Enyo
Enyo (Greek: Ἐνυώ, English translation: "warlike") was a goddess of war and destruction in Greek mythology, the companion and lover of the war god Ares. She is also identified as his sister, and daughter of Zeus and Hera,[1] in a role closely resembling that of Eris; with Homer in particular representing the two as the same goddess. She is also accredited as the mother of the war god Enyalius, by Ares.[2] However, the name Enyalius or Enyalios can also be used as a title for Ares himself.[3]
As goddess of war, Enyo is responsible for orchestrating the destruction of cities, often accompanying Ares into battle,[4] and depicted "as supreme in war".[5] During the fall of Troy, Enyo inflicted terror and bloodshed in the war, along with Eris ("Strife"), and Phobos ("Fear") and Deimos ("Dread"), the two sons of Ares.[6] She, Eris, and the two sons of Ares are depicted on Achilles’s shield.[6]
Enyo was involved in the war of the Seven Against Thebes and Dionysus’s war with the Indians as well.[7][8] Enyo so delighted in warfare that she even refused to take sides in the battle between Zeus and the monster Typhon:
- "Eris (Strife) was Typhon's escort in the mellay, Nike (Victory) led Zeus into battle . . . impartial Enyo held equal balance between the two sides, between Zeus and Typhon, while the thunderbolts with booming shots revel like dancers in the sky." [9]
The Romans identified Enyo with Bellona, and she also has similarities with the Anatolian goddess Ma.
At Thebes and Orchomenos, a festival called Homolôïa, which was celebrated in honour of Zeus, Demeter, Athena and Enyo, was said to have received the surname of Homoloïus from Homoloïs, a priestess of Enyo.[10] A statue of Enyo, made by the sons of Praxiteles, stood in the temple of Ares at Athens.[11] Among the Graeae in Hesiod[12] there is one called Enyo.
Enyo was also the name of one of the Graeae, three sisters who shared one eye and one tooth among them, along with Deino ("Dread") and Pemphredo ("Alarm").[13]
Genealogy of the Olympians in Greek mythology
References
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This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Leonhard Schmitz (1867). "Enyo". In Smith, William. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.
Footnotes
- ↑ Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy, 8.424
- ↑ Eustathius on Homer 944
- ↑ Willcock, Malcolm M. (1976). A companion to the Iliad : based on the translation by Richard Lattimore ([9th print.] ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 58. ISBN 0-226-89855-5.
- ↑ Homerus Epic., Ilias Book 5, line 592 Τοὺς δ' Ἕκτωρ ἐνόησε κατὰ στίχας, ὦρτο δ' ἐπ' αὐτοὺς κεκλήγων· ἅμα δὲ Τρώων εἵποντο φάλαγγες καρτεραί· ἦρχε δ' ἄρα σφιν Ἄρης καὶ πότνι' Ἐνυώ, ἣ μὲν ἔχουσα Κυδοιμὸν ἀναιδέα δηϊοτῆτος, Ἄρης δ' ἐν παλάμῃσι πελώριον ἔγχος ἐνώμα, φοίτα δ' ἄλλοτε μὲν πρόσθ' Ἕκτορος, ἄλλοτ' ὄπισθε.
- ↑ Pausanias, Description of Greece 4. 30. 5
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy
- ↑ Statius, Thebaid
- ↑ Nonnus, Dionysiaca
- ↑ Nonnus, Dionysiaca 2. 358 & 2. 475 ff
- ↑ Suidas s. v.; comp. Müller, Orchomen. p. 229, 2nd edit. (cited by Schmitz)
- ↑ Pausanias, Description of Greece, I. 8. § 5. (cited by Schmitz)
- ↑ Theogony Hesiodus Epic., Theogonia Line 273 Φόρκυι δ' αὖ Κητὼ γραίας τέκε καλλιπαρήους ἐκ γενετῆς πολιάς, τὰς δὴ Γραίας καλέουσιν ἀθάνατοί τε θεοὶ χαμαὶ ἐρχόμενοί τ' ἄνθρωποι, Πεμφρηδώ τ' εὔπεπλον Ἐνυώ τε κροκόπεπλον, Γοργούς θ', αἳ ναίουσι πέρην κλυτοῦ Ὠκεανοῖο ἐσχατιῇ πρὸς νυκτός, ἵν' Ἑσπερίδες λιγύφωνοι, Σθεννώ τ' Εὐρυάλη τε Μέδουσά τε λυγρὰ παθοῦσα· ἡ μὲν ἔην θνητή, αἱ δ' ἀθάνατοι καὶ ἀγήρῳ, αἱ δύο· τῇ δὲ μιῇ παρελέξατο Κυανοχαίτης ἐν μαλακῷ λειμῶνι καὶ ἄνθεσιν εἰαρινοῖσι.
- ↑ Harris, Stephen L., and Gloria Platzner. Classical Mythology: Images and Insights (Third Edition). California State University, Sacramento. Mayfield Publishing Company. 2000, 1998, 1995, pp. 273-274, 1039.
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