executed in Phintias’s stead should the latter fail to return within the allotted time. Phintias did return. Dionysius I was so impressed with the friendship the two displayed that he reprieved Phintias and, thereafter, sought to be admitted to their special bond of friendship.
Danae
Daughter of Acrisius (king of Argos). When an oracle foretold that Acrisius would be killed by his grandson, the frightened king locked his daughter in a bronze or brazen tower or dungeon, possibly one of the beehive tombs of Mycenaean Greece, which were lined with bronze plates. However, Zeus still visited Danae in the form of a shower of gold, and she later gave birth to the hero Perseus. Not wanting to kill his daughter and her child, Acrisius set them adrift in a wooden chest. Finally they washed ashore on the island of Seriphos, where they were found by Dictys, who took them to the king, Polydectes, who welcomed them warmly. Later, when Perseus had come of age, Polydectes sent the young hero to kill Medusa as a ruse to get him out of the way, as he had fallen in love with Danae and planned to marry her.
Having successfully beheaded the Gorgon and rescued Andromeda from the sea monster Cetus, Perseus returned to Seriphos to find that Danae and Dictys had fled from Polydectes’ palace and had sought refuge in a temple. Furious, Perseus confronted Poly-dectes and, exposing the head of Medusa, turned the king and all his followers to stone. Perseus then installed Dictys as the new king of Seriphos and returned to Argos with his mother. Mindful of the original oracle, Acrisius fled to Larissa—but in vain, for while visiting Larissa Perseus took part in some public games and accidentally killed his grandfather with a discus.
Danai
A term that was used only by Homer as a generic term to refer to the Greek race.
Danaid(e)s
The collective name for the 50 daughters of Danaus, son of Belus and king of Libya, by ten different wives. His brother, Aegyptus, had 50 sons and suggested a mass marriage between his sons and the Danaides. Danaus fled, taking his daughters with him to Argos, where he was elected king in place of Gelanor. However, the 50 sons of Aegyptus followed and asked for the hands of the daughters in marriage. Reluctantly Danaus agreed but gave each daughter a weapon, instructing each to kill her new husband on their wedding night. All complied except one, Hypermnestra, who spared her husband, Lynceus, who killed Danaus and went on to become king of Argos. Danaus then remarried them by offering them as prizes in a footrace. Following their deaths the 49 Danaides who had complied with Danaus’s orders were condemned to Hades, where they were to eternally carry water in sieves or to fill bottomless vessels.
In origin they appear to be water nymphs, celebrating the introduction of irrigation to the arid region of Argos, a function that is explicit in the myth of Amymone, one of the Danaides. They were also said to have brought the Mysteries of Demeter from Egypt and to have instituted her festival, the Thesmaphoria. The story of the Danaides is used as the central theme of Aeschylus’s play The Suppliants.
Danaoi
Although this term was originally coined to refer to the family descended from Danae, later, better-known legends made them the descendants of Danaus, and therefore included the Danaides. Homer employed the term more generally, whereas other authors used the term to specifically refer to the Greek troops at the siege of Troy. They seem to be part of the dynasty of Mycenaean Midea and Tiryns and were the subjects of saga deriving from early or mid-Mycenaean times.
