Bolina is a nymph (individual) in Greek folklore, from Achaea (Greece). Bolina (Ancient Greek Βολίνα / Βολίνη) is a figure in Greek myth — a mortal maiden of Achaea who, pursued by the god Apollo, threw herself into the sea and was thereafter made immortal; according to Pausanias her fall marks the site where the town Bolina was founded.
According to the account recorded by Pausanias (as summarized in modern reference works), Bolina was once a mortal maiden of Achaea who was loved by the god Apollo. When Apollo attempted to approach her she fled and threw herself into the sea to escape his advances; thereupon Apollo made her immortal. Pausanias further states that on the spot where Bolina fell into the sea the town Bolina was founded.
Classical sources as cited do not provide a physical or sensory description of Bolina beyond identifying her as a mortal maiden who was made immortal; no attested details of height, clothing, coloration, or iconography are provided in the cited material (Pausanias as summarized in modern sources).
The cited tradition records only a single supernatural outcome: Apollo granted Bolina immortality after her leap into the sea, effectively transforming her into a nymph associated with that locale. The sources do not describe any ongoing powers, patronages, cult, or continuing agency for Bolina beyond this origin episode (not attested in Pausanias / summarized sources).
Weaknesses
- otherNot attested in sources
Wards
- otherNot 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.
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).
Abaris the Hyperborean
Abaris the Hyperborean is a semi-legendary Hyperborean sage, healer, seer, and priestly envoy of Apollo in Greek tradition, famed for traveling with a magical arrow/dart, expelling pestilence, and transmitting ritual and prophetic knowledge to Greece.
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.
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.
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.
Acacallis
Acacallis (Ancient Greek: Ἀκακαλλίς; also Acalle) is a mythological princess of Crete in Greek tradition, daughter of King Minos and Pasiphae. She functions primarily as a dynastic and etiological figure: in varying accounts she is mother, by gods such as Hermes (Mercury) or Apollo, of eponymous or founder-figures like Cydon (founder of Cydonia), Miletus, or Lydon/ Lydus.
Acacus
Acacus (Ancient Greek: Ἄκακος) is, in Arcadian Greek tradition, a mortal eponymous founder-king of Acacesium and is remembered as the foster-father who reared the infant Hermes (Mercury) in that local tradition. He is presented in genealogies as a son of Lycaon and functions as a local ancestral/onomastic figure rather than a supernatural spirit.
Academus
Academus (Greek: Akádemos / Hekádemos) is an Attic hero-eponym tied to a sacred grove (Akademeia) on the Cephissus near Athens. In myth he revealed where Helen was hidden to the Dioskouroi, an act said to have saved the city, and the place bearing his name became a long-lived sacred precinct, later the site of Plato's Academy.
Acamas
Acamas (Ancient Greek: Ἀκάμας) is a personal name recurrent in ancient Greek narrative traditions applied to multiple human characters (warriors, princes, suitors), once to a Cyclops, and once as a hound's name. Rather than a single supernatural entity, bearers of the name appear episodically across the Trojan War, Theseid, and Theban cycles as mortal actors whose deeds intersect with gods and fate.
Community Record
- [1]Description of Greece (Pausanias) — summary as cited on Wikipedia. Pausanias, summary via Wikipedia entry 'Bolina' (states: Bolina was once a mortal maiden of Achaea; she fled Apollo, threw herself into the sea, and was made immortal; the town Bolina was founded on the spot).wiki
- [2]Wikidata entry for Bolina. Wikidata entry noting the mythic name and homonymous botanical usage (genus synonym).wiki
- [3]L'arcipelago toscano (archive title page mentioning 'Jack la Bolina'). Archive item showing modern use of the word/name 'la Bolina' on a title page; relation to the mythic Bolina is not documented in the supplied material.other
- [4]La Bolina de Granada (archive event listing). Archive item mentioning a contemporary use of the name 'La Bolina'; supplied material does not link this modern usage to the ancient mythic figure.other