Lotus-Eaters
Greek
The name given to the companions of Odysseus who, while visiting the Lotophagi on the Libyan coast, ate the fruit of the lotus plant and so entered the same state of enervating dreaminess in which the Lotophagi lived. They led a life of perfect, empty-headed contentment and immediately lost all desire to return home. "Lotus-Eater" is the literal translation of Lotophagi.
Loxias
"The Ambiguous"; a name given to Apollo at his Dorian shrine at Delphi near the spring Castalia on Mount Parnassus, where he was also known as the Pythian.
Lua
The goddess wife of Saturnus who was, according to Livy, invoked to destroy enemy arms.
Lucifer
Also: Phosphorus
"Bringer of Light"; the name given to the planet Venus when seen in the morning sky before sunrise. Given a masculine personification in myth, the name was equally applied to Artemis, as it was to her brother, Apollo.
Lucina
An epithet that was chiefly applied to Juno but also sometimes to Diana, in which role she was regarded as the goddess of childbirth, bringing children into the light.
Lucre~tia, ~ce
The beautiful and pure wife of Lucius Tar-quinius Collatinus who was raped by Sextus, the son of the Etruscan king of Rome, Tarquinius Superbus. She reported the outrage to her father, Spurius Lucretius Tricipitinus, and her husband and made them swear to avenge her. She then stabbed herself to death before them and in the presence of Publius Valerius Poplicola and Lucius Junius Brutus. The latter of these witnesses led the populace in rebellion against the ruling Etruscans. This led to the expulsion of the Tarquins, an end to kingship in Rome, and the establishment of the Roman republic. See also: Sextus
Luna
Goddess of the moon, the Roman counterpart to the Greek Selene.
Lupercal
A cave on the Palatine Hill in ancient Rome that was sacred to Lupercus, or to Faunus in the guise of a wolf deity, and as such has important connections with the story of Romulus and Remus. The Lupercalia festival centered around the sacred cave. See also: Remus; Romulus
Lupercalia
A popular festival of unknown origin that was celebrated on 15 February when two teams of aristocratic youths, known as the Lupercii, sacrificed goats and a dog in the Lupercal Cave on the Palatine Hill. They then feasted before donning the skins of the sacrificial goats to race down the hill, whipping anyone in range with goatskin thongs. This was believed to promote fertility.
The festival probably predates the legend of Romulus and Remus, for on one occasion Remus was captured by brigands the twins had been attacking and was taken to Amulius. This abduction of Remus was said to have taken place during the Lupercalia.
Lupercus
Possibly the name given to the she-wolf who suckled the twins Romulus and Remus, possibly an alias for Faunus in the guise of a wolf deity. A cave on the Palatine Hill in ancient Rome, the Lupercal Cave, was sacred to Lupercus and was the site of the immensely popular annual Lupercalia festival.
Lupus
Traditional name given to the wolf-form that Lycaon adopted after Zeus transformed him for the crime of serving human flesh as a banquet for the gods. However, the name Bootes was also used to refer to Lycaon in the form of a wolf.
Astronomical: A constellation of the southern celestial hemisphere located between approximate right ascensions 14h15m and 16h00m, declination from -39° to -65°.
Lycaon
A king of Arcadia, son of Pelasgus, father of Callisto, and founder of the city of Lycosura on Mount Lycaeum who established a rite of child sacrifice. Some versions of the story say that it was his own son, Arcas, who was sacrificed. Lycaon then threw a banquet for the gods at which the flesh of the sacrificed child was served. However, Zeus would not eat, thus refusing Lycaon’s sacrifice, and in his anger turned the king into a wolf, along with all his other sons, save Nyctinus, or killed them with his thunderbolt. The former fate is the more likely as the ancient Greeks referred to the constellation Bootes as Lycaon, a wolf.
The story marks the outrage that ended the community of men and gods, finally separating the two races. Following this first sacrifice, at every subsequent sacrifice to the Lycaean Zeus, a man would turn into a wolf for a period of eight or nine years. If during that period the wolf refrained from eating human flesh, the original human form would be restored. It was also said that any creature that entered the sanctuary of the Lycaean Zeus would lose its shadow. In the case of a man this was tantamount to becoming a werewolf, and offenders were immediately stoned to death.
Lycia
Ancient region of Asia Minor on the southern seaboard of modern Turkey. Legend says that the kingdom was once ruled by Iobates, to whom Bellerophon was sent by Proetus and who sent Bellerophon out against the Chi-maera, which was ravaging the country. Ancient peoples from Lycia emigrated to Lemnos, where they became known as the Pelasgians, and brought one stem of the worship of Apollo into Greece, associating him with an ancient Hittite deity named Lycius, a name adapted to Apollo on Delos. Hephaistos is thought to have originated from the region.
Lycius
Originally an ancient Hittite deity worshipped in Lycia, Lycius became one of the names applied to Apollo at his Ionian shrine on Delos, where he was also known as Phoebus. It is possible that Lycius is one of the origins of Apollo, though he also appears to have Dorian aspects.
Lycomedes
King of the Dolopians on the island of Scyros. His daughter, Deidameia, became the mother of Neoptolemus, also called Pyrrhos, by Achilles when the latter was sent there by his mother, Thetis, in the guise of a girl so that he would not have to go to the Trojan War where he was destined to die. Lycomedes is also infamous as the murderer of Theseus, who had taken refuge on Scyros after he fled from Athens.
Lycurgus
King of the Edones who opposed the worship of Dionysos and drove the god and his Maenads out with an oxgoad. Like Pentheus, Lycurgus was sent mad, either by Dionysos or Rhea; while chopping down grapevines in the belief that they were poisonous, he mistook his own leg for a vine and cut that off as well. He then killed and mutilated his son, Dryasa (Oak Tree), under the same delusion, and for this his people, the Edones, punished him. His end has several versions. He was either fed to man-eating horses on Mount Pangaeum, torn to pieces between two horses, eaten by panthers to whom he had been thrown by Dionysos, or simply took his own life.
Lycus
1. The son of Pandion who was expelled by his brother, Aegeus, and took refuge in Lycia, a country to which he gave his name.
2. King of Thebes who either inherited the kingdom from his brother, Nycteus, or won it in battle. He then made war on Sicyon and brought back Antiope, his first wife by whom he became the father of Amphion and Zethus. He later divorced her in favor of Dirce. When his sons, who had been raised by cattle drovers on Mount Cithaeron, grew up, they returned to Thebes, killed Lycus and Dirce, and took possession of the city.
3. A descendant of Lycus who usurped the throne of Thebes after the death of Creon.
While Heracles was at Thespiae the hero’s family resided at Thebes, but Lycus persecuted them. Heracles returned and killed the king in revenge for this treatment of his family.
Lydia
An ancient kingdom and (seventh-sixth century B.C.) empire of the central-western coast of Asia Minor. It was here that Heracles spent his time as a slave to Queen Omphale, dressed as a female and doing female tasks, while she wore his cloak of lion’s skin.
Lynceus
1. Son of Amphiaraus and devoted twin brother of Idas. Lynceus was noted for his keen sight, and the inseparable twins took part in the hunt for the Calydonian Boar as well as the expedition of Jason and the Argonauts. They were betrothed to the Leucippides, the daughters of Leucippus, whom the Dioscuri abducted. Their attempted rescue of the girls led to their deaths.
2. One of the 50 sons of Aegyptus who was fortunate enough to marry Hyperm-nestra, the only one of the 50 Danaides who did not carry out her father’s instruction to kill her new husband on their wedding night. He later succeeded Danaus as the king of Argos.
Lyra
Traditionally the name given to the lyre of Orpheus, musician to the Argonauts and husband of Eurydice. With it he charmed Hades into releasing his wife back to him after her death. After his own death it was translated to the heavens to commemorate the beautiful music it had produced at the hands of Orpheus.
Astronomical: Lying in the northern celestial hemisphere, the constellation Lyra contains the brilliant star Vega, the third-brightest star in the night sky. Relatively small, the constellation lies between approximate right ascensions 18h10m and 19h30m, declination from +25° to +48°.
Lystra
Place in Asia Minor where Saint Paul was mistaken for Hermes (see Acts 14:6-21).
Macareus
The son of Aeolus who had an incestuous relationship with his sister, Canace. Their daughter, Issa, was one of those beloved by Apollo.
Macaria
Daughter of Heracles, thus one of the Hera-cleidae, who committed suicide after an oracle demanded the sacrifice of one of Heracles’ children if Athens, in which the Heracleidae had sought sanctuary, was to be saved from the attack mounted by Eurystheus. Following the self-sacrifice of Macaria, Eurystheus was defeated by either Iolaus or Hyllus and finally dispatched by Alcmene.
Macedonia
Mountainous Balkan country north of ancient Greece that was divided from Thessaly by a mountain range, the range’s eastern end being the location of Mount Olympus. Today, Macedonia is divided between Greece and the independent state of Macedonia, which formed a part of Yugoslavia. Under Philip II and his son, Alexander the Great, Macedonia dominated Greece in the fourth century B.C. In 146 B.C. it became a Roman province, and when the Roman Empire was divided it was assigned to the eastern half.
Machaereus
"Knife Man"; an ancestor of Branchus and the founder of the Oracle of Apollo at Didyma, he became infamous as the murderer of Neoptolemus.
Machaon
Son of Asclepios, brother of Podalirius, and father of Nicomachus and Gorgasus, who were also considered as healing heroes. He and his brother were suitors for the hand of Helen, and both led a fleet to Troy. There, either Machaon or his brother cured the archer Philoctetes of the festering wound that had originally meant his desertion en route to the Trojan War. Machaon met his death at Troy at the hands of either Eurypylus or Penthesilea and was buried at Messedia.
Maenad
Name given to a female votary or votaries of the god of wine, Dionysos, who dressed in the skins of wild animals and carried thyrsoi, vine branches entwined with ivy and tipped with a pine cone. Maenads assembled in the mountains and, in the orgiastic frenzy induced through drinking wine, they rampaged over the hills, catching wild animals, which they then tore to pieces and ate raw. Various other names were applied to the worshippers of Dionysos, including Bacchoi (male votaries), and Bacchae, Bacchantes, or Thyiads, the latter being specifically restricted to usage in Athens and Delphi. Their rites persisted into historical times, but the introduction of their cult appears to have been widely resisted, as witnessed in the many legends that surround the Maenads and the worship of Dionysos.
Maera
The name given to the bitch that Hecuba reportedly transformed herself into to evade the angry Thracian people after she had avenged the murder of her son, Polydorus, by killing Polymester and his two sons.
Maia
Daughter of Atlas and the Oceanid Pleione; the eldest and most beautiful of the Pleiades. She was said to have been the mother of Hermes by Zeus, bearing him on Mount Cyllene in Arcadia. As his mother was a daughter of Atlas and an embodiment of the Great Goddess, Hermes also became known as Atlantiades. Later she brought on Arcas, the son of Callisto, after his mother had been killed by Hera or had been turned into a bear.
Ancient agricultural and fertility goddess associated with Vulcan and also, by confusion with Maia, with Mercurius. Sacrifices were made to her to ensure the fertility of crops.
Mamercus
Legendary founder of the great Aemilian family of ancient Rome. He claimed he was the son of Numa Pompilius, though some claimed he may have been the son of the great Greek philosopher Pythagoras.
Manes, di
Generic name for the deified spirits of departed ancestors, revered as lesser deities, who were believed to linger either in or near their tomb, there requiring frequent feeding. As they were thought to grow dangerous if neglected, they were provided with a meal at the original funeral and were fed annually thereafter at the Parentalia festival. They were sometimes, incorrectly, identified with the gods of the Underworld.
Manto
The daughter of Teiresias and mother, by Apollo, of the seer Mopsus.
Marathon(ian) Bull
The white bull that was originally given to Minos by Poseidon to confirm Minos’s supreme rule over Crete. Minos substituted a lesser bull for this magnificent animal in the required sacrifice. Later, Heracles came to Crete and captured the bull as his seventh labor. He took it back to Eurystheus, who released it, whereupon it wandered through Greece before settling in the region of Marathon. It was subsequently recaptured by Theseus, who took it back to Athens as a sacrifice to Athene. See also: Minos
Marica
A nymph; the wife of Faunus and mother of Latinus.
Marpessa
Daughter of the river god Euneus who was loved by Apollo but carried away by Idas in the winged chariot Poseidon had given him. Apollo gave chase and fought Idas for Marpessa until Zeus intervened, saying that Marpessa must be allowed to choose for herself. She chose Idas. See also: Idas
Mars
The Roman god of war. He has Sabine origins, the month of March is named for him, and he is the equivalent of the Greek Ares. Originally an agricultural deity, important to the prosperity of the city of Rome, Mars developed into the god of war when Rome expanded its empire, being vital to the success of the Roman campaigns. He became one of the three protector-deities of Rome, along with Jupiter and Quirinius, and in popularity was second only to Jupiter.
Tradition makes Mars the son of Juno, his father having the remarkable guise of a flower. He seduced the Vestal Virgin daughter of Numitor, Rhea Silvia, while she was asleep (and thus unaware of her violation). She bore twin sons, whom she exposed. They were cared for and suckled by a she-wolf before being found and cared for by a shepherd and his wife. These sons of Mars were Romulus and Remus, who were later led by a flock of geese to the site where they founded a new city—Rome.
At first Mars lived in the woods and hills and kept a watchful eye over farming. He remained a pastoral deity for many years, only much later developing into the god of war with a temple sacred to him in Rome. Here sacrifices were made to ensure victory, after which he expected his share in the booty. Occasionally Mars would appear on the battlefield in the guise of a humble infantryman. His popularity grew with the expansion of the Roman Empire, for he was considered a key component in the continued Roman successes. As the empire expanded, temples to Mars became more widespread. He was a particular patron of the horse, a patronage reflected in horseraces that were held on the Campius Martius, the field of Mars, in March and October, dates that marked the beginnings and endings of the military and agricultural years. The winners of these races were given the ultimate reward—they were sacrificed to Mars. The October celebration was also a fertility festival at which Mars was worshipped in the guise of Silvanus, his earth god aspect. It was at this site that the Roman infantry paraded and where there once stood the earliest-known altar to Mars. Each year the army would assemble at another of Mars’s temples, on the Appian Way, and from there parade through the city.
Mars was closely associated with Bellona, goddess of war, who was possibly his wife or his sister. The first Roman emperor, Augustus, was particularly fond of and devoted to Mars, considering him his personal protector. Augustus built him many temples, most of which were outside city walls, where they would do most good to the land, a memory of his earlier agricultural aspects. Augustus particularly worshipped Mars in the guise of Mars Ultor, "the Avenger," for he was seen as avenging the assassination of Augustus’s adoptive father, Julius Caesar. In art he was often depicted simply as an armed warrior or naked, bearing arms. The wolf and woodpecker were his sacred animals.
Astronomical: The fourth planet of the solar system, lying at an average distance of 228 million kilometers (141.5 million miles) from the sun, being approximately half the size of earth and having an equatorial diameter of 6,794 kilometers (4,247 miles). The planet has a distinctive reddish color that was said to have reminded the ancients of blood, so they named it after their god of war. The largest known volcanic mountain, Olympus Mons, is located on the surface of Mars, which has two satellites, Phobos and Deimos, named after the horsemen of Ares, the Greek god of war.
Marsyas
A satyr from Phrygia who picked up the double-reeded pipe, or aulos, which had been discarded by Athene as it forced the player to grimace. This, however, did not bother Marsyas, whose facial characteristics made it simple for him to play. He challenged Apollo to a musical contest that was judged by Tmolus, with contributions by King Midas, a contest that was won by Apollo. As punishment for Marsyas’s presumption, Apollo suspended him in a pine tree and flayed him alive, his blood forming the River Marsyas.
Mastarna Romano-Etruscan A famous Etruscan hero; the great friend of Vibenna whom the Romans later equated with Servius Tullius.
Matralia
The festival of Mater Matuta, which was celebrated on 11 April and involved a servant woman being forced into the temple sanctuary, then forcibly ejected. For the duration of the celebrations, women treated their sisters’ children as if they were their own. The actual purpose of the festival remains unclear, but it may have associations with the driving-out of winter by spring, thus marking the start of the growing season.
Medea
The sorceress-daughter of Aeetes, king of Colchis, thus the granddaughter of Helios, sister to Circe, another sorceress, and the priestess of Hecate. Nothing is known of her before her involvement with Jason and the Argonauts. She immediately fell in love with Jason when he arrived in Colchis and helped him against her father.
When Jason first arrived, Aeetes said that he would only give up the Golden Fleece if Jason could yoke a fire-breathing bull with brazen hooves, the work of Hephaistos, plough the field of Ares with the bulls, and then sow the dragon’s teeth that were left over by Cadmos. Medea supplied a fireproof ointment that enabled Jason to complete the allotted task. Aeetes failed to keep his promise, so Medea charmed to sleep the sleepless dragon that guarded the grove in which the Golden Fleece hung, thereby enabling the Argonauts to steal it.
Medea then fled with Jason, taking with her Apsyrtus, her half-brother. When her father gave chase she ruthlessly murdered Apsyrtus and, cutting him into small pieces, dropped his body over the side of the fleeing ship. Aeetes stopped to collect the remains for burial, enabling the Argonauts to safely escape. On the island of Aeaea, Jason and Medea were purified of this murder by Circe. They then made their way to Crete, where Medea devised a method to dispose of the menacing bronze giant named Talos.
Returning to Iolcos, Jason’s home city, they found Aeson a tired, old man, though some sources say he had been forced to take his own life by Pelias. Jason persuaded Medea to rejuvenate him. This she did by draining Aeson’s blood and filling his veins with a magical potion. She then proposed to rejuvenate Pelias, demonstrating a second method to his doubting daughters by cutting up an old sheep and boiling the pieces in a cauldron. From the brew she pulled out a newborn lamb. Pelias’s daughters, with the exception of Alcestis, were convinced. They cut up Pelias, but this time the magic did not work. Jason and Medea were expelled from Iolcos by Acastus, Pelias’s son, and traveled to Corinth.
They lived happily as normal citizens until Jason fell in love with Glauce, also called Creusa, the daughter of King Creon. He divorced Medea, but she, realizing that her position as a resident alien was now in jeopardy, retaliated by sending the young bride a poisoned robe that set her body on fire when she dressed in it. The resulting blaze destroyed the palace and killed Creon. Medea then killed her children by Jason and fled Corinth in a winged chariot sent by her grandfather, Helios, going now to Athens.
There she married Aegeus and became the mother of Medus. However, Medea tried to get rid of her stepson, Theseus, the son of Aegeus and Aethra, by sending him out against the Marathonian Bull. When Theseus returned unharmed, Aegeus expelled both Medea and Medus. They fled back to Colchis but stopped en route at Absoros to put an end to a plague of snakes by confining them in the tomb of Apsyrtus. Having arrived in Colchis, she proposed to cure a crop failure by human sacrifice. Perses, then king, suggested Medus as the victim, but Medea retaliated by killing Perses. Nothing more is heard of Medea after this, though some say she became an immortal.
Medus
The son of Medea and Aegeus, he fled with his mother from Athens after the safe return of Theseus, whom Medea had sent out against the Marathonian Bull. He traveled with her to Colchis, but after it was suggested by Perses that he should be the sacrifice to cure a crop failure, nothing more is heard of him.
Medusa
Daughter of the sea deities Phorcys and Ceto, sister to the Graeae and sister to Stheno and Euryale, Medusa was the only mortal Gorgon. She and her sisters had once been beautiful, but Medusa lay with Poseidon in one of the temples sacred to Athene, and in revenge Athene altered their appearance, turning them into winged monsters with brazen claws and serpent hair, so hideous that a single glance had the power to petrify human flesh to stone. She and her sisters were said to live in Libya, though some sources place the Gorgons in the land of the Hyperboreans.
Perseus came to their homeland, wherever it actually might have been, on the orders of Polydectes to behead Medusa. Aided in his quest by Athene, who some say ordered the death of Medusa, her hostility toward the Gorgon unabated, Perseus was armed with a polished shield, the gift of Athene, a sickle provided by Hermes, Hades’ helmet of invisibility, a pair of winged sandals, and a special bag in which he was to place Medusa’s head.
Confronting the hideous beast, Perseus used the shield to avoid looking directly at Medusa, her reflection not being deadly. He then successfully beheaded the Gorgon with Hermes’ sickle and concealed the power of the head in the special leather bag. As he did so, Perseus was amazed to see the winged horse Pegasus and the warrior Chrysaor spring fully grown from her body. These fabulous beings were the children of Poseidon, begotten on Medusa when she lay with the great sea god in the temple of Athene.
Fleeing, Perseus was chased by Stheno and Euryale but escaped to the south by wearing Hades’ helmet of invisibility, though some sources say he escaped on Pegasus, who certainly features later in the story of Perseus.
Even though Medusa now lay dead, her head still had the power to turn all who looked upon it into stone. Perseus was said to have used its power on a number of occasions. He turned Atlas into the mountain named after him; then he used it on the sea monster Cetus, who was about to kill Princess Andromeda, who was being offered in sacrifice by Cepheus and Cassiopeia. When these two refused Perseus his reward, the hand of Andromeda, he again unleashed the terrible power of Medusa’s head and turned Andromeda’s suitor, and all his retinue, to stone. A similar fate awaited Polydectes when Perseus returned to Seriphos. Having completed his quest, Perseus gave Medusa’s head to Athene, who placed its petrifying image in the center of her aegis, the head’s snaky locks forming its border.
Megaera
One of the Erinnyes or Furies, the snake-haired, winged daughters of Mother Earth who were born when drops of blood from the wound inflicted on Uranos by Cronos fell on her. Her sisters were Alecto and Tisiphone, though the three sisters were named only in the works of later writers. Megaera is sometimes confused with Medusa through the single similarity that both had serpentine hair.
Megapenthes
Son of Proetus (king of Tiryns) and cousin of Perseus (king of Argos), with whom he exchanged his kingdom.
Meg~ara, ~era
Eldest daughter of Creon, king of Thebes, who was given to Heracles as a reward for his helping the city and who became the mother of several children by the great hero. Her youngest sister married Heracles’ half-brother, Iphicles. She was later given to Heracles’ nephew, Iolaus, but some versions of the story of Heracles said that upon his later return to Thebes the tyrannical king attempted to kill Megara and her children. Heracles killed the tyrant but was then driven mad by Hera, and as a result he killed Megara and their children.
Melampus
"Black Foot"; son of Amythaon and brother of Bias who gained his name after his mother laid him in the shade as a baby but left his feet in the sun. He gained the power to understand the languages of birds and animals after he had rescued the offspring of a dead snake while staying with the king of Messenia, for while he slept the snakes licked his ears and gave him the power.
He helped Bias to steal the cattle of King Phylacus, which Bias gave to Neleus as the price of marrying his daughter. Melampus, however, was caught and thrown into prison. There he overheard two woodworms discussing the imminent collapse of the roof to his cell, so Melampus asked to be moved to another one, foretelling the collapse. When this did indeed occur, and Melampus thus proved his foresight, the king asked Me-lampus to cure his son of impotence. Discovering that this was caused by the boy having seen his father brandishing a bloody gelding knife, Melampus traced the knife, and an infusion of rust from its blade was used to cure the boy.
Melampus’s best-known task was to cure the daughters of Proteus of Argos of their madness, which caused them to think they were cows and roam the countryside killing people. Melampus demanded payment for himself and Bias—shares in the kingdom— and having gained that promise he prepared a potion that cured the girls. This herbal potion was then thrown into a river that thenceforth smelled foul. Melampus and his brother married Lysippe and Iphianassa, two of Proteus’s daughters, Melampus finally succeeding Proteus as king, at which point his career as a seer came to an end. He was the first person to introduce the cult of Dionysos into Greece, his descendants forming the next Argive dynasty.
