Admete

For other uses, see Admete (mythology) and Admete (gastropod).

Not to be confused with Admetus, king of Pherae.

Admete (Ancient Greek: Ἀδμήτη means 'the unbroken, unwedded, untamed') or Admeta, was in Greek mythology, a Mycenaean princess. She was the daughter of King Eurystheus and Antimache^[1][2] and sister to Alexander, Iphimedon, Eurybius, Mentor, Perimedes^[3] and possibly, Eurypylus.^[4] The name of Admete/ Admeta was the female form of Admetus.

Mythology

Heracles, as one of his Twelve Labors, was obliged by her father to fetch for her the girdle of Ares, which was worn by Hippolyte, queen of the Amazons.^[2] According to John Tzetzes,^{[5][AI-generated source?]} Admete accompanied Heracles on this expedition.

There was a tradition according to which Admete was originally a priestess of Hera at Argos, but fled with the image of the goddess to Samos.^[6] Pirates were engaged by the Argives to fetch the image back, but the enterprise did not succeed, for the ship when laden with the image could not be made to move. The men then took the image back to the coast of Samos and sailed away. When the Samians found it, they tied it to a tree, but Admete purified it and restored it to the temple of Samos. In commemoration of this event, the Samians celebrated an annual festival called Tonea. This story seems to be an invention of the Argives, by which they intended to prove that the worship of Hera in their place was older than in Samos.^[7]

Notes

1. Bell, Robert E. (1991). Women of Classical Mythology: A Biographical Dictionary. ABC-CLIO. p. 4. ISBN 9780874365818.
2. Apollodorus, 2.5.9
3. Apollodorus, 2.8.1
4. Athenaeus, 4.158 (p. 219)
5. Tzetzes ad Lycophron, 1327
6. Athenaeus, 15 p. 447
7. Schmitz, Leonhard (1867), "Admete (1) and (2)", in Smith, William (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. 1, Boston, p. 19, archived from the original on 2009-07-01, retrieved 2007-10-14

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.
• Athenaeus of Naucratis. The Deipnosophists or Banquet of the Learned. London. Henry G. Bohn, York Street, Covent Garden. 1854. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Athenaeus of Naucratis. Deipnosophistae. Kaibel. In Aedibus B.G. Teubneri. Lipsiae. 1887. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Bell, Robert E., Women of Classical Mythology: A Biographical Dictionary. ABC-Clio. 1991. ISBN 9780874365818, 0874365813.
• Scholia to Lycophron's Alexandra, marginal notes by Isaak and Ioannis Tzetzes and others from the Greek edition of Eduard Scheer (Weidmann 1881). Online version at the Topos Text Project.. Greek text available on Archive.org

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1870). "Admete (1) and (2)". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.