Hyacinthides

A patronymic given to the daughters of Hyacinthus, a Lacedaemonian. They were sacrificed on the tomb on the Cyclops Geraestus to deliver Athens from famine and the plague, under which it was suffering during the war with Minos. One of their names is Lusia.1

According to Phanodemus in the fifth book of his Atthis (cited by Suidas),2 the daughters of Erechtheus were called Hyacinthides because they were sacrificed at the hill named Hyacinth, at the time when Athens was attacked by the Eleusinians and Thracians, or Thebans.

The names and numbers of the Hyacinthides differ in the different writers. The account of Apollodorus is confused: he mentions four (Antheis, Aegleis, Lytaea, and Orthaea), and represents them as married, although they were sacrificed as maidens, whence they are sometimes called simply αἱ πάρθενοι (hai parthenoi).

A precinct called the Leocorium was dedicated to their worship at Athens.

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References

Notes

  1. Stephanus of Byzantium, s.v. Λουσία.
  2. s.v. παρθένοι.

Sources

  • Demosthenes. Funeral Orations, lx, 27.
  • Harpocration, s.v. Ὑακινθίδες.
  • Pseudo-Apollodorus. The Library iii, 15.8.
  • 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.