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In ancient Athens, Eleos (Ancient Greek Ἔλεος m.) or Elea[citation needed] was the personification of mercy, clemency, compassion and pity – the counterpart of the Roman goddess Clementia.[citation needed] Pausanias described her as "among all the gods the most useful to human life in all its vicissitudes."[1]
Mythology
editPausanias states that there was an altar in Athens dedicated to Eleos,[2][1] at which children of Heracles sought refuge from Eurystheus' prosecution.[3][failed verification] Adrastus also came to this altar after the defeat of the Seven against Thebes, praying that those who died in the battle be buried.[citation needed] Eleos was only recognized in Athens, where she was honored by the cutting of hair and the undressing of garments at the altar.[4][5]
Statius in Thebaid (1st century) describes the altar to Clementia in Athens (treating Eleos as feminine based on the grammatical gender in Latin): "There was in the midst of the city [of Athens] an altar belonging to no god of power; gentle Clementia (Clemency) [Eleos] had there her seat, and the wretched made it sacred".[6]
See also
edit
- (Goddesses of Justice): Astraea, Dike, Themis, Prudentia
- (Goddesses of Injustice): Adikia
- (Aspects of Justice): (see also: Triple deity/Triple Goddess (Neopaganism))
- (Justice) Themis/Dike/Justitia (Lady Justice), Raguel (the Angel of Justice)
- (Retribution) Nemesis/Rhamnousia/Rhamnusia/Adrasteia/Adrestia/Invidia
- (Redemption) Eleos/Soteria/Clementia, Zadkiel/Zachariel (the Angel of Mercy)
Notes
edit- ^ a b Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Cited in "Eleos". Theoi Project. Aaron J. Atsma.
- ^ Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio 1.17.1
- ^ Apollodorus, 2.8.1
- ^ Patricia Monaghan, PhD (2014). Encyclopedia of Goddesses and Heroines. p. 238. ISBN 9781608682188. Retrieved 2019-02-27.
- ^ Scholia to Sophocles's Oedipus at Colonus, 258
- ^ Statius. Thebaid, 12.481. Retrieved 2024-03-07.
References
edit- 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.
- Gaius Julius Hyginus, Fabulae from The Myths of Hyginus translated and edited by Mary Grant. University of Kansas Publications in Humanistic Studies. Online version at the Topos Text Project.
- Pausanias, Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. ISBN 0-674-99328-4. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
- Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio. 3 vols. Leipzig, Teubner. 1903. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Statius, Thebaid translated by John Henry Mozley. Loeb Classical Library. Online version at the Topos Text Project.