Asteria

Asteria was a Titan goddess, the daughter of the Titans Coeus and Phoebe and the sister of Leto. She was the wife of Perses and the mother of Hecate. In the myth that made her best known she fled the advances of Zeus by leaping into the sea, and the island of Delos, where her sister Leto bore Apollo and Artemis, was said to have been formed from her.

Asteria’s Family

Hesiod makes Asteria one of the two daughters of Coeus and Phoebe, with her sister Leto. Phoebe came to the bed of Coeus, and bore Leto, always gentle to gods and men, and also Asteria “of happy name” (Theogony 404–409). Coeus and Phoebe were themselves children of Uranus and Gaia (Theogony 133–136). Apollodorus likewise names Asteria and Leto as the children of Coeus and Phoebe (Library 1.2.2).

Perses, a son of Crius and Eurybia, took Asteria to his great house as his wife, and she bore Hecate, whom Zeus honored above all others, giving her a share of the earth, the sea and the starry sky (Hesiod, Theogony 409–415; Apollodorus, Library 1.2.2).

Asteria’s Role

The ancient sources do not give Asteria any domain or cult of her own. She is known as the mother of Hecate and as a figure in the story of Delos. Her name is the Greek word for “starry”, and Callimachus plays on it, saying that the island was called Asteria because she leapt from heaven into the sea “like a star” (Hymn 4 to Delos 36–38).

Asteria transforms to an island

Zeus desired Asteria. To escape him, she threw herself into the sea in the shape of a quail, and a city that was formerly called Asteria after her was afterwards named Delos (Apollodorus, Library 1.4.1). In Callimachus, Asteria leapt from the sky into the sea to avoid marriage with Zeus. The island floated freely across the waves, because Poseidon, who had formed the other islands and fixed them to the sea floor, had not touched it. It was still called Asteria and was not yet Delos, until Leto came to it (Callimachus, Hymn 4 to Delos 30–40). Ovid gives a different version of the pursuit: in the scenes that Arachne weaves, Zeus takes the form of an eagle and holds Asteria as she struggles (Metamorphoses 6.108).

Asteria and the Birth of Apollo and Artemis

Leto was loved by Zeus, and Hera pursued her all over the earth. Apollodorus says that Leto at last reached Delos and bore Artemis first, and then Apollo with her help (Library 1.4.1). In Callimachus, Leto wanders in search of a place to give birth, and the island that had once been Asteria receives her (Hymn 4 to Delos 191–205). Sailors then gave it the name Delos, because it no longer floated unseen but had rooted itself in the Aegean (Hymn 4 to Delos 51–54). Hesiod names Apollo and Artemis as the children of Leto and Zeus (Theogony 918–920).

Asteria Sources

Hesiod, Theogony 133–136, 404–415, 918–920; Callimachus, Hymn 4 to Delos 30–54, 191–205; Apollodorus, Library 1.2.2 and 1.4.1; Ovid, Metamorphoses 6.108.

See Also: Titans, Coeus, Phoebe, Leto, Perses, Hecate, Zeus, Apollo, Artemis