Asteria~Star Goddess, Mother of Hecate

[Arachnifauna]

Posted by Rosey on December 15, 2015 at 10:20pm

by ~*~ Elder Airwolf LoP Ministry Founder/Owner~*~

on 31 December 2014 at 00:11

ASTERIA was the Titan goddess (perhaps) of the oracles and prophecies of night, including prophetic dreams, the reading of the stars (astrology), and necromancy. She was the mother of the goddess Hekate by Perses (the Destroyer). After the fall of theTitanes, Asteria was pursued by the godZeus. She fled his advances, transforming herself into a quail and leaping into the sea where she became the island of Delos. Her sister Leto later sought refuge on the isle and there gave birth to her son Apollon. Asteria appears in Athenian vase-painting alongside the other Delian gods--Apollon, Artemis and Leto. She is often labelled as "Delos."

PARENTS
KOIOS & PHOIBE (Hesiod Theogony 404, Apollodorus 1.9, Hyginus Preface)
OFFSPRING
HEKATE (by Perses) (Hesiod Theogony 404, Apollodorus 1.8, Cicero De Natura Deorum 3.18)

ENCYCLOPEDIA

ASTE′RIA (Asteria), a daughter of the Titan Coeus (according to Hygin. Fab. Pref. of Polus) and Phoebe. She was the sister of Leto, and, according to Hesiod (Theog. 409), the wife of Perses, by whom she became the mother of Hecate. Cicero (de Nat. Deor.iii. 16) makes her the mother of the fourth Heracles by Zeus. But according to the genuine and more general tradition, she was an inhabitant of Olympus, and beloved by Zeus. In order to escape from his embraces, she got metamorphosed into a quail (ortux), threw herself into the sea, and was here metamorphosed into the island Asteria (the island which had fallen from heaven like a star), or Ortygia, afterwards called Delos. (Apollod. i. 2. § 2, 4. § 1; Athen. ix. p. 392; Hygin. Fab. 53; Callimach.Hymn. in Del. 37; Serv. ad Aen. iii. 73.)

Source: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.

FAMILY OF ASTERIA

Hesiod, Theogony 404 ff (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C8th or C7th B.C.) :
"Again, Phoibe came to the desired embrace of Koios. Then the goddess through the love of the god conceived and brought forth dark-gowned Leto . . . Also she bare Asteria of happy name, whom Perses once led to his great house to be called his dear wife. And she conceived and bare Hekate."

Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1. 8 (trans. Aldrich) (Greek mythographer C2nd A.D.) :
"The Titanes had children . . . The children of Koios and Phoibe were Asteria and Leto . . . Perses and Asteria [were the parents] of Hekate."

Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae 31 (trans. Grant) (Roman mythographer C2nd A.D.) :
"From Polus [Koios] and Phoebe [were born] : Latone, Asterie."

Cicero, De Natura Deorum 3. 18 (trans. Rackham) (Roman rhetorician C1st B.C.) :
"If you think Latona [Leto] a goddess, how can you not think that Hecate is one, who is the daughter of Latona’s sister Asteria."

ASTERIA, ZEUS, POSEIDON & THE ISLAND DELOS

Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1. 21 (trans. Aldrich) (Greek mythographer C2nd A.D.) :
"Of the daughters of Koios, Asteria in the form of a quail (ortux) threw herself into the sea while fleeing a sexual union with Zeus. A polis was originally named Asteria after her: later on it became Delos. The other daughter Leto had relations with Zeus, for which she was hounded by Hera all over the earth. She finally reached Delos and gave birth to Artemis, who thereupon helped her deliver Apollon."

Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae 53 (trans. Grant) (Roman mythographer C2nd A.D.) :
"Though Jove [Zeus] loved Asterie, daughter of Titan [Koios], she scorned him. Therefore she was transformed in to the bird ortyks, which we call a quail, and he cast her into the sea. From her an island sprang up, which was named Ortygia. This was floating. Later Latona [Leto] was borne there at Jove’s command by the wind Aquilo [Boreas], at the time when the Python was pursuing her, and there, clinging to an olive, she gave birth to Apollo and Diana [Artemis]. This island later was called Delos."

Ovid, Metamorphoses 6. 108 (trans. Melville) (Roman epic C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) :
"Asterie in the struggling eagle’s clutch [Zeus' disguise]."

Nonnus, Dionysiaca 2. 125 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic C5th A.D.) :
"In the sea, Earthshaker [Poseidon] chased Asterie in the madness of his passion."
[N.B. Asterie was pursued by Zeus, but turned herself into a quail and leapt into the sea. There Poseidon took up the chase, so she transformed herself into the island of Delos.]

Nonnus, Dionysiaca 33. 336 ff : 
"Earthshaker [Poseidon] enamoured did not affright me, as he did the chaste Asterie, whom he hunted to and fro in the sea, riding restless before the changing wind, until Apollon rooted her in the waves immovable."

Nonnus, Dionysiaca 42. 410 ff : 
"He [Poseidon] pursued Asterie, and she became a desert island."

link: http://www.legionofpagans.com/gods--goddesses-witches--wizards/6828...