Adrestia

Adrestia is a form of Adrasteia (in Homer’s and Apollonius’ Ionic Greek, Adresteia), a Greek divine name that in ancient texts belongs to two different figures: a title of the goddess Nemesis, and the nymph who nursed the infant Zeus in Crete. The ancient texts do not make Adrasteia a daughter of Ares and Aphrodite, a goddess of revolt, or a keeper of a balance between good and evil.

The Name Adrasteia

The Greek name is Adrasteia. It is generally understood as “the one from whom there is no escape”, but the ancient authors do not stop to explain it. The same word is used for places: Homer names a town Adrasteia in the Trojan Catalogue, where Adrastus and Amphius led the men of Adrasteia and Apaesus (Iliad 2.828–830), and the plain of Adrasteia in the Troad is mentioned by Strabo (13.1.11).

Adrasteia and Nemesis

As the name of a divinity, Adrasteia is used for the power that punishes arrogance, and she is closely associated with Nemesis, the goddess of retribution. In Aeschylus’ Prometheus Bound, Prometheus says sarcastically, when Hermes tells him to submit to Zeus, “Wise are they who bow to Adrasteia” (Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound 936). In Euripides’ Rhesus, the chorus pray that “Adrasteia, daughter of Zeus”, will keep envy from their mouths as they praise Rhesus (Euripides, Rhesus 342–343). In Plato’s Republic, Socrates uses the phrase “I bow to Adrasteia” before he says something that may offend (Plato, Republic 451a). Pausanias saw a statue of Adrasteia set up by the people of Cirrha beside the images of Apollo, Artemis and Leto in the sanctuary there, smaller than the others (Pausanias, Description of Greece 10.37.8). None of these passages gives her a mother, a father (beyond the line in the Rhesus) or a myth.

Adrasteia, Nurse of Zeus

Another Adrasteia appears in the stories of the birth of Zeus. Callimachus says that when Zeus was an infant in the Cretan cave, the Dictaean Meliae and Adrasteia laid him to rest in a golden cradle, and that he sucked the goat Amalthea and ate honey (Callimachus, Hymn to Zeus (Hymn 1)). In Apollonius of Rhodes, Aphrodite promises Eros a beautiful plaything, the ball which Zeus’ dear nurse Adrasteia made for him in the Idaean cave when he was still a child (Apollonius, Argonautica 3.132–134). This Adrasteia is a nymph who cared for the child, and not a deity of vengeance.

The Children of Ares and Aphrodite

The ancient sources give Ares and Aphrodite the following children. Hesiod says that Aphrodite bore Ares Phobos (Fear) and Deimos (Terror), who drive men’s close ranks to panic in war, and Harmonia, whom Cadmus married (Hesiod, Theogony 933–937; Apollodorus, Library 3.4.2). Cicero, listing the different traditions about the gods, says that Anteros was born to Mars and the third Venus (Cicero, On the Nature of the Gods 3.59–60). The ancient sources name no Adrasteia among these children. The idea that she was their sister cannot be traced to Hesiod, Apollodorus, Cicero or the other ancient authors.

Adrestia Sources

Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound 936; Euripides, Rhesus 342–343; Plato, Republic 451a; Pausanias, Description of Greece 10.37.8; Callimachus, Hymn to Zeus (Hymn 1); Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 3.132–134; Homer, Iliad 2.828–830; Strabo, Geography 13.1.11; Hesiod, Theogony 933–937; Apollodorus, Library 3.4.2; Cicero, On the Nature of the Gods 3.59–60.

See Also: Nemesis, Ares, Aphrodite, Eros, Anteros, Phobos, Deimos, Harmonia