Melanippe

"Black Mare." A daughter of Chiron, is also called Evippe. Being with child by Aeolus I, she fled to Mount Pelion; but Chiron made search after her; and in order that her condition might not become known, she prayed to be metamorphosed into a mare. Artemis granted the prayer, and in the form of a horse she was placed among the stars.

Another account describes her metamorphosis as a punishment for having despised Artemis or divulged the counsels of the gods.1

She is said to have given birth to a daughter, called Arne (or Melanippe) who became by Poseidon the mother of Aeolus III and Boeotus.

❧

References

Notes

  1. Hyginus. Poetical Astronomy ii, 18.

Sources

  • Aristophanes. Thesmophoriazusae, 512.
  • Hyginus. Fabulae, 86.
  • Pseudo-Eratosthene. Catasterisms, 18.
  • 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.