In the version preserved by Ovid (Metamorphoses) and summarized in later retellings, Anaxarete is a Cypriot noblewoman (traditionally associated with descent from Teucer in local genealogical framing) who attracts the love of a young man named Iphis. After Iphis openly courts her and, despairing of her scorn, hangs himself, Anaxarete mocks his funeral. In response Aphrodite (Venus) turns her into a stone statue; Ovid reports that this statue was preserved at Salamis in the temple of Venus Prospiciens. Variant versions of the motif appear in other authors: Antoninus Liberalis relates a comparable tale with the names Arsinoe and Arceophon, and Plutarch records a similar story among Cretan figures Gorgo and Asander.
As a human Anaxarete is described only in social terms in the surviving summaries: a Cypriot princess notable for her cold, unyielding behavior rather than for a detailed physical portrait. After divine punishment she becomes an immobile stone statue. Ovid's account (as summarized) locates that statue in the temple of Venus Prospiciens at Salamis; the sources do not supply a detailed visual description of the statue's features.
In the primary and derivative accounts Anaxarete has no supernatural agency prior to transformation beyond ordinary human behavior—chiefly proud rejection and mockery of a suitor. After Aphrodite's metamorphosis she exists only as a petrified statue; the narratives do not attribute ongoing powers or active influence to her. The transformed state functions narratively and symbolically as a lasting memorial of her conduct rather than as an empowered presence.
Weaknesses
- othernone attested in sources
Wards
- othernone attested in sources
*Péh₂usōn (reconstructed)
Péh₂usōn is a hypothetical Proto‑Indo‑European pastoral guardian reconstructed by comparative scholars from parallels in Greek and Vedic traditions. Proposed as a Graeco‑Aryan ancestor‑figure, the reconstruction describes a protector of flocks, roads, and travellers rather than an attested historical cultic personality.
Aba (disambiguation / name-form)
Aba is a polyvalent name-form attested across many unrelated contexts (place names, personal names, animal names, and brief mythological listings). The provided sources do not support a single, coherent supernatural entity called "Aba" and offer no descriptive or ritual material for such a being.
Abandinus
Abandinus is a locally attested Romano‑Celtic theonym known from a single inscribed bronze feather (votive object) dedicated at Godmanchester (the Roman fort Durovigutum) in Cambridgeshire. Scholars interpret him as a local god or male spirit tied to a specific place and possibly associated with a nearby spring or stream; this association is tentative and based on etymological readings of the name.
Abarbarea
Abarbarea is a name attested in classical Greek and Roman sources for freshwater nymphs (naiads). The name appears for at least two individual mythic figures — a naiad wife of Bucolion and a naiad counted among ancestors of the Tyrians — and Hesychius records plural forms that may indicate the name was also used as a class-name (Abarbareai / Abarbalaiai).
Abas
Abas (Ancient Greek: Ἄβας, gen.: Ἄβαντος) is not a single mythic being but a recurring personal name borne by multiple mortals and minor mythic figures in Greek epic and genealogical traditions — kings, founders, seers, warriors, attendants, a centaur, and a youth transformed by a goddess. The name is glossed in the sources as 'guileless' or 'good-hearted' and appears across Argive, Theban, Trojan, Euboean, and other local cycles.
Abderus
Abderus (Ancient Greek: Ἄβδηρος, romanized Ábdēros) is a mortal heroic figure in Greek myth closely associated with Heracles, remembered as the youth left in charge of the Mares of Diomedes who was killed by them. He functions as an eponymous local/divine-hero ancestor for the city of Abdera and received funerary commemoration and athletic agones at his tomb.
Abellio
Abellio is a theonym attested in Roman‑period inscriptions from the Comminges area of the Pyrenees and reported as worshipped in the Garonne Valley of ancient Gallia Aquitania. Surviving evidence is limited to a small number of inscriptions; scholars have variously hypothesized solar or arboreal associations and compared the name to forms of Apollo or to Celtic Belenus, but the deity's precise role in local cosmology remains uncertain.
Abnoba
Abnoba is a Gaulish theonym and toponym attested in Roman-era sources and inscriptions: a localized deity associated with woods, springs and the sources of rivers (notably the Danube) and simultaneously the name applied to a mountain or mountain range in the Black Forest/Baar/Odenwald region. Roman altars equate her with Diana, reflecting syncretic cult practice in frontier provinces.
Abomination of Desolation
An apocalyptic prophetic phrase originating in the Book of Daniel designating a profaning thing or act that renders the Jerusalem Temple cult desolate; later reused in the Synoptic Gospels as an eschatological sign prompting urgent flight. The term denotes ritual/cultic impurity (Hebrew shiqquts) and is variously interpreted as pagan offerings or altar, a foreign cult statue, or (in some New Testament readings) an acting agent.
Aborigines (mythology)
A mytho-historical label used in Roman and general reference sources to denote the oldest inhabitants of a region (specifically central Italy in the cited Roman context). The term functions as an identity/category for original human populations rather than as a characterized supernatural being in the provided sources.
Absyrtus
Absyrtus (Ancient Greek: Ἄψυρτος) is a Colchian prince in the Greek Argonautic cycle, son of King Aeëtes and brother or half-brother of Medea. He appears in variant traditions either as a companion taken by Medea during her flight with Jason and murdered/dismembered to delay pursuit, or as a pursuer sent by Aeëtes who is overtaken and slain by Jason; his death functions as a key narrative device in the escape from Colchis.
Abundantia
Abundantia is the Roman divine personification of abundance and material plenty, used primarily in imperial propaganda and public iconography to signify secure grain supplies, wealth, and the promise of a 'Golden Age' under the emperor. She also appears in later medieval European folklore as Domina Abundia / Dame Habonde, a household benefactor in accounts condemned by ecclesiastical writers.
Community Record
- [1]Anaxarete — Wikipedia. Wikipedia entry 'Anaxarete' (summary of Ovid and later attestations)wiki
- [2]Anaxarete — Wikidata. Wikidata item Q488621 for Anaxaretewiki
- [3]The Age of Fable, or Stories of Gods and Heroes (Bulfinch). Bulfinch, The Age of Fable — includes retellings of classical metamorphosis tales including Anaxareteliterary
- [4]La favola di Pyti et quella di Peristera insieme con quella di Anaxarete. Archive edition containing versions/retellings that include the Anaxarete taleliterary
- [5]Myths of Greece and Rome (collection). Modern collection/retelling including Anaxarete (references to Ovid and variants)literary