Taygete

A daughter of Atlas and Pleione, one of the Pleiades.1 By Zeus she became the mother of Lacedaemon2 and of Eurotas.3 Mount Taygetus, in Laconia, derived its name from her.4

According to some traditions, Taygete refused to yield to the embraces of Zeus, and in order to secure her against him, Artemis metamorphosed her into a cow. Taygete showed her gratitude towards Artemis by dedicating to her the Cerynitian hind with golden antlers.5

Some traditions, moreover, state that by Tantalus she became the mother of Pelops.6

References

Notes

  1. Pseudo-Apollodorus. The Library iii, 10.1.
  2. Pseudo-Apollodorus. The Library iii, 10.3; Pausanias. Description of Greece iii, 1.2, 18.7, 20.2.
  3. Stephanus of Byzantium, s.v. Ταν̈́γετον.
  4. Scholiast on Euripides' Orestes, 615.
  5. Scholiast on Pindar's Olympian Odes iii, 53.
  6. Hyginus. Fabulae, 82.

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.