Maia — Mediated Wiki

{{short description|One of the seven Pleiades sisters and the mother of Hermes from Greek mythology}} {{other uses|Maia (disambiguation)}} {{Infobox deity | type = Greek | image = File:Hermes Maia Staatliche Antikensammlungen 2304.jpg | caption = ''Hermes and Maia'', detail from an<br>Attic red-figure amphora (''c.'' 500 BC) | member_of = the Pleiades | consort = Zeus | abode = Mount Cyllene, Arcadia | children = Hermes | siblings = {{Collapsible list | title = Pleiades | bullets = on | Electra | Taygete | Alcyone | Celaeno | Sterope | Merope }} Hyades, Hyas | name = Maia | deity_of = The Arcadian Pleiad Nymph | parents = Atlas and Pleione or Aethra | roman_equivalent = Maia }}In ancient Greek mythology, '''Maia''' (from {{langx|grc|Μαίη|4=mother', 'nurse' or 'midwife}};<ref>The alternate spelling ''Maja'' represents the intervocalic ''i'' as ''j'', pronounced similarly to an initial ''y'' in English; hence Latin ''maior'', "greater," in English became "major."</ref> {{IPA|en|ˈmeɪ.ə|pron}} or {{IPA|en|ˈmaɪ.ə}}), also spelled '''Maie''', is one of the Pleiades and the mother of the messenger god Hermes by Zeus.<ref>Homer, ''Odyssey'' 14.435; Apollodorus, [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+3.10.2&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022:book=:chapter=&highlight=Maia 3.10.2]; Horace, ''Odes'' 1.10.1 & 2.42 ff.; Tzetzes on Lycophron, 219</ref>

Maia was identified with the Roman earth goddess Maia, the mother of Mercury.<ref>Seyffert, Oskar. ''A dictionary of classical antiquities, mythology, religion, literature & art''. Page 372. S. Sonnenschein, 1891.</ref>

== Family == Maia is the daughter of Atlas<ref>The alternate spelling ''Maja'' represents the intervocalic ''i'' as ''j'', pronounced similarly to an initial ''y'' in English; hence Latin ''maior'', "greater," in English became "major."</ref><ref name=":0">Hesiod, ''Theogony'' 938</ref> and Pleione the Oceanid, and is the oldest of the seven Pleiades.<ref name=":1">Apollodorus, [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+3.10.1&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022:book=:chapter=&highlight=Maia 3.10.1]</ref> They were born on Mount Cyllene in Arcadia,<ref name=":0" /> and are sometimes called mountain nymphs, ''oreads''; Simonides of Ceos sang of "mountain Maia" ''(Maiados oureias)'' "of the lovely black eyes."<ref name=":1" /> Because they were daughters of Atlas, they were also called the Atlantides.<ref>Simonides, fr. 555</ref>

== Mythology == [[File:Cup Mercury Maia CdM.jpg|thumb|Mercury and Maia<ref>Although the identification of Mercury is secure, based on the presence of the caduceus, the one-shouldered garment called the ''chlamys'', and his winged head, the female figure has been identified variously. The cup is part of the Berthouville Treasure, found within a Gallo-Roman temple precinct; see Lise Vogel, ''The Column of Antoninus Pius'', Loeb Classical Library Monograph (Harvard University Press, 1973), p. 79 f., and Martin Henig, ''Religion in Roman Britain'', Taylor & Francis, 1984, 2005, p. 119 f. In Gaul, Mercury's regular consort is one of the Celtic goddesses, usually Rosmerta. The etymology of Rosmerta's name as "Great Provider" suggests a theology compatible with that of Maia "the Great". The consort on the cup has also been identified as Venus by M. Chabouillet, ''Catalogue général et raisonné des camées et pierres gravées de la Bibliothéque Impériale'', Paris 1858, p. 449. Maia is suggested by the concomitant discovery of a silver bust, not always considered part of the hoard proper but more securely identified as Maia and connected to Rosmerta; see E. Babelon, ''Revue archéologique'' 24 (1914), pp. 182–190, as summarized in ''American Journal of Archaeology'' 19 (1915), p. 485.</ref> inside a silver cup dedicated by the freedman P. Aelius Eutychus (late 2nd century AD), from a Gallo-Roman religious site|left]]

=== Birth of Hermes === According to the ''Homeric Hymn to Hermes'', Zeus, in the dead of night so that his wife Hera would not find out, secretly made love to Maia,<ref>Gantz, pp. 105–6; ''Homeric Hymns'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0138%3Ahymn%3D4 4.5]</ref> who avoided the company of the gods, in a cave of Cyllene. She became pregnant with Hermes. After giving birth to the baby, Maia wrapped him in blankets and went to sleep. The rapidly maturing infant Hermes crawled away to Thessaly, where, by nightfall of his first day, he stole some of his half-brother Apollo's cattle and invented the lyre from a tortoise shell. Maia refused to believe Apollo when he claimed that Hermes was the thief, and Zeus then sided with Apollo. Finally, Apollo exchanged the cattle for the lyre, which became one of his identifying attributes.<ref>Apollodorus, [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+3.10.2&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022:book=:chapter=&highlight=Maia 3.10.2]</ref>

At another time, when Maia was bathing with her sisters the Pleiads, Hermes snuck in stealthily and stole all their clothes. When the nymphs finished their bath they looked around naked not knowing what to do while Hermes laughed, and then returned them their garments.<ref>D scholia to the ''Iliad'' [https://topostext.org/work/866#24.24 24.24]</ref>

Although the ''Homeric Hymn'' has Maia as Hermes' caretaker and guardian, in Sophocles's now lost satyr play ''Ichneutae'', Maia entrusted the infant Hermes to Cyllene (the local mountain goddess) to nurse and raise, and thus it is her that the satyrs and Apollo confront when looking for the god's missing cattle.<ref>{{cite book | title = A Companion to Sophocles | first1 = Kirk | last1 = Ormand | publisher = Wiley Blackwell | isbn = 978-1-119-02553-5 | date = 2012 | page = [https://books.google.com/books?id=ad0qBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA163 163]}}</ref>

=== As nurturer === Maia also raised the infant Arcas, the child of Callisto with Zeus. Wronged by the love affair, Zeus' wife Hera in a jealous rage had transformed Callisto into a bear.<ref>Apollodorus, [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+3.8.2&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022:book=:chapter=&highlight=Maia 3.8.2]</ref> Arcas is the eponym of Arcadia, where Maia was born.<ref name=":0" /> The story of Callisto and Arcas, like that of the Pleiades, is an ''aition'' for a stellar formation, the constellations Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, the Great and Little Bear.

Her name is related to μαῖα (''maia''), an honorific term for older women related to μήτηρ (''mētēr'') 'mother',{{citation needed|date=December 2010}} also meaning "midwife" in Greek.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Nutton|first=Vivian|title=Ancient Medicine|publisher=Routledge|year=2005|isbn=9780415086110|location=London|pages=101}}</ref>

== See also == * 66 Maja, asteroid * Bona Dea * Maia (star) * Maiasaura * Rosmerta

==Notes== {{Reflist|30em}}

== 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. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0022 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.] [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0021 Greek text available from the same website]. *Diodorus Siculus, ''The Library of History'' translated by Charles Henry Oldfather. Twelve volumes. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1989. Vol. 3. Books 4.59–8. [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/home.html Online version at Bill Thayer's Web Site] *Diodorus Siculus, ''Bibliotheca Historica. Vol 1-2''. Immanel Bekker. Ludwig Dindorf. Friedrich Vogel. in aedibus B. G. Teubneri. Leipzig. 1888-1890. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:2008.01.0540 Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library]. * Gantz, Timothy, ''Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources'', Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, Two volumes: {{ISBN|978-0-8018-5360-9}} (Vol. 1), {{ISBN|978-0-8018-5362-3}} (Vol. 2). *Hesiod, ''Theogony'' from ''The Homeric Hymns and Homerica'' with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0130%3Acard%3D1 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.] [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0129 Greek text available from the same website]. *Publius Ovidius Naso, ''Fasti'' translated by James G. Frazer. [https://topostext.org/work/143 Online version at the Topos Text Project.] *Publius Ovidius Naso, ''Fasti.'' Sir James George Frazer. London; Cambridge, MA. William Heinemann Ltd.; Harvard University Press. 1933. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:2008.01.0547 Latin text available at the Perseus Digital Library]. *''The Homeric Hymns and Homerica'' with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White. Homeric Hymns. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0138%3Ahymn%3D2 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.] [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0137 Greek text available from the same website].

== Further reading == * Grimal, Pierre, [https://books.google.com/books?id=iOx6de8LUNAC ''The Dictionary of Classical Mythology''], Wiley-Blackwell, 1996, {{ISBN|978-0-631-20102-1}}. [https://books.google.com/books?id=iOx6de8LUNAC&q=Maia "Maia" p. 270] * Harry Thurston Peck, ''Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities,'' 1898 * Smith, William; ''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'', London (1873). [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0104%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DM%3Aentry+group%3D5%3Aentry%3Dmaia-bio-1 "Maia"] * ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', 1911. {{Commons category}} {{Greek mythology (deities)}} {{Nymphs}}

Category:Pleiades (Greek mythology) Category:Agricultural goddesses Category:Mountain goddesses Category:Nature goddesses Category:Mothers of the twelve Olympians Category:Divine women of Zeus Category:Mythological Arcadians Category:Arcadian mythology Category:Deeds of Zeus