Enyo
Enyo (Greek: Ἐνυώ, English translation: "warlike" in Greek mythology) was an ancient goddess of war, acting as a counterpart and companion to the war god Ares. She is also identified as his sister, and daughter of Zeus and Hera,[1] in a role closely resembling that of Eris; with Homer in particular representing the two as the same goddess. She is also accredited as the mother of Enyalius, a minor war god, by Ares.[2] However, the name Enyalius can also be used as a title for Ares himself.
As goddess of war, Enyo is responsible for orchestrating the destruction of cities, often accompanying Ares into battle,[3] and depicted "as supreme in war".[4] During the fall of Troy, Enyo inflicted horror and bloodshed in the war, along with Eris, and Phobos ("Fear") and Deimos ("Dread"), the two sons of Ares.[5] She, Eris, and the two sons of Ares are depicted on Achilles’s shield.[6]
Enyo was involved in the war of the Seven Against Thebes and Dionysus’s war with the Indians as well.[7][8] Enyo so delighted in warfare that she even refused to take sides in the battle between Zeus and the monster Typhon:
- "Eris (Strife) was Typhon's escort in the mellay, Nike (Victory) led Zeus into battle . . . impartial Enyo held equal balance between the two sides, between Zeus and Typhon, while the thunderbolts with booming shots revel like dancers in the sky." [9]
She was also connected to the Roman goddess of war, Bellona, and the Anatolian goddess Ma.
At Thebes and Orchomenos, a festival called Homolôïa, which was celebrated in honour of Zeus, Demeter, Athena and Enyo, was said to have received the surname of Homoloïus from Homoloïs, a priestess of Enyo.[10] A statue of Enyo, made by the sons of Praxiteles, stood in the temple of Ares at Athens.[11] Among the Graeae in Hesiod[12] there is one called Enyo.
[edit] References
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Leonhard Schmitz (1867). "article name needed". In Smith, William. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy, 8.424
- ^ Eustathius on Homer 944
- ^ Homer, Iliad 5. 333, 592
- ^ Pausanias, Description of Greece 4. 30. 5
- ^ Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy
- ^ Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy
- ^ Statius, Thebaid
- ^ Nonnus, Dionysiaca
- ^ Nonnus, Dionysiaca 2. 358 & 2. 475 ff
- ^ Suidas s. v.; comp. Müller, Orchomen. p. 229, 2nd edit. (cited by Schmitz)
- ^ Pausanias, Description of Greece, I. 8. § 5. (cited by Schmitz)
- ^ Theogony 273 (cited by Schmitz)
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