Araethyrea

A daughter of Aras, an autochthon who was believed to have built Arantea, the most ancient town in Phliasia. She had a brother called Aoris, and is said to have been fond of the chase and warlike pursuits. When she died, her brother called the country of Phliasia after her Araethyrea.1 She was the mother of Phlias.

The monuments of Araethyrea and her brother, consisting of round pillars, were still extant in the time of Pausanias; and before the mysteries of Demeter were commenced at Phlius, the people always invoked Aras and his two children with their faces turned towards their monuments.2

❧

References

Notes

  1. Homer. Iliad ii, 571; Strabo. Geography viii, 382.
  2. Pausanias. Description of Greece ii, 12.4-6.

Source

  • Smith, William. (1870). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. London: Taylor, Walton, and Maberly.

This article incorporates text from Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) by William Smith, which is in the public domain.