Admete ( means 'the unbroken, unwedded, untamed') or Admeta, was in

Greek mythology Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories conc ...

, a Mycenaean princess. She was the daughter of King Eurystheus and Antimache Apollodorus
2.5.9
/ref> and sister to

Alexander Alexander () is a male name of Greek origin. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here ar ...

, Iphimedon, Eurybius, Mentor, PerimedesApollodorus
2.8.1
/ref> and possibly, Eurypylus. Athenaeus
4.158
(p. 219) The name of Admete/ Admeta was the female form of Admetus.

Mythology

Heracles Heracles ( ; ), born Alcaeus (, ''Alkaios'') or Alcides (, ''Alkeidēs''), was a Divinity, divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of ZeusApollodorus1.9.16/ref> and Alcmene, and the foster son of Amphitryon.By his adoptive descent through ...

, as one of his Twelve Labors, was obliged by her father to fetch for her the girdle of

Ares Ares (; , ''Árēs'' ) is the List of Greek deities, Greek god of war god, war and courage. He is one of the Twelve Olympians, and the son of Zeus and Hera. The Greeks were ambivalent towards him. He embodies the physical valor necessary for ...

, which was worn by Hippolyte, queen of the

Amazons The Amazons (Ancient Greek: ', singular '; in Latin ', ') were a people in Greek mythology, portrayed in a number of ancient epic poems and legends, such as the Labours of Hercules, Labours of Heracles, the ''Argonautica'' and the ''Iliad''. ...

. According to John Tzetzes, Admete accompanied Heracles on this expedition. There was a tradition according to which Admete was originally a priestess of Hera at Argos, but fled with the image of the goddess to Samos. Pirates were engaged by the Argives to fetch the image back, but the enterprise did not succeed, for the ship when laden with the image could not be made to move. The men then took the image back to the coast of Samos and sailed away. When the Samians found it, they tied it to a tree, but Admete purified it and restored it to the temple of Samos. In commemoration of this event, the Samians celebrated an annual festival called Tonea. This story seems to be an invention of the Argives, by which they intended to prove that the worship of Hera in their place was older than in Samos.

Notes

References

* Apollodorus, ''The Library'' with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. ISBN 0-674-99135-4
Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.Greek text available from the same website
* Athenaeus of Naucratis. ''The Deipnosophists or Banquet of the Learned.'' London. Henry G. Bohn, York Street, Covent Garden. 1854.
Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
* Athenaeus of Naucratis. ''Deipnosophistae''. Kaibel. In Aedibus B.G. Teubneri. Lipsiae. 1887
Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library
* Bell, Robert E., ''Women of Classical Mythology: A Biographical Dictionary''. ABC-Clio. 1991. . * Scholia to Lycophron's ''Alexandra'', marginal notes by Isaak and Ioannis Tzetzes and others from the Greek edition of Eduard Scheer (Weidmann 1881)
Online version at the Topos Text Project.
Greek text available on Archive.org Greek mythological priestesses Princesses in Greek mythology Women in Greek mythology Mythological Mycenaeans Mythology of Heracles {{greek-myth-royal-stub