Dictynna

"Lady of the Nets." A nymph from whom Mount Dicte in Crete was said to have received its name. She was beloved by Minos who pursued her for nine months over valley and mountain, through forest and swamp. He nearly overtook her but she threw herself into the sea, where she was caught up and saved in the nets (δίκτυον) of fishermen. Minos then desisted from pursuing her, and ordered the district to be called the Dictaean. See further Britomartis.

At the end of the Aphetaid Road (near Sparta) was a sanctuary of Dictynna, and by the sea (within the Spartan frontier) a temple of Artemis Dictynna on a promontory where an annual festival was held.

She is also called Dicte (Δίκτη).

❧

References

Sources

  • Pausanias. Description of Greece ii, 30.3; iii, 12.8, 24.9.
  • Servius on Virgil's Aeneid iii, 171.
  • 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.