Asteria

Asteria (in Greek Ἀστερία ) is a Titanide Greek mythology.

In Hesiod's Theogony and this subsequently in later mythographers she is the daughter of the Titans Coeus and Phoebe Titanide and the sister of Leto. From Perses she is the mother of Hecate, in which case the fathers Zeus and Polus are handed down as variants. After Eudoxus of Cnidus and Cicero, she is also the mother of the Tyrian Heracles, Nonnus of Panopolis calls her the daughter of Hyperion and as the wife of the river god Hydaspes.

The myth of a floating island that is worn on the occasion of the birth of Apollo and Artemis by Leto of up protruding from the seabed columns is already known Pindar. Whether the familial relationship of Leto and Asteria Pindar is known, is unclear. In Callimachus and follow this in the Libraries of Apollodorus to Asteria crashes fleeing from Zeus into the sea to umherzutreiben there as a floating island until they Leto offers itself as a place of birth. Hyginus Mythographus reported as best-known version of the myth that Asteria by Zeus into a quail ( ortyx ) transformed and this is thrown into the sea, because it rejects his advances. From it arises the floating " quail island " of Ortygia. At the direction Heras may Asterias sister Leto not give birth there, where the sun Hinsch one. At the same time it sends from Python to pursue Leto. Zeus Leto can therefore bring the wind god Boreas to Poseidon, who brings them on Ortygia. Ortygia sinks for the birth of the twins in the sea and since its re-emergence of Delos (the " Visible " ) called.

In the Libraries of Apollodorus she transforms herself into a quail to escape from Zeus can. When Servius they seek from the gods the metamorphosis into a quail, but is transformed when diving through the sea of ​​Zeus in the rock, which then rises to Ask Leto as an island to the surface. Apollon they secured after his birth to the neighboring islands Gyaros and Mykonos.

A pictorial representation of Asteria can be found on the Südfries of the Pergamon Altar between Leto and Hecate.