Ovid - The Metamorphoses: Index - LMN
Laconia, Laconis, Lacedaemonian, Lacedaemionius
Bk II:227-271. The area around Sparta. Of Sparta, the chief city also called Lacedaemon.
Lacinius
Bk XV:1-59. Bk XV:622-745. Of Lacinium, a promontory near Crotona in Italy. (Near modern Capo Colonna on the ‘heel’ of Italy.) It had a famous temple of Juno.
Laconis
Bk III:206-231. Spartan, Lacedaemonian, Laconian.
Ladon
Bk I:689-721. A river in Arcadia. (Pausanias says, VIII xx, that its springs derive from the Phenean Lake and that it has the finest water of any river in Greece.)
Laërtes
The father of Ulysses, and son of Arcesius.
Bk VIII:260-328. He is present at the Calydonian Boar Hunt. He is father-in-law to Penelope.
Bk XII:579-628. Bk XIII:123-381. The father of Ulysses.
Laërtiades
Bk XIII:1-122. Ulysses, son of Laërtes.
Laërtius heros
Bk XIII:123-381. Ulysses, son of Laërtes.
Laestrygones
Bk XIV:223-319. An ancient people of Campania in Italy, fabled to be cannibals. See Lamus. They attack Ulysses and his comrades.
Laïades, Oedipus
Bk VII:759-795. Oedipus, son of Laïus. He was exposed as an infant on Mount Cithaeron. Later, he unknowingly killed his father and married his mother, to become King of Thebes, and from that Sophocles’s great tragedies are developed. Oedipus guessed the answer to the Sphinx’s riddle, that it is Humankind that goes on four legs at dawn, two in the afternoon, and three at evening (a crawling child, an adult, an aged person with a staff). The Sphinx was the monstrous daughter of Typhon and Echidne, and came to Thebes from Ethiopia. She had a woman’s head, a lion’s body, a serpent’s tail, and eagle’s wings. The Sphinx leapt to her death from Mount Phicium. (See Sophocles plays, ‘The Theban cycle’, Ingres’s painting Oedipus and the Sphinx, Louvre, Paris, Gustave Moreau’s painting in the Metropolitan Gallery ,New York, and Charles Ricketts pen and ink drawing of the same subject, Carlisle Art Gallery, England).
Lampetia, Lampetie
Bk II:344-366. One of the Heliads, daughters of Clymene and the Sun, who are turned into poplar trees while mourning Phaethon.
Lampetides
Bk V:107-148. A musician at the court of Cepheus, killed by Pedasus.
Lamus
Bk XIV:223-319. Mythical king of the Laestrygonians, and founder of Formiae. (The Laestrygonian country has been placed in Sicily, here at Formia on the coast of Campania, or, as Ernle Bradford suggests in ‘Ulysses Found’ Ch.12, from the details of the natural harbour described by Homer in the Odyssey, at Bonafacio in Corsica, in the sea-gate between Corsica and Sardinia.)
Laomedon
Bk XI:749-795. The king of Troy, son of Ilus the younger, father of Priam, Hesione and Antigone.
Bk VI:70-102. Father of Antigone of Troy.
Bk XI:194-220. He reneges on his agreement to reward Apollo and Neptune for building the walls of Troy. His daughter Hesione is chained to a rock to be taken by a sea-monster. Hercules rescues her and is also denied his reward. He seizes Troy and marries Hesione to Telamon.
Lapithae
Bk XII:245-289. Bk XIV:623-697. An ancient people of south western Thessaly. The marriage of Pirithoüs and Hippodamia was disrupted by Eurytus one of the centaurs invited to the feast, leading to the battle between the Lapiths and Centaurs. (See the sculpture from the west pediment of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia – e.g. the detail, Lapith Woman and Centaur)
Bk XII:536-579. Nestor finishes telling the story of the battle.
Larissaeus, Larissa
Bk II:531-565. Of Larissa a town in Thessaly.
Latialis, Latinus
Of Latium, Latian, Latin, Roman.
Latinus(1)
Bk XIV:445-482. The son of Faunus, grandson of Picus, king of Laurentum in Latium, and father of Lavinia. Aeneas marries his daughter and becomes king.
Latinus(2)
Bk XIV:609-622. One of the Alban kings.
Latium
Bk XIV:320-396. A country in Central Italy, containing Rome. (The modern Lazio region. It originally designated the small area between the mouth of the Tiber and the Alban Hills. With the Roman conquest it was extended south-east to the Gulf of Gaeta, and west to the mountains of Abruzzo, forming the so-called Latium novum or adiectum.)
Bk XIV:445-482. At war with Etruria.
Bk XIV:623-697. Pomona’s country.
Bk XV:622-745. Suffers the plague.
Latius, Latian, Latin
Bk XIV:320-396 Bk XIV:397-434. Bk XIV:829-851. Of Latium. Roman.
Latoïs
Bk VIII:260-328. Diana, the daughter of Latona.
Latoïus
Bk XI:194-220. Apollo, the son of Latona.
Latona, Leto
Bk I:689-721. Daughter of the Titan Coeus, and mother of Apollo and Artemis (Diana) by Jupiter.
Bk VI:146-203. Worshipped at Thebes.
Bk VI:204-266. Offended by Niobe she asks her children to exact punishment.
Bk VI:267-312. They pursue vengeance on her behalf, killing all Niobe’s children. Niobe is turned to stone, and her husband Amphion commits suicide in his grief.
Bk VI:313-381. Bk XIII:623-639. Pursued by a jealous Juno, she was given sanctuary by Delos, a floating island. There between an olive tree and a date-palm she gave birth to Apollo and Diana-Artemis, by Mount Cynthus. Delos became fixed. A variant has Artemis born on the nearby islet of Ortygia.
Ovid also tells how Latona turned the Lycian countrymen into frogs, for refusing to allow her to drink at their pool.
Bk VII:350-403. The island of Calaurea is sacred to her.
Latonia
Bk I:689-721. Bk VIII:376-424. Bk VIII:515-546. Diana, as the daughter of Latona.
Latonigenae
Bk VI:146-203. Apollo and Diana, the twin children of Latona, worshipped at Thebes.
Lataoüs
Of Latona, her altar. Also of her son Phoebus Apollo.
Bk VI:382-400. An epithet for Apollo.
Latreus
Bk XII:429-535. A centaur.
Laurens
Of Laurentum, an ancient city of Latium, seat of king Latinus. Possibly identified with ancient Lavinium between modern Ostia and Anzio.
Bk XIV:320-396. Picus comes from there.
Bk XIV:566-580. Venus descends there.
Lavinia
Bk XIV:445-482. Bk XIV:566-580. The daughter of Latinus. She married Aeneas, and the disappointed Turnus initiated the war in Latium.
Lavinium
Bk XV:622-745. A city of Latium founded by Aeneas.
Learchus
Bk IV:512-542. Killed by his father, maddened by Tisiphone.
Lebinthus
An island in the eastern Aegean, one of the Sporades.
Bk VIII:183-235. Daedalus and Icarus fly to the north of it after leaving Crete.
Leda
The daughter of Thestius and wife of the Spartan king Tyndareus. She had twin sons Castor and Polydeuces (Pollux), the Tyndaridae, following her rape by Jupiter in the form of a swan. Castor and Pollux are represented in the sky by the two bright stars in the constellation of Gemini, the Twins. They were the protectors of mariners appearing in the rigging as the electrical phenomenon now known as St Elmo’s fire. Gemini contains the radiant of the Geminid meteor shower. (See the painting Leda, by Gustave Moreau in the Gustave Moreau Museum Paris)
Bk VI:103-128. Depicted by Arachne.
Bk VIII:260-328. The mother of the Tyndaridae.
Leleges
A Pelasgic people of Greece and Asia Minor.
Bk VII:425-452. Builders of the walls of Megara.
Bk IX:595-665. Armed inhabitants of Caria.
Lelex
Bk VIII:260-328. He is present at the Calydonian Boar Hunt.
Bk VIII:547-610. Described as a hero of Troezen, he is present when Acheloüs offers Theseus his hospitality.
Bk VIII:611-678. He tells the story of Baucis and Philemon.
Bk VIII:725-776. He completes his tale.
Lemnicola
Bk II:752-786. Vulcan, whose favourite dwelling-place was Lemnos.
Lemnos
Bk II:752-786. Bk XIII:1-122. The Greek island. The home of Vulcan the blacksmith of the gods.
Bk IV:167-189. Vulcan is called the Lemnian.
Bk XIII:1-122. Philoctetes was bitten by a snake there, and on Ulysses advice was abandoned there. He had inherited the bow and arrows of Hercules.
Bk XIII:399-428. Ulysses sails for the island to bring back the arrows of Hercules. Thoas was once king there when the Lemnian women murdered their menfolk because of their adultery with Thracian girls. His life was spared because his daughter Hypsipyle set him adrift in an oarless boat.
Lenaeus
Bk IV:1-30. Bk XI:85-145. An epithet for Bacchus as god of the vineyards.
Leo
Bk II:63-89. The constellation and zodiacal sign of the Lion. It contains the star Regulus ‘the heart of the lion’, one of the four guardians of the heavens in Babylonian astronomy, which lies nearly on the ecliptic. (The others are Aldebaran in Taurus, Antares in Scorpius, and Fomalhaut ‘the Fish’s Eye’ in Piscis Austrinus. All four are at roughly ninety degrees to one another). The constellation represents the lion killed by Hercules as the first of his twelve labours.
Lerna
Bk I:587-600. Bk IX:1-88. Bk IX:89-158. The marshland in Argolis, the home of the Hydra.
Lesbos
Bk II:566-595. The island in the eastern Aegean. Among its cities were Mytilene and Methymna. Famous as the home of Sappho the poetess, whose love of women gave rise to the term lesbian. Here the home of Nyctimene.
Bk XI:1-66. Orpheus’s (prophetic) head is washed ashore there.
Bk XIII:123-381. Captured by Achilles.
Lethaea
Bk X:1-85. The wife of Olenus. She was punished for her pride in her beauty and he chose to share her guilt. They were turned into stones on Mount Ida.
Lethe
A river of the Underworld, whose waters bring forgetfulness.
Bk VII:100-158. Used of the magic juice (juniper?) that Jason uses to subdue the dragon that guards the Golden Fleece.
Bk XI:573-649. Its stream flows from the depths of the House of Sleep, and induces drowsiness with its murmuring. (Hence the stream of forgetfulness)
Letoïs
Bk VII:350-403. Of Leto, or Latona, applied to Calaurea an island to the east of Argolis sacred to her.
Letoïus
Bk VIII:1-80. Phoebus Apollo, as the son of Latona (Leto).
Leucas
An island off the coast of Acarnania in western Greece, in the Ionian Sea north of Ithaca.
Bk XV:259-306. Once joined to the mainland. (The Corinthians bored a channel through the isthmus in the 7th century BC, see Ernle Bradford’s ‘Ulysses Found’ Appendix II)
Leucippus
The brother of Aphareus.
Bk VIII:260-328. He is present at the Calydonian Boar Hunt.
Leuconoë
Bk IV:31-54. One of the daughters of Minyas who rejected the worship of Bacchus and was changed into a bat.
Bk IV:167-189. She tells the story of Mars and Venus.
Leucosia
Bk XV:622-745. An island, near Paestum in Italy.
Leucothoë(1)
Bk IV:190-213. The daughter of Orchamus, king of Babylon loved by Sol.
Bk IV:214-255. Raped by Sol, and buried alive by her father, Sol changes her into a tree with incense-bearing resin (frankincense, genus Boswellia?)
Leucothoe(2)
The White Goddess, the sea-goddess into whom Ino was changed, who as a sea-mew helps Ulysses (See Homer’s Odyssey). She is a manifestation of the Great Goddess in her archetypal form. (See Robert Graves’s ‘The White Goddess’)
Bk IV:512-542. Venus intercedes for Ino, after she has leapt into the sea with her son, and Neptune changes them into sea-deities.
Liber
Bk III:511-527. An ancient rural god of Italy who presided over planting and fructification. He became associated (as Liber Pater) with Bacchus-Dionysus.
Bk III:597-637. An epithet of Bacchus in the story of Acoetes.
Bk VI:103-128. The ensnaring of Erigone is depicted by Arachne.
Bk VII:294-349. Medea restores the youth of the Nyseïdes for him.
Bk VII:350-403. He hides the bullock his son has stolen, concealing it in the form of a stag.
Bk VIII:152-182. He rescues Ariadne.
Bk XIII:640-674. He gave Anius’s daughters the power to change everything into corn, wine and olives.
Libya
Bk II:227-271. The country in North Africa. Turned to desert when Phaethon loses control of the sun chariot.
Bk IV:604-662. The drops of blood falling from the Gorgon’s head as Perseus flies over its sands infest it with poisonous snakes.
Bk V:74-106. Amphimedon’s native country.
Bk XIV:75-100. Carthage is sited there, supposedly founded by Dido, originally a Phoenician trading post. Aeneas is driven there from Sicily by adverse winds.
Libys(1)
Bk III:597-637. A seaman, companion of Acoetes.
Libys(2)
Bk V:294-331. African, applied to Ammon.
Lichas
Bk IX:89-158. A servant of Hercules entrusted with the shirt of Nessus which he unwittingly gives to his master.
Bk IX:211-272. He is thrown into the Euboean Gulf by Hercules and becomes a sacred island, called by his name.
Ligdus
Bk IX:666-713. A Cretan. His wife is Telethusa. She has a daughter who he wishes to be exposed, but he is deceived into believing the daughter is a male child and names it Iphis.
Ligures, Liguria
Bk II:367-380. A people and country of northern Italy.
Lilybaeon, Lilybaeum
Bk V:332-384. Bk XIII:705-737. A promontory on the southern coast of Sicily.
Limnaee
Bk V:30-73. A nymph of the River Ganges, daughter of the river god, and mother of Athis.
Limyre
Bk IX:595-665. A city in Lycia.
Liriope
Bk III:339-358. Raped by the river-god Cephisus she gives birth to Narcissus.
Liternum
Bk XV:622-745. A city in Campania in Italy. Famous for its mastic bearing lentisk trees. (The gum mastic from lentisk trees for which the island of Chios was also famous, formed the basis of ‘Turkish Delight’, the sweet of the Sultan’s harem.) (The modern Lago di Patria near Cumae was once the harbour of the Roman colony.)
Lotis
Bk IX:324-393. A nymph, daughter of Neptune. Changed into a lotus tree while fleeing from Priapus.
Lucifer
Bk II:111-149. Bk XV:176-198. The morning star (the planet Venus). It sets with the rising sun and vanishes as Phaethon begins his ride. (Lucifer the ‘Son of Morning’)
Bk II:708-736. The brightest star, but outshone by the moon.
Bk IV:604-662 Wakes Aurora’s fires to begin the day.
Bk VIII:1-80. Bk XI:85-145. He dispels the night.
Bk XI:266-345. His sons are Ceyx and Daedalion.
Bk XI:346-409. His son Ceyx tells the story of Daedalion.
Bk XI:474-572. Ceyx calls to him in extremis. He hides his face, when Ceyx is drowned, in mourning.
Bk XV:745-842. His face is darkened as an omen of Caesar’s assassination.
Lucina
Bk IX:666-713. ‘The light bringer’, the Roman goddess of childbirth, a manifestation of Juno, but also applied to Diana, as the Great Goddess.
Bk V:294-331. Appealed to, for help in childbirth, by Euippe.
Bk IX:273-323. Her Greek equivalent was Ilithyia.
Bk IX:273-323. Alcmena calls out to her in childbirth. Her companion gods, the guardians of women in labour, are the Nixi.
She squats on the altar and, using sympathetic magic, clasps her crossed knees to retard the childbirth at Juno’s orders.
Bk X:503-559. She assists at the birth of Adonis.
Luna
Bk II:201-226. The moon goddess. A manifestation of Artemis-Diana-Phoebe, sister of Apollo-Sol-Phoebus. Amazed at the sun chariot running amok with Phaethon.
Bk VII:179-233. At the eclipse, bronze weapons etc were clashed to ease the birth-pangs of the moon as she brought forth renewed light, in order to ensure a safe outcome to the eclipse.
Bk VII:501-613. A synonym for the moon.
Lyaeus
Bk IV:1-30. An epithet of Bacchus meaning ‘the deliverer from care’.
Bk VIII:260-328. King Oeneus pours libations of wine to him.
Bk XI:67-84. Bacchus turns the Maenads who killed Orpheus into oak trees.
Lycabas(1)
Bk III:597-637. A seaman, companion of Acoetes.
Lycabas(2)
Bk V:30-73. An Assyrian, companion of Phineus, killed by Perseus trying to avenge his friend and lover Athis.
Lycabas(3)
Bk XII:290-326. A centaur.
Lycaeus
Bk I:689-721. A mountain in Arcadia. (Pausanias, VIII xxxviii, has a long section on this mountain, the Holy Peak, sacred to Zeus-Jupiter, and Pan. In the precinct of Zeus no shadow is cast.)
Bk VIII:260-328. The home of Atalanta (1) who is present at the Calydonian Boar Hunt.
Lycaon
Bk I:151-176. Son of Pelasgus. Lycaon was a king of primitive Arcadia who presided over barbarous cannibalistic practises. He was transformed into a wolf by Zeus, angered by human sacrifice. His sons offered Zeus, disguised as a traveller, a banquet containing human remains. They were also changed into wolves and Zeus then precipitated a great flood to cleanse the world.
Bk II:466-495. The father of Callisto.
Lycetus
Bk V:74-106. A native of the River Spercheos. A companion of Phineus, killed by Perseus.
Lyceum
Bk II:708-736. The gymnasium at Athens amongst fountains and groves frequented by the philosophers.
Lycia
Bk IV:274-316. A country in Asia Minor, south of Caria, bordering the Mediterranean.
Bk VI:313-381. Home of the Chimaera. Scene of Latona’s transformation of the farmers into frogs.
Bk IX:595-665. The country of Byblis’s final transformation on Mount Chimaera home of the monster. Landmarks are Mount Cragus and Limyre, and the plain of Xanthus.
Bk XII:64-145. The country of Menoetes.
Bk XIII:123-381. The country of Sarpedon.
Lycidas
Bk XII:290-326. A centaur.
Lycopes
Bk XII:290-326. A centaur.
Lycormas(1)
Bk II:227-271. A river in Aetolia.
Lycormas(2)
Bk V:107-148. A follower of Perseus, kills Pedasus.
Lyctius
Bk VII:453-500. Of Lyctos, a city in Crete. Used of the Cretan fleet under Minos.
Lycurgus
Bk IV:1-30. King of the Edonians (Edoni) of Thrace who opposed Bacchus’s entry into his kingdom at the River Strymon. Lycurgus was driven mad and killed his own son Dryas with an axe thinking he was a vine. He pruned the corpse, and the Edonians, horrified, instructed by Bacchus, tore Lycurgus to pieces with wild horses on Mount Pangaeum.
Lycus(1)
Bk XII:290-326. A centaur.
Lycus(2)
Bk XIV:483-511. A companion of Diomede. Venus transforms him into a bird.
Lycus(3)
Bk XV:259-306. A river in Phrygia, a tributary of the Maeander. The Lycus plunges into a chasm, runs underground for some distance, and reappears before entering the Maeander. (See Herodotus VII 30, where it is visited by Xerxes, on the march.)
Lydia
A country in Asia Minor, containing Ephesus, with its temple of Artemis-Diana, and Smyrna. Famous for its wealth.
BkVI:1-25. The country of Arachne.
Bk VI:146-203. The country of Niobe.
Bk XI:85-145. The country of Midas.
Lyncestius
Bk XV:307-360. Of the Lyncestae, a people in Macedonia. Lyncestian.
Lynceus
The son of Aphareus.
Bk VIII:260-328. He is present at the Calydonian Boar Hunt.
Lyncides
Bk V:74-106. A descendant of Lynceus, father of Abas, whose great grandson was Perseus. A follower of Perseus (or Perseus himself?) in the fight against Phineus.
Bk V:149-199. As an epithet of Perseus.
Lyncus
King of Scythia.
Bk V:642-678. He attacks Triptolemus and is changed into a lynx.
Lyrceus
Bk I:587-600. The land near Mount Lyrceum between Argolis and Arcadia.
Lyrnesius
Of Lyrnessus, a town in the Troad, near Mount Ida.
Bk XII:64-145. Bk XIII:123-381. Sacked by Achilles.
Macareïs
Bk VI:103-128. Isse, the daughter of Macareus(1).
Macareus(1)
An inhabitant of Lesbos.
Bk VI:103-128. His daughter is Isse.
Macareus(2)
Bk XII:429-535. A centaur.
Macareus(3)
Bk XIV:154-222. Of Neritos. A companion of Ulysses who settled in Italy at Caieta, after their wanderings.
Bk XIV:223-319. He tells the story of their wanderings, and warns Aeneas not to encounter Circe.
Bk XIV:435-444. He ends his story.
Macedonia, Macedonius
Bk XII:429-535. The country bordering the northern Aegean.
Maeandrus, Maeandrius
Bk II:227-271. The Maeander river in Lydia in Asia Minor famous for its wandering course, hence ‘meander’. Also its river-god. (Pausanias mentions, VIII vii, a boiling hot spring that comes out of the riverbed and out of a rock mid-stream. Also, V xiv, that it is famous for its many huge tamarisk trees.)
Bk VIII:152-182. Its windings are compared to the Cretan maze.
Bk IX:439-516. Cyanee is his daughter.
Bk IX:517-594. Caunus is his grandson.
Maenades, Maenads, Bacchantes
The female followers of Bacchus-Dionysus, noted for their ecstatic worship of the god. Dionysus brought terror and joy. The Maenads’ secret female mysteries may indicate older rituals of ecstatic human sacrifice.
Bk III:692-733. Led by Agave and Autonoë they destroy Pentheus.
Bk XI:1-66. They kill Orpheus.
Bk XI:67-84. They are turned into oak trees.
Maenalos, Maenala
Bk I:199-243. A mountain range in Arcadia. (Pausanias, VIII xxxvi, says it is sacred to Pan, and the people living there hear him piping.)
Bk II:401-416. Bk II:441-465. The haunt of Diana the goddess of the hunt and her virgin companions.
Bk V:572-641. Passed by Arethusa in her flight.
Maeonias, Maeonia
Bk II:227-271. An ancient name for Lydia.
BkVI:1-25. The country of Arachne.
Bk VI:146-203. The country of Niobe, and Mount Sipylus.
Maeonis
Bk VI:103-128. An epithet of Arachne, as a native of Maeonia.
Maera
Bk VII:350-403. Hecuba, changed into a black bitch of Hecate, in Thrace, where she was taken by Ulysses after the fall of Troy. She murdered Polymestor her son-in-law, who had killed her son Polydorus. She terrified the Thracians who tried to kill her, by her howling.
Magnetes
Bk XI:346-409. The inhabitants of Magnesia in Thessaly.
Maia
Bk II:676-701. The daughter of Atlas, a Pleiad, and mother of Mercury by Jupiter.
Bk XI:266-345. The mother of Mercury.
Manto
A Theban prophetess, the daughter of Tiresias.
Bk VI:146-203. Calls the women of Thebes to the worship of Latona and her children, Apollo and Diana.
Marathon
A town and plain on the east coast of Attica. Site of the famous Greek victory in the war against Persia.
Bk VII:425-452. Theseus overcame a white bull of Poseidon there, brought by Hercules from Crete. He then sacrificed it at Athens on the Acropolis.
Mareoticus
Bk IX:764-797. Of Mareota, a lake and city in Lower Egypt. (See Shelley ‘The Witch of Atlas) Protected by Isis.
Marmarides
From Marmarica, in Egypt.
Bk V:107-148. Corythus comes from there.
Mars, Mavors
The war god, son of Jupiter and Juno. An old name for him is Mavors.
Bk III:1-49. The snake killed by Cadmus is sacred to him.
Bk IV:167-189. Venus commits adultery with him and he is caught in a net with her by her husband Vulcan.
Bk XII:64-145. His armour is decorative only.
Bk XIV:772-804. The father of Romulus.
Bk XIV:805-828. He asks for Romulus’s deification.
Marsyas
A Satyr of Phrygia who challenged Apollo to a contest in musical skill, and was flayed alive by the God when he was defeated. (An analogue for the method of making primitive flutes, Minerva’s invention, by extracting the core from the outer sheath) (See Perugino’s painting – Apollo and Marsyas – The Louvre, Paris)
Bk VI:382-400. He repents, and the tears of all those who mourn for him become a river with his name in Phrygia.
Mavors, Mars
An old name for Mars, the war god, son of Jupiter and Juno.
Bk III:528-571. Pentheus calls the Thebans the people of Mavors.
Bk VII:100-158. The field of Mars in Colchis.
Bk VIII:1-80. A term for military might.
Bk XIV:805-828. He asks for Romulus’s deification.
Mavortius
Of or descended from Mars, as applied to the Thebans descended from the Echionides, the dragon’s teeth of Mars sacred serpent. The proles Mavortia.
Bk VI:70-103. Applied to Ares’s Hill in Athens, seat of the court of the Aeropagus. (see Herodotus VIII 52). Here the Olympian gods judge the rights of Poseidon-Neptune and Pallas-Athene to own and name the city of Athens. Pallas depicts the scene on her web in the contest with Arachne.
Bk VIII:425-450. Meleager as the great-grandson of Mars.
Medea
Bk VII:1-73. The daughter of Aeetes, king of Colchis and the Caucasian nymph Asterodeia. She is called Aeetias. A famous sorceress. She conceives a passion for Jason and agonises over the betrayal of her country for him.(See Gustave Moreau’s painting ‘Jason and Medea’, Louvre, Paris: Frederick Sandys painting ‘Medea’, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, England: and Castiglione’s painting, ‘Medea casting a spell’, Wadsworth Athanaeum, Hartford, Connecticut)
Bk VII:74-99. She determines to help Jason and makes him swear on the altar of Triple Hecate to marry her. She gives him magic herbs to facilitate his tasks (probably including the Colchian crocus, meadow saffron, colchicum autumnale, that sprang from the blood of the tortured Prometheus. The plant is highly toxic, and the seeds and corms were collected for the extraction of the narcotic drug colchicine, tinctura colchici, used as a specific against gout.)
Bk VII:100-158. Jason carries out his tasks using the magic herbs, including magic juice (juniper?) to subdue the dragon, and takes Medea back with him to Iolchos.
Bk VII:159-178. She offers to attempt to renew Aeson’s life at Jason’s request.
Bk VII:234-293. She makes a magic potion and restores Aeson’s youth.
Bk VII:294-349. She rejuvenates the nymphs of Mount Nysa. She then deceives Pelias’s daughters and employs them to help destroy him.
Bk VII:350-403. She flees through the air with her winged dragons, making a clockwise journey round the Aegean, the Cyclades, the Peloponnese, Aetolia, and Arcadia, to reach Corinth. There she kills Glauce her rival, and then sacrifices her own sons, before fleeing to Athens where she marries King Aegeus.
Bk VII:404-424. She attempts to poison Theseus using aconite, but Aegeus recognises Theseus’s sword as his own, and dashes the cup away in time. Medea vanishes in a mist conjured by her magic spells.
Medon(1)
Bk III:597-637. A seaman, companion of Acoetes.
Medon(2)
Bk XII:290-326. A centaur.
Medusa, Phorcynis, Gorgo
One of the three Gorgons, daughter of Phorcys the wise old man of the sea. She is represented in the sky by part of the constellation Perseus, who holds her decapitated head.
Bk IV:604-662. Perseus turns Atlas to stone with her severed head.
Bk IV:706-752. He protects it from damage.
Bk V:200-249. It turns Phineus and his followers, and Proetus, and Polydectes to stone.
Bk VI:103-128. Neptune lay with her in the form of a bird, and she produced Pegasus.
Medusaeus
Bk V:200-249. Of Medusa. Her severed head.
Bk V:250-293. Bk V:294-331. The winged horse Pegasus born from her blood.
Bk X:1-85. Cerberus, as a putative child of Medusa.
Megareïus heros
Bk X:638-680. Hippomenes, son of Megareus.
Megareus
Bk X:560-637. The father of Hippomenes, and grandson of Neptune, called Onchestius from the town of Onchestus near Lake Copais in Boeotia.
Melaneus(1)
Bk V:107-148. A friend of Perseus, killed in the fight with Phineus.
Melaneus(2)
Bk XII:290-326. A centaur.
Melantho
Daughter of Deucalion.
Bk VI:103-128. Raped by Neptune as a dolphin. Depicted by Arachne.
Melanthus
Bk III:597-637. A seaman, companion of Acoetes.
Melas
Bk II:227-271. A Thracian river.
Meleager
King of Calydon, the son of Oeneus, and Althaea, daughter of Thestius.
Bk VIII:260-328. As prince, a hero of Calydon. He joins the Calydonian Boar hunt. He falls in love with Atalanta.
Bk VIII:376-424. He kills the boar.
Bk VIII:425-450. In an argument over the spoils he murders his uncles, Plexippus and Toxeus.
Bk VIII:515-546. His mother Althaea punishes him, with death, by throwing the brand, that is linked to his life, into the fire.
Bk IX:89-158. Deianira is his sister.
Meleagrides
Bk VIII:515-546. The sisters of Meleager. They are turned into guinea hens by Diana, while mourning for their brother. The birds are the helmeted guinea fowl of Africa, numida meleagris, worshipped as icons of Artemis on Leros, probably the East African blue-wattled variety, not the red-wattled, tufted guinea fowl variants introduced into Italy, though wattle colour varies in Africa. The squeaky cackling of these noisy birds was taken to represent mourning, and the birds were prohibited from being eaten by devotees of Artemis or Isis.
Melicertes
Bk IV:512-542. His mother Ino, maddened by Tisiphone and the sight of her son Learchus’s death, at the hands of his father, leaps into the sea with him. He is changed by Neptune, at Venus’s request, into the sea-god Palaemon.
Memnon
The son of Tithonus and Aurora, fought for Troy in the Trojan War with Greece.
Bk XIII:576-622. He was killed by Achilles, but his mother Aurora begged Jupiter for funeral honours, and he created the warring flock of birds, the Memnonides, from his ashes.
Memnonides
Bk XIII:576-622. The birds that sprang from Memnon’s ashes, fated to appear annually and enact the Trojan War in a battle of the birds as a ritual ceremony in memory of Memnon.
Mendesius
Of Mendes, a city in Egypt.
Bk V:107-148. An epithet of Celadon.
Menelaüs
The younger son of Atreus, brother of Agamemnon, hence called Atrides minor. Paris’s theft of his wife Helen instigated the Trojan War.
Bk XII:579-628. Bk XIII:1-122. He does not dare to compete for the arms of Achilles.
Bk XIII:123-381. He is part of the embassy to the Trojan senate when Ulysses demands the return of Helen.
BkXV:143-175. He killed Euphorbus in the Trojan War, an incarnation of Pythagoras.
Menephron
Bk VII:350-403. An Arcadian who committed incest with his mother on Mount Cyllene.
Menoetes
Bk XII:64-145. A Lycian, killed by Achilles.
Menthe
Bk X:708-739. A nymph loved by Proserpina who turned her into a herb, the mint.
Mercury, Mercurius, Hermes
Bk I:689-721. The messenger god, Hermes, son of Jupiter and the Pleiad Maia, the daughter of Atlas. He is therefore called Atlantiades. His birthplace was Mount Cyllene, and he is therefore called Cyllenius. He has winged feet, and a winged cap, carries a scimitar, and has a magic wand, the caduceus, with twin snakes twined around it, that brings sleep and healing. The caduceus is the symbol of medicine. (See Botticelli’s painting Primavera.) He is summoned by Jupiter to lull Argus to sleep and kills him.
Bk II:676-701. Called Atlantiades and son of Maia (Atlantis). He steals Apollo’s cattle and turns Battus the countryman into a touchstone (flint, the ‘informer’).
Bk I:689-721. Mercury lulls Argus to sleep and kills him.
Bk II:708-736. Sees Herse in the sacred procession.
Bk II:737-751. Called the grandson of Atlas and Pleione. Elicits help from Aglauros to seduce Herse.
BkII:812-832. Mercury turns Aglauros to stone.
Bk IV:274-316. Hermaphroditus is his son by Venus-Aphrodite.
Bk IV:346-388. With Venus he grants Hermaphroditus’s prayer that the pool of Salmacis weaken anyone bathing there.
Bk IV:753-803. Perseus builds an altar to him.
Bk V:149-199. Perseus employs the curved scimitar Mercury has given him.
Bk VIII:611-678. Disguised as a mortal he visits Philemon and Baucis with Jupiter, his father.
Bk XI:266-345. He loves Chione, and she bears him Autolycus.
Bk XIII:123-381. The divine father of Ulysses through Mercury’s seduction of Autolycus’s daughter, Anticleia, Ulysses’s mother, and wife of Laërtes.
Bk XIV:223-319. He gives his son Ulysses the plant moly to protect him from Circe’s spells.
Meriones
A companion of Idomeneus, from Crete.
Bk XIII:1-122. He does not compete for the arms of Achilles.
Mermeros
Bk XII:290-326. A centaur. Noted for his fleetness of foot.
Merops
Bk I:747-764. King of Ethiopia, husband of Clymene. Putative father of Phaethon.
Bk II:178-200. Phaethon regrets he is not merely Merops’s son.
Messanius
Bk XIV:1-100. Of Messana, a city in Sicily.
Messapius
Bk XIV:512-526. Of the Messapians, a people of lower Italy. Calabrian.
Messenia, Messene
Bk II:676-701. The country and city in the western Peloponnese.
Bk VI:401-438. Its ruler goes to Thebes to show sympathy for the death of Amphion and his children. It is described as warlike.
Bk XII:536-579. Hercules razed its walls.
Mestra
Bk VIII:725-776. The daughter of Erysichthon, grand-daughter of Triopas, and wife of Autolycus who possessed the power of shape-changing.
Bk VIII:843-884. Neptune took her virginity and in turn gave her the power to deceive. It saves her from becoming a slave, or prostituting herself.
Methymnaeus
Bk XI:1-66. Of Methymna, one of the cities of Lesbos.
Metion
Bk V:74-106. The father of Phorbas, of Syene.
Midas
The king of Phrygia, son of Gordius and Cybele, called Berecyntius heros from Mount Berecyntus in Phrygia, sacred to Cybele.
Bk XI:85-145. In reward for returning Silenus to him, Bacchus grants Midas a gift. He chooses the golden touch, and when it plagues him Bacchus takes it away again. He is instructed to bathe in the waters of the Pactolus to cleanse himself. (Lines 131-141 suggest that Ovid was aware of early confession and baptism rites, from Christianity or some other religion, or, less likely, that there has been rewriting by a later Christian scribe)
Bk XI:146-171. Bk XI:172-193. Phoebus gives him the ears of an ass, and a servant gives away the secret
Miletis
Bk IX:595-665. Byblis, the daughter of Miletus.
Miletus, Deionides
The son of Phoebus and the nymph Deione, founder of the city of Miletus in Caria in Asia Minor.
Bk IX:439-516. He flees from Minos and Crete to Asia Minor. There he loves Cyanee, who gives birth to Byblis and Caunus.
Milon
Bk XV:199-236. An athlete of Crotona. He bemoans old age.
Mimas
Bk II:201-226. A mountain range in Ionia.
Minerva, Pallas, Athene
Bk II:531-565. The Roman name for Athene the goddess of the mind and women’s arts (also a goddess of war and the goddess of boundaries – see the Stele of Athena, bas-relief, Athens, Acropolis Museum)
Bk II:566-595. Saves Cornix her servant from rape and turns her into the Crow.
Bk II:708-736. Athens is her sacred city.
Bk II:752-786. She calls on Envy to punish Aglauros.
Bk IV:31-54. She is the goddess of weaving and working in wool.
Bk IV:753-803. Perseus builds an altar to her. He tells how she changed Medusa’s hair to snaky locks because Neptune had violated the girl in her temple.
Bk V:250-293. She visits the Muses on Helicon to see the fountain of Hippocrene.
Bk V:642-678. Her sacred city is Athens.
BkVI:1-25. She is offended by Arachne’s rejection of her.
Bk VI:382-400. She invented the flute.
Bk VIII:236-259. She changes Talus, Daedalus’s nephew, into the partridge, perdix perdix.
Bk VIII:260-328. The Athenians call on her as goddess of war. King Oeneus of Calydon offers libations of oil from the olive harvest to her.
Bk VIII:611-678. Philemon and Baucis are visited by the gods, Jupiter and Mercury, disguised as mortals, and offer them the olives of pure Minerva as part of their meal.
Bk XIII:1-122. Ulysses and Diomede stole her sacred image the Palladium from her sanctuary in Phrygia.
Bk XIII:640-674. The olive is her gift.
Bk XIV:445-482. She punished the Greeks on the way back from Troy because of Ajax’s rape of virgin Cassandra.
Bk XIV:445-482. She rescues Diomede on his way back from Troy.
Bk XV:307-360. The Hyperboreans cover their bodies with plumage by plunging nine times in Minerva’s pool.
Bk XV:622-745. Her promontory near Capri.
Minoïs
Bk VII:159-178. Ariadne, the daughter of Minos.
Minos
Bk VII:453-500. The King of Crete, ruler of a hundred cities. Son of Jupiter and Europa. he prepares for war with Athens after his son Androgeos is killed by Aegeus. He obtains the allegiance of many of the islands of the Aegean, but fails to win over Aeacus at Aegina.
Bk VII:501-613. He is assumed to be seeking control of all Greece.
Bk VIII:1-80. He attacks Megara.
Bk VIII:81-151. Scylla, the daughter of King Nisus betrays the city to him out of love, but he rejects her and sails away. Scylla berates him and reminds him of his wife Pasiphaë’s illicit love for the bull from the sea, and her bearing of his son Asterion, the Minotaur. He imposes laws on the conquered peoples. The Cretans said that Minos made their laws, and was divinely inspired, see Pausanias III ii.
Bk VIII:152-182. He sacrifices to Jove on returning to Crete, and imprisons his shameful son, the Minotaur, in the labyrinth built by Daedalus.
Bk VIII:183-235. He keeps Daedalus effectively a prisoner, but Daedalus plans his escape.
Bk VIII:260-328. He makes war on King Cocalus of Sicily where Daedalus has taken refuge after his escape from Crete.
Bk IX:418-438. Jupiter, recognising his love of justice, wishes he could enjoy perpetual youth.
Bk IX:439-516. In old age he fears Miletus who flees of his own accord to Asia Minor.
Minotauros, Asterion
Bk VIII:152-182. The son of Pasiphaë, wife of Minos, and the white bull from the sea. A man-headed bull, imprisoned in the Labyrinth built by Daedalus at Cnossos, who was destroyed by Theseus. (See the sculpture and drawings of Michael Ayrton, and Picasso’s variations on the theme in the Vollard Suite)
Minturnae
Bk XV:622-745. A city of Latium on the border of Campania. The chief Tyrrhenian river-port of the Ausoni, becoming a Roman colony in 295BC, crossed by the Appian Way. (Near modern Minturno, and built amidst malarial marshes formed by the overflowing River Garigliano, the ancient Liris. Here the proscribed Marius, taken prisoner in 88BC, daunted the would-be assassin sent by Sulla.)
Minyas, Minyae, Minyeïdes, Minyeïas (Alcithoë), Minyeïas proles
Bk IV:1-30. The Minyae, a people named from their king Minyas who ruled Orchomenus in Boeotia.
Bk IV:31-54. His three daughters, the Minyeïdes, Alcithoë, Arsippe and Leuconoë, reject Bacchus.
Bk IV:389-415. They are changed into bats.
Book VI:675-721. Bk VII:1-73. Bk VII:100-158. A name for the Argonauts since they sailed from Iolchos in Minyan territory.
Misenus
Bk XIV:101-153. A mortal son of Aeolus, a trumpeter of Aeneas. He lost his life near Cumae and was buried there. (He gave his name to Cape Miseno between Naples and Ischia).
Mithridates
Bk XV:745-842. King of Pontus. Mithridates the Great, sixth king of Pontus of that name, defeated by Lucullus and Pompey. Caesar crushed his son Pharnaces in a swift battle at Zela in 47BC (So swift a victory that Caesar spoke the famous words ‘veni, vidi, vici’ = ‘I came, I saw, I conquered.’).
Mnemonides
Bk V:250-293. The nine Muses, the daughters of Mnemosyne, Memory.
Mnemosyne
The mother, by Jupiter, of the nine Muses.
Bk VI:103-128. Arachne depicts how Jupiter lay with her as a shepherd.
Molossus
Bk I:199-243. Belonging to the Molossi, a people of Epirus.
Bk XIII:705-737. Munichus the king was attacked by robbers and his palace set on fire. To save his family Jupiter changed them into birds.
Molpeus
Bk V:149-199. Of Chaonia, a friend of Phineus, wounded by Perseus.
Monychus
Bk XII:429-535. A centaur.
Mopsopius
Bk V:642-678. Bk VI:401-438. Athenian. From Mopsopus an ancient king.
Mopsus
The son of Ampyx. Ampycides. A soothsayer among the Lapithae.
Bk VIII:260-328. He is present at the Calydonian Boar Hunt.
Bk VIII:329-375. He strikes the boar but Diana steals the point of his spear in flight.
Bk XII:429-535. He fights at the battle of the Lapiths and Centaurs, and sees Caeneus transformed into a bird with tawny wings.
Morpheus
The son of Somnus. A god of Dreams.
Bk XI:573-649. He is sent as a dream-messenger to Alcyone in the form of her husband Ceyx.
Bk XI:650-709. He reveals himself as Ceyx in a dream and tells her of his death.
Mulciber
Bk II:1-30. ‘The Melter’ A name for Vulcan, the smith, as a metal-worker.
(See Milton’s Paradise Lost Book I, as the architect of the towers of Heaven. ‘From Morn to Noon he fell...’)
Bk IX:211-272. A synonym for fire. He consumes the mortal part of Hercules.
Bk IX:418-438. He wishes a second life for his son Erichthonius.
Bk XIV:527-565. A synonym for fire. His flames burn Aeneas’s fleet.
Munychius
Bk II:708-736. Of Munychia, the Athenian port, hence Athenian.
Muses
Bk II:201-226. The nine Muses are the virgin daughters of Jupiter and Mnemosyne (Memory). They are the patronesses of the arts. Clio (History), Melpomene (Tragedy), Thalia (Comedy), Euterpe (Lyric Poetry), Terpsichore (Dance), Calliope (Epic Poetry), Erato (Love Poetry), Urania (Astronomy), and Polyhymnia (Sacred Song). Mount Helicon is hence called Virgineus. Their epithets are Aonides, and Thespiades.
Bk V:250-293. Mount Helicon is one of their haunts.
Bk V:642-678. Calliope wins the singing contest with the Emathides (Pierides), and the Muses change the Emathides into magpies.
BkVI:1-25. Minerva approves their song.
Bk X:143-219. Calliope is the mother of Orpheus, and inspires him.
Bk XV:622-745. Ovid invokes them.
Mutina
Bk XV:745-842. A city in Cisalpine Gaul. Antony fought Decimus Brutus there, and was in turn defeated by Octavian in 43BC.
Mycale(1)
Bk II:201-226. A promontory in Ionia.
Mycale(2)
Bk XII:245-289. A Thessalian witch, the mother of Orios, who could draw down the moon with her incantations.
Mycenae
The city in the Argolis, near Argos and Tiryns. Excavated by Schliemann who opened the beehive tombs of the royal tomb circle. Famous for its Lion Gate once topped perhaps by a statue of the Cretan Great Goddess.
Bk VI:401-438. Its ruler goes to Thebes to show sympathy for the death of Amphion and his children.
Bk XV:418-452. A symbol of vanished power.
Mycenis
A woman of Mycenae.
Myconos
An island in the Cyclades, near Delos. Described as low-lying.
Bk VII:453-500. Allied to Crete.
Mygdonis, Mygdonius
Bk II:227-271. Of the Mygdonians, a Thracian people.
Bk VI:26-69. They emigrated to Phrygia in Asia Minor, near Lydia, hence = Phrygian.
Myrmidones
The Myrmidons, a race of men created out of ants. Led by Achilles to the war against Troy.
Bk VII:614-660. Created from ants on the island of Aegina by Jupiter, and named after the Greek word for an ant, μύρμηξ.
Myrrha
The daughter of Cinyras, mother of Adonis, incestuously, by her father.
Bk X:298-355. She conceives an incestuous passion for her father.
Bk X:356-430. She attempts suicide, and is rescued by her nurse who promises to help her.
Bk X:431-502. She sleeps with her father, is impregnated by him, and when discovered flees to Sabaea, and is turned into the myrrh-tree, weeping resin. Adonis is born from the tree.
Myscelus
The son of Alemon of Argos, and founder of Crotona.
Bk XV:1-59. The story of his founding of the city.
Mysus, Mysia, Mysian
Bk II:227-271. Of the country of Mysia in Asia Minor containing the city of Pergamum.
Bk XII:64-145. Bk XIII:123-381. Contains the city of Mysian Thebes.
Bk XV:259-306. The river there, that flows underground to appear as the Caicus.
Nabateus
Of Nabatea, a country in Arabia containing Petra.
Bk V:149-199. Ethemon comes from there.
Naiades, Naides (singular Naias, Nais)
Bk II:301-328. The water nymphs, demi-goddesses of the rivers, streams and fountains. The Italian nymphs of the River Po bury Phaethon’s body and compose his epitaph.
Bk III:339-358. Liriope gives birth to Narcissus.
Bk III:474-510. They mourn for Narcissus, as his sisters.
Bk IV:31-54. Ovid mentions a Naiad whose spells turned youths to fish until she herself was also changed.
Bk IV:274-316. The Naiads nurse Hermaphroditus.
Bk VI:313-381. Country people dedicate altars to them.
Bk IX:1-88. They consecrate the broken-off horn of Acheloüs.
Bk IX:89-158. A Naiad serves food to Acheloüs’s guests.
Bk X:1-85. A crowd of Naiads accompany Eurydice.
Bk X:503-559. They assist at the birth of Adonis.
Bk XI:1-66. They mourn for Orpheus.
Bk XIII:576-622. River-fogs are exhaled by the naiads.
Bk XIV:320-396. They are attracted by Picus.
Bk XIV:527-565. Cybele turns Aeneas’s ships into naiads.
Bk XIV:772-804. They inhabit the springs by the temple of Janus in Ausonia.
Nar
Bk XIV:320-396. A river of Umbria.
Narcissus
Bk III:339-358. The son of the Naiad Liriope and the river-god Cephisus.
Bk III:359-401. He rejects Echo out of pride and self-love and she wastes away.
Bk III:402-436. He falls in love with his own reflected image. (See the painting by Caravaggio- Palazzo Barberini, Rome).
Bk III:437-473. He laments the pain of unrequited love.
Bk III:474-510. He turns into the narcissus flower.
Narycius
Of Naryx, a city of the Locrians of Central Greece.
Bk VIII:260-328. Home of Lelex, present at the Calydonian Boar Hunt.
Bk XIV:445-482. A city of Ajax.
Bk XV:622-745. The Italian city of Narycia, probably Locri (near modern Locri), at the toe of Italy, the famous Locri Epizephyrii, founded by Greek colonists in 710BC or 683BC. It was the first Greek city to possess a written code of laws, and was praised by Pindar as a model of good government. It contained a sanctuary of Persephone. Cicero mentions that Dionysius the Elder, Tyrant of Syracuse, pillaged the temple of Proserpina at Locri. (‘On the Nature of the Gods BkIII 82’)The Locrians conquered the Crotonians, allied themselves to Syracuse, and finally surrendered to Rome in 205BC.
Nasamoniacus
Of the Nasamones, a Libyan people living south west of Cyrenaïca.
Bk V:107-148. Dorylas, is their richest man. It is a spice country.
Naupliades
Bk XIII:1-122. Palamades son of Nauplius.
Nauplius
Bk XIII:1-122. A king of Euboea, father of Palamades. See Caphareus.
Naxos
Bk III:597-637. The largest island of the Cyclades, and the home of Bacchus.
Nedymnus
Bk XII:290-326. A centaur.
Neleïus
Bk XII:536-578. Nestor, the son of Neleus.
Neleus
Bk II:676-701. King of Pylos, son of Neptune and the nymph Tyro. Father of Nestor and his eleven brothers including Periclymenus.
Bk XII:536-579. Neptune founded his bloodline.
Neleüs
Belonging to Neleus.
Bk VI:401-438. The city of Pylos, founded by him.
Nelides
Bk XII:536-579. The twelve sons of Neleus. They were killed by Hercules, all except Nestor.
Nemeaeus
Of Nemea, a town in Argolis.
Bk IX:159-210. In the First Labour, Hercules destroys the Nemean Lion and takes its pelt that is proof against stone, bronze, and iron. He wrestled with it and choked it to death.
Bk IX:211-272. Hercules spreads the lion’s pelt, and lies down on it, on the summit of his funeral pyre.
Nemesis, Rhamnusia
Bk III:402-436. Bk XIV:623-697. The Goddess of retribution. She punishes mortal pride and arrogance (hubris) on behalf of the gods.
Neoptolemus
Bk XIII:429-480. He watches the sacrifice of Polyxena to appease his father’s ghost.
Nephele(1)
Bk III:165-205. One of Diana’s nymphs.
Nephele(2)
Bk XI:194-220. The wife of Athamas, mother of Phrixus and Helle.
Nepheleïs
Bk XI:194-220. Helle, the daughter of Nephele.
Neptunius
Bk IX:1-88. An epithet of Theseus as the supposed son of Neptune.
Neptunus, Neptune, Poseidon
Bk I:274-292. God of the sea, brother of Pluto and Jupiter. The trident is his emblem. He helps to initiate the Great Flood (see Leonardo Da Vinci’s notebooks for the influence of Book I on his descriptions of the deluge, and his drawing Neptune with four sea-horses, Royal Library, Windsor: See the Neptune Fountain by Bartolomeo Ammannati, Piazza della Signoria, Florence.)
Bk II:227-271. Cannot lift his head or arms from the sea because of the heat of the sun chariot when Phaethon falls.
Bk IV:512-542. At the request of Venus, he changes Ino and her son into sea-deities.
Bk IV:753-803. He raped Medusa in the temple of Minerva, fathering Pegasus and Chrysaor, for which Minerva filled Medusa’s hair with snakes.
Bk VI:70-103. Pallas Athene depicts the ancient dispute between herself and Neptune-Poseidon as to their rights to Athens. Poseidon made a ‘sea’, a well of seawater on the Acropolis, but Athene planted an olive-tree and asked Cecrops to witness her claim to the land. She was judged by the Gods to have the right to the city. (See Herodotus VIII 55, and Apollodorus III 14,1)
Bk VI:103-128. Arachne depicts his rapes of Canace, Iphimedia, Theophane, Ceres, Medusa, and Melantho.
Bk VIII:547-610. He turns Perimele into an island.
Bk VIII:843-884. He gives Mestra the power to change her shape.
Bk X:560-637. Bk X:638-680. Hippomenes is descended from him, through Megareus.
Bk XI:194-220. He and Apollo build the walls of Troy for Laomedon. He floods the land when Laomedon refuses to pay, and demands the sacrifice of Hesione to a sea-monster.
Bk XII:1-38. He is thought to be protecting Troy.
Bk XII:64-145. Cycnus(3) is his son, and is turned by him into a white swan, when Achilles defeats him.
Bk XII:536-579. He gave Periclymenus, his descendant the power to change shape.
Bk XIII:789-869. The father of Polyphemus and the Cyclopes.
Nereids
Bk I:293-312. The fifty mermaids, attendants on Thetis. they are the daughters of Doris and Nereus. They are astonished by the Flood.
Bk II:1-30 Depicted on the palace of the Sun.
Bk V:1-29. Their ruler is Neptune.
Bk XI:346-409. They have a temple at Trachin in Thessaly. Psamathe is one of them.
Bk XIII:898-968. Galatea swims off with them.
Bk XIV:223-319. They are servants of Circe.
Nereïs
Bk XI:221-265. Bk XII:64-145. A sea nymph, a daughter of Nereus. Thetis.
Bk XIII:738-788. Bk XIII:789-869. Galatea.
Nereïus
Bk VII:661-759. Belonging to Nereus. Used of Phocus.
Bk XIII:123-381. Thetis, genetrix Nereia.
Neretum
Bk XV:1-59. A town in Calabria.
Nereus
Bk I:177-198. A sea-god. The husband of Doris, and, by her, the father of the fifty Nereids, the mermaids attendant on Thetis.
Bk II:227-271. Hides from the sun chariot’s heat.
Bk XI:346-409. He has a temple near Trachin in Thessaly.
Bk XII:64-145. He is ruled by Neptune.
Bk XIII:738-788. He is Galatea’s father.
Neritius
Bk XIII:705-737. Of Neritos, a mountain in Ithaca, and a small island nearby passed by Aeneas. = Ithacan.
Bk XIV:154-222. Macareus comes from there.
Nessus
Bk IX:89-158. A centaur, the son of Ixion. He attempts to steal Hercules’s bride Deianira, and is killed by Hercules, who reminds him of his father Ixion’s punishment in Hades, tied to a wheel. Dying he soaks his shirt in blood mixed with the Hydra’s poison, from Hercules’s arrow that has killed him, and gives it to Deianira, telling her it will revive a dying love.
Bk XII:290-326. He is present at the battle of the Lapiths and Centaurs where Asbolus the augur foretells his fate.
Bk XII:429-535. He kills Cymelus in the battle.
Nestor
Bk VIII:260-328. He is present at the Calydonian Boar Hunt.
Bk VIII:329-375. He escapes the boar’s charge by vaulting into a tree.
Bk XII:146-209. He tells the story of Caeneus-Caenis. He is noted for his eloquence and wisdom.
Bk XII:536-579. He tells of the evil deeds of Hercules, and the death of his brother Periclymenus.
Bk XIII:1-122. Abandoned by Ulysses on the battlefield but rescued.
Nileus
Bk V:149-199. An opponent of Perseus, who boasted of his descent from Nilus the river god of the Nile, turned to stone by the Gorgon’s head.
Nilus
Bk I:416-437. The river Nile and its god. The river was noted for its seasonal flooding in ancient times.(See the Hellenistic sculpture, ‘The Nile’, in the Vatican, from the Temple of Isis in the Campus Martius, Rome)
Bk I:722-746. Provides a sanctuary for Io.
Bk II:227-271. Its mouths dried up by the sun chariot when Phaethon falls. Hides its head. (Its source unknown in ancient times).
Bk V:149-199. Seven-mouthed, the source of Nileus’s people.
Bk V:294-331. Seven-mouthed, a refuge for the gods.
Bk IX:764-797. Seven-mouthed, protected by Isis-Io.
Bk XV:745-842. Sailed by Caesar’s victorious fleet. He defeated Ptolemy XIII and placed Cleopatra on the throne of Egypt in 47BC.
Ninus
Bk IV:55-92. Shamshi-Adad V, King of Assyria. The husband of Semiramis, historically Sammuramat, Queen of Babylon. She reigned after him as regent from 810-805 BC.
Niobe
The daughter of the Phrygian king Tantalus, and Dione one of the Pleiades, daughters of Atlas. The wife of Amphion, king of Thebes.
Bk VI:146-203. She rejects Latona and boasts of her children.
Bk VI:204-266. Her seven sons are killed by Apollo and Diana, the children of Latona(Leto), and her husband commits suicide.
Bk VI:267-312. Still unrepentant, her daughters are also killed, and she is turned to stone and set on top of a mountain in her native country of Lydia where she weeps eternally. (A natural stone feature exists above the valley of the Hermus, on Mount Sipylus, which weeps when the sun strikes its winter cap of snow – See Freya Stark ‘Rome on the Euphrates’ p9.)
Niseïa virgo
Scylla, the daughter of Nisus.
Nisus
Bk VIII:1-80. The King of Megara, besieged by Minos. He had a purple lock of hair on his head, on which his life, and the safety of his kingdom, depended. His daughter was Scylla.
Bk VIII:81-151. Scylla cuts off the sacred lock and betrays the city. He is turned into the white-tailed eagle or sea eagle, haliaeetus albicilla, while she becomes the rock dove, columba livia, which is the common prey of the sea eagle, and no doubt nested on the rocks of the citadel of Megara or its coastline. The sea eagle does not hover but has a flapping flight like a heron or vulture, and soars and dives from the air. See the entry on Scylla for further information.
Nixi
Bk IX:273-323. The three guardian deities of women in labour. Their statues stood in the Capitol in Rome, representing the gods kneeling. They are companions of Lucina, goddess of childbirth, whom Alcmena calls out to in childbirth.
Nixus genu
Bk VIII:152-182. The constellation of Hercules, ‘the one with knee bent’.
Noëmon
Bk XIII:123-381. A Lycian, killed by Ulysses.
Nonacria, Nonacrinas, Nonacris
Bk I:689-721. Mount Nonacris in Arcadia. Also a town in the same region.
Bk II:401-416. Home of Callisto the Arcadian nymph and follower of Diana.
Bk VIII:425-450. The home of Atalanta (1), the warrior girl.
Noricus
Of Noricum, a country lying between the Danube and the Alps.
Bk XIV:698-771. Known for its well-tempered steel.
Notus
Bk I:244-273. The south wind, that brings rain.
Nox
Bk IV:416-464. Bk XI:573-649. Bk XV:1-59. The goddess of night, daughter of Chaos and mother of the Furies. She scatters the dew of sleep.
Bk XIV:397-434. Circe summons her and the gods of Night.
Numa Pompilius
Bk XV:1-59. The second king of Rome. (trad. 715-673BC). He searches for knowledge.
He hears the story of the founding of Crotona.
Bk XV:479-546. Having been instructed by Pythagoras (a fable) he returns to Latium, rules there, teaches the arts of peace, and dies. His wife is Egeria, the nymph.
Numicius
Bk XIV:320-396. A small river in Latium.
Bk XIV:566-580. The river-god purges Aeneas of his mortality.
Numidae
Bk XV:745-842. A people in North Africa, conquered by Caesar at the battle of Thaspus.
Numitor
Bk XIV:772-804. The king of Alba, driven from the throne by his brother Amulius and reinstated by Romulus.
Nycteïs
Antiope, daughter of the Boeotian king Nycteus, mother by Jupiter of Zethus and Amphion.
Bk VI:103-128. Her rape by Jupiter as a satyr depicted by Arachne.
Nyctelius
Bk IV:1-30. An epithet of Bacchus from the performance of his rituals at night.
Nycteus
Bk XIV:483-511. A companion of Diomede. Venus transforms him into a bird. (Note: not the father of Antiope)
Nyctimene
Bk II:566-595. The daughter of Epopeus king of Lesbos who unknowingly slept with her father. She fled to the woods and was changed by Minerva to her sacred bird the Little Owl, often depicted on ancient Athenian coins.
Nymphae
Bk I:177-198. The nymphs. Semi-divine maidens inhabiting rivers, springs, seas, hills, trees and woodlands, or attendants on greater deities.
Bk III:359-380. The mountain nymphs often lie with Jupiter.
Bk IX:324-393. Lotis is a nymph changed to a lotus tree when pursued by Priapus.
Bk XIII:675-704. They are depicted weeping on Alcon’s cup.
Bk XIV:223-319. They are servants of Circe.
Bk XIV:512-526. A shepherd is transformed into the wild olive tree for mocking their dance.
Nysa, Nyseïdes
Bk III:273-315. Heliconian Mount Nysa. The Nyseïds were the nymphs Macris, Erato, Bromie, Bacche and Nysa who hid Bacchus in their cave and nurtured him. They became the Hyades.
Bk VII:294-349. Medea restores their youth.
Nyseus
Bk IV:1-30. An epithet of Bacchus, from Mount Nysa.