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Figures in the ancient sources

Astraeus in the ancient sources

Ancient Sources / Figures / Astraeus

5 passages from 3 ancient authors that tell of Astraeus, in the original with English translation, author by author in the order the Greeks read them. Astraeus is a Titan god in Greek mythology, associated with stars and astrology. He is known as the father of the four winds and married Eos, the goddess of the dawn. For the story in one place, read our article on Astraeus.

Hesiod (1)

  1. Hesiod, Theogony 370–404Children of Hyperion and Crius; Styx and her sons (370-404)Theia bears Helios, Selene and Eos to Hyperion, and Eos bears the winds and the morning star; Crius and Eurybia's sons include Astraeus, Pallas and Perses. Styx, daughter of Oceanus, bears to Pallas Zelus, Nike, Cratos and Bia, and Zeus honours her as the great oath of the gods because she was first to support him against the Titans. The section ends as Phoebe comes to the embrace of Coeus.

Apollodorus (1)

  1. Apollodorus, The Library (Bibliotheca), with the Epitome 1.2.1–7Zeus and the Titanomachy; the children of the TitansZeus takes Metis as his ally, and she gives Cronus a drug that makes him disgorge the stone and his swallowed children. In the ten-year war the gods win once Zeus frees the prisoners in Tartarus and the Cyclopes give him thunder and lightning, Pluto a helmet and Poseidon a trident; the Titans are shut in Tartarus and the three brothers draw lots for sky, sea and the underworld. The rest of the section lists the offspring of the Titans, of Styx, and of Sea and Earth, ending with the Nereids.

Nonnus of Panopolis (3)

  1. Nonnus of Panopolis, Dionysiaca 6.0–85Book 6: The gods desire Persephone; Demeter asks AstraiosAll the gods in Olympos woo Persephoneia, and Demeter fears most that Hephaistos will win her. She goes to the seer Astraios, whose sons the Winds entertain her at a banquet. Afterwards she asks him for an oracle, and he consults his sphere of the heavens.
  2. Nonnus of Panopolis, Dionysiaca 14.228–320Book 14: Dionysos marches through PhrygiaDionysos sets out armed with a thyrsus and a horn of wine, and the army passes the rock of Niobe, which warns the Indians not to fight a god. In Ascania the people submit. Hera, in the shape of an Indian, urges the captain Astraios to fight, and he drives off the heralds Pan and the Satyrs.
  3. Nonnus of Panopolis, Dionysiaca 6.86–206Book 6: Astraios' oracle; the Titans kill ZagreusAstraios foretells a secret ravisher in the shape of a dragon, but also fruit for Demeter's gift of corn. Demeter hides her daughter in a cave in Sicily, guarded by dragons and her nurse. Persephoneia, weaving, sings of how Zeus came to her as a dragon and how the Titans killed their child Zagreus, who changed through many shapes before he fell as a bull.