Maia
| Maia | |
|---|---|
| Member of the Pleiades | |
 | |
| Abode | Mount Cyllene, Arcadia |
| Personal information | |
| Parents | Atlas and Pleione or Aethra |
| Siblings |
(b) Hyades |
| Consort | Zeus |
| Children | Hermes |
| Part of a series on |
| Ancient Greek religion |
|---|
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Maia (Latin: Maia),[1] in ancient Greek religion and mythology, is one of the Pleiades and the mother of Hermes, one of the major Greek gods, by Zeus, the king of Olympus.[2]
Family
Maia is the daughter of
Arcadia,[4] and are sometimes called mountain nymphs, oreads; Simonides of Ceos sang of "mountain Maia" (Maiados oureias) "of the lovely black eyes."[5] Because they were daughters of Atlas, they were also called the Atlantides.[6]
Mythology
Birth of Hermes
According to the
Apollo's cattle and invented the lyre from a tortoise shell. Maia refused to believe Apollo when he claimed that Hermes was the thief, and Zeus then sided with Apollo. Finally, Apollo exchanged the cattle for the lyre, which became one of his identifying attributes.[9]
Although the Homeric Hymn has Maia as Hermes' caretaker and guardian, in Sophocles's now lost satyr play Ichneutae, Maia entrusted the infant Hermes to Cyllene (the local mountain goddess) to nurse and raise, and thus it is her that the satyrs and Apollo confront when looking for the god's missing cattle.[10]
As nurturer
Maia also raised the infant
aition for a stellar formation, the constellations Ursa Major and Ursa Minor
, the Great and Little Bear.
Her name is related to μαῖα (maia), an honorific term for older women related to μήτηρ (mētēr) 'mother',[citation needed] also meaning "midwife" in Greek.[12]
Roman Maia
Bartholomäus Spranger
In
comparative adjective maius, maior "larger, greater". Originally, she may have been a homonym independent of the Greek Maia, whose myths she absorbed through the Hellenization of Latin literature and culture.[14]
In an archaic Roman prayer,Piacenza Liver.[19]
The month of May (Latin Maius) was named for Maia,Ides, Mercury was honored as a patron of merchants and increaser of profit (through an etymological connection with merx, merces, "goods, merchandise"), another possible connection with Maia his mother as a goddess who promoted growth.[13]
See also
- 66 Maja, asteroid
- Bona Dea
- Maia (star)
- Maiasaura
- Rosmerta
Notes
- ^ The alternate spelling Maja represents the intervocalic i as j, pronounced similarly to an initial y in English; hence Latin maior, "greater," in English became "major."
- ^ Homer, Odyssey 14.435; Apollodorus, 3.10.2; Horace, Odes 1.10.1 & 2.42 ff.; Tzetzes on Lycophron, 219
- ^ The alternate spelling Maja represents the intervocalic i as j, pronounced similarly to an initial y in English; hence Latin maior, "greater," in English became "major."
- ^ a b c Hesiod, Theogony 938
- ^ a b Apollodorus, 3.10.1
- ^ Simonides, fr. 555
- ^ Although the identification of Mercury is secure, based on the presence of the caduceus, the one-shouldered garment called the chlamys, and his winged head, the female figure has been identified variously. The cup is part of the Berthouville Treasure, found within a Gallo-Roman temple precinct; see Lise Vogel, The Column of Antoninus Pius, Loeb Classical Library Monograph (Harvard University Press, 1973), p. 79 f., and Martin Henig, Religion in Roman Britain, Taylor & Francis, 1984, 2005, p. 119 f. In Gaul, Mercury's regular consort is one of the Celtic goddesses, usually Rosmerta. The etymology of Rosmerta's name as "Great Provider" suggests a theology compatible with that of Maia "the Great". The consort on the cup has also been identified as Venus by M. Chabouillet, Catalogue général et raisonné des camées et pierres gravées de la Bibliothéque Impériale, Paris 1858, p. 449. Maia is suggested by the concomitant discovery of a silver bust, not always considered part of the hoard proper but more securely identified as Maia and connected to Rosmerta; see E. Babelon, Revue archéologique 24 (1914), pp. 182–190, as summarized in American Journal of Archaeology 19 (1915), p. 485.
- ^ Homeric Hymns 4.5
- ^ Apollodorus, 3.10.2
- ISBN 978-1-119-02553-5.
- ^ Apollodorus, 3.8.2
- ISBN 9780415086110.
- ^ ISBN 9780415929745.
- ^ Grimal, Pierre (1996). The Dictionary of Classical Mythology. Blackwell. p. 270.
- ^ Aulus Gellius, Attic Nights 13.10.2
- ^ By Cornelius Labeo, as recorded by Macrobius, Saturnalia 1.12.20
- ^ ISBN 9789004295773.
- ^ Macrobius, Saturnalia 1.12.16–33
- haruspicial object, the names Uni and Mae appear together in a cell on the edge of the liver; see Nancy Thompson de Grummond, Etruscan Myth, Sacred History, and Legend, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology, 2006, p. 44 (online).
- ^ British Museum (29 December 2017). "What's in a name? Months of the year". Retrieved 8 May 2022.
- ^ Ovid Fasti 5.73
- ^ Ovid, Fasti 5.73; Turcan, The Gods of Ancient Rome, p. 70.
- ^ Macrobius, Saturnalia 1.12.20; Juvenal, Satires 2.86; Festus, 68
- ISBN 9780521483667.
References
- Apollodorus, The Library with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. ISBN 0-674-99135-4. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website.
- Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History translated by Charles Henry Oldfather. Twelve volumes. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1989. Vol. 3. Books 4.59–8. Online version at Bill Thayer's Web Site
- Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca Historica. Vol 1-2. Immanel Bekker. Ludwig Dindorf. Friedrich Vogel. in aedibus B. G. Teubneri. Leipzig. 1888-1890. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Hesiod, Theogony from The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, MA.,Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website.
- Publius Ovidius Naso, Fasti translated by James G. Frazer. Online version at the Topos Text Project.
- Publius Ovidius Naso, Fasti. Sir James George Frazer. London; Cambridge, MA. William Heinemann Ltd.; Harvard University Press. 1933. Latin text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
- The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White. Homeric Hymns. Cambridge, MA.,Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website.
Further reading
- Grimal, Pierre, The Dictionary of Classical Mythology, Wiley-Blackwell, 1996,
- Harry Thurston Peck, Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, 1898
- Smith, William; Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London (1873). "Maia"
- Encyclopædia Britannica, 1911.
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