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 ...

, Ambrosia was one of the

Hyades Hyades may refer to: *Hyades (band) *Hyades (mythology) *Hyades (star cluster), an open star cluster in the constellation Taurus {{Disambiguation it:Iadi ...

Mythology

Dionysus In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, myth, Dionysus (; ) is the god of wine-making, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, festivity, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre. He was also known as Bacchus ( or ; ...

was entrusted as a child to Ambrosia and her sisters, the Hyades. Later,

Lycurgus Lycurgus (; ) was the legendary lawgiver of Sparta, credited with the formation of its (), involving political, economic, and social reforms to produce a military-oriented Spartan society in accordance with the Delphic oracle. The Spartans i ...

assaulted the child Dionysus who was crossing his lands on Mount Nysa, escorted by the hyades. Lycurgus pursued and killed Ambrosia during this assault while her other sisters escaped and took refuge with

Thetis Thetis ( , or ; ) is a figure from Greek mythology with varying mythological roles. She mainly appears as a sea nymph, a goddess of water, and one of the 50 Nereids, daughters of the ancient sea god Nereus. When described as a Nereid in Cl ...

. As she died, she turned into a vine, trapping the murderer in her branches until the god returned. According to another version, Ambrosia was one of the fifteen daughters of

Atlas An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of world map, maps of Earth or of a continent or region of Earth. Advances in astronomy have also resulted in atlases of the celestial sphere or of other planets. Atlases have traditio ...

and Pleione and one of five sisters (the Hyades, in Latin Sicule).Hyginus, ''De astronomia'
2.21.4
with Musaeus as the authority At the death of their only brother,

Hyas Hyas (, ; ), in Greek mythology, was a Boeotian who was regarded as the ancestor of the ancient Hyantes (Ὕαντες), who were the aboriginal inhabitants of Boeotia. His name means rain from ''hyô, hyetos.'' Family Hyas was the son of the ...

, killed by a lion (or a boar), they cried so much that, according to myths, they either turned into stars or were transformed by the moved gods, thus becoming the constellation

Hyades Hyades may refer to: *Hyades (band) *Hyades (mythology) *Hyades (star cluster), an open star cluster in the constellation Taurus {{Disambiguation it:Iadi ...

while their brother Hyas was transformed into the constellation Aquarius.

Notes

References

Gaius Julius Hyginus Gaius Julius Hyginus (; 64 BC – AD 17) was a Latin author, a pupil of the scholar Alexander Polyhistor, and a freedman of Augustus, and reputed author of the '' Fabulae'' and the '' De astronomia'', although this is disputed. Life and works ...

, ''Fabulae from The Myths of Hyginus'' translated and edited by Mary Grant. University of Kansas Publications in Humanistic Studies
Online version at the Topos Text Project.

External links

* {{Metamorphoses in Greco-Roman mythology Hyades (mythology) Metamorphoses into plants in Greek mythology Mythology of Dionysus

Mythology

See also

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