Name ▲▼ | Origin ▲▼ | Description ▲▼ |
---|---|---|
Goddess name "Arachne" | Greek | A Lydian maiden who challenged Athena to a weaving contest. Arachne produced a piece of cloth as and Athena could find no fault with it, she tore the work to pieces, and Arachne in despair hung herself. The goddess loosened the rope and saved her life, but the rope was changed into a cobweb and Arachne herself into a spider, the animal most odious to Athena. Greek |
King name "Lydia" | Greek | Daughter of the king of Lydia, was sought in marriage by Alcestes, a Thracian knight; his suit was refused, and he repaired to the king of Armenia, who gave him an army, with which he laid siege to Lydia. He was persuaded by Lydia to raise the siege. The king of Armenia would not give up the project, and Alcestes slew him. Lydia now set him all sorts of dangerous tasks to "prove the ardour of his love," all of which he surmounted. Lastly, she induced him to kill all his allies, and when she had thus cut off the claws of this love-sick lion she mocked him. Alcestes pined and died, and Lydia was doomed to endless torment in hell, where Astolpho saw her, to whom she told her story. Greek |
"Ma" | Greek | Rhea herself was by the Lydians called Ma, and that bulls were sacrificed to her, whence the name of the town Mastaura was derived. Greek |
King name "Omphale" | Greek | A daughter of the Lydian king Jardåñuś, and wife of Tmolus, after whose death she undertook the government herself. When Heracles, in consequence of the murder of Iphitus, was ill of a serious disease, and received the oracle that he could not be released unless he served some one for wages for the space of three years, Hermes, accordingly, sold Heracles to Omphale, by whom he became the father of several children. Greek |
God name "Tmolus" | Greek | 1. The god of Mount Tmolus in Lydia, is described as the husband of Pluto (or Omphale) and father of Tantalus, and said to have decided the musical contest between Apollo and Pan. |