{{Short description|Greek goddess of madness and rage}} {{About|the Greek spirit|the moth genus|Lyssa (moth)|the Nightfall album|Lyssa: Rural Gods and Astonishing Punishments}} {{Infobox deity | god_of = Goddess of rage and madness | image = Lyssa, vase painting, c. 350–340 BC, British Museum.jpg | caption = Lyssa depicted as a winged figure, surrounded by a nimbus and wielding a goad. Apulian red-figure kalyx-krater, c. 360–350 BC.<ref name="a">Digital LIMC [https://app.dasch.swiss/resource/080E/8G8MRxWiUDuVjytsL4RUCg 8120 (Lyssa 8)]; British Museum [https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/G_1849-0623-48 1849,0623.48]; ''LIMC'' VI.1, [https://archive.org/details/limc_20210516/Lexicon%20Iconographicum%20Mythologiae%20Classicae/LIMC%20VI-1%20Kentauroi%20et%20Kentaurides-O%C4%B1ax/page/n175/mode/2up p. 325].</ref> | mother = Nyx | father = Uranus | type = Greek | animals = Dog | roman_equivalent = Ira, Rabies | mount = Chariot | siblings = Thanatos, Hypnos, Erinyes, several more }}
In Greek mythology, '''Lyssa''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|l|ɪ|s|ə}}, {{respell|LEE|sə}}; {{langx|grc|Λύσσα|Lússa|rage, rabies}}), also called '''Lytta''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|l|ɪ|t|ə}}; {{lang|grc|Λύττα}}) in Attic Greek, is a minor goddess and the spirit of rage, fury,<ref name="lys2">{{Cite journal |date=August 2009 |title=Lyssavirus [lis′ə-vi′′rəs] |journal=Emerging Infectious Diseases |volume=15 |issue=8 |pages=1184 |doi=10.3201/eid1508.999999 |issn=1080-6040 |pmc=2815993}}</ref> and rabies in animals. In myth, Lyssa is often portrayed driving people insane and leading them to their doom, and would occasionally be portrayed as a dog.<ref name="brill2">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Lyssa |encyclopedia=Brill's New Pauly |publisher=Brill Reference Online |location=Berlin |url=https://referenceworks.brill.com/display/entries/NPOE/e715170.xml |access-date=December 31, 2024 |last=Waldner |first=Katharina |date=October 1, 2006 |editor-last1=Cancik |editor-first1=Hubert |doi=10.1163/1574-9347_bnp_e715170 |issn=1574-9347 |translator=Christine F. Salazar |editor-first2=Helmuth |editor-last2=Schneider |url-access=subscription}}</ref>
She was closely related to Mania, the personification of various forms of madness and insanity. Because of their close connection and the uncertainty over whether they are the same figure, twins, or distinct personifications, Lyssa and Mania are often confused with one another, although both are generally presumed to be daughters of Nyx. Her Roman equivalents were variously named '''Ira''', '''Furor''', or '''Rabies'''. Sometimes she was multiplied into a host of Irae and Furores.
The viral genus ''Lyssavirus'', which includes the causative agent of rabies, was named after this goddess.
== Etymology == The Greek noun {{lang|grc|λύσσα}} derives from the word {{lang|grc|λύκος}} (''lúkos''), meaning "wolf".<ref>{{cite book | first = Pierre | last = Chantraine | year = 1968 | language = fr | title = Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque | volume = I | entry = Λύσσα | page = 651}}</ref> Because seeds of alyssum were used (unsuccessfully) to treat rabies, the flower was named after the disease with the prefix {{lang|grc|α-}} in front, meaning without. Thus Lyssa is the etymological origin of the feminine name Alyssa.<ref>{{cite web |author=Mike Campbell |url=http://www.behindthename.com/name/alyssa |title=Meaning, Origin and History of the Name Alyssa |publisher=Behind the Name |access-date=2013-06-01}}</ref>
== Family == In Euripides' play ''Herakles'', Lyssa is identified as the daughter of the night-goddess Nyx, "sprung from the blood of Uranus"—that is, the blood from Uranus' wound following his castration by his son Cronus.<ref name="Herakles">{{Cite book | last = Vellacott | first = Phillip (trans.) | title =Herakles by Euripides | year = 1963 | pages = 815}}</ref> The 1st-century Latin writer Hyginus lists Ira (Wrath, Lyssa) as the daughter of Terra (Gaia) and Aether.<ref>Grant 1960, p. 815</ref> Lyssa could be occasionally portrayed as a dog.<ref name="brill"/>
== Mythology == === Heracles === In Euripides' tragedy ''Herakles'', Lyssa and the messenger goddess Iris are called upon by Hera to inflict the hero Heracles with insanity. However, Lyssa disagrees with Hera's plans, and unsuccessfully attempts to persuade Iris to refuse their orders.<ref>Pierre Chantraine, ''Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque'', tome I, entry Λύσσα, p. 651.</ref> When she fails, Lyssa gives in and sends Heracles into a mad rage that causes him to murder his wife and children.<ref>Euripides, ''Heracles'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0102%3Acard%3D977 1010]</ref><ref name="Herakles2">{{Cite book |last=Vellacott |first=Phillip (trans.) |title=Herakles by Euripides |year=1963 |pages=815}}</ref>
In her scenes, Lyssa is shown to take a temperate, measured approach to her role, professing "not to use [her powers] in anger against friends, nor [to] have any joy in visiting the homes of men."<ref>Euripides, ''Heracles'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0102%3Acard%3D822 822]</ref>
=== Actaeon === In a number of ancient Greek vases Lyssa appears on the scene of the death of Actaeon, the hunter who was transformed into a deer and devoured by his own hounds for seeing Artemis naked or trying to woo Semele. In a 440s BC red-figure bell-krater by the Lykaon Painter, Lyssa stands to the right of Actaeon, inflicting his dogs with rabies and directing them against him.<ref name="lys">{{Cite journal |date=August 2009 |title=Lyssavirus [lis′ə-vi′′rəs] |journal=Emerging Infectious Diseases |volume=15 |issue=8 |pages=1184 |doi=10.3201/eid1508.999999 |issn=1080-6040 |pmc=2815993}}</ref>{{sfn|Lamari|Montanari|Novokhatko|2020|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=B773DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA214 214]}} It has been theorised that the vase depicts the events of the myth as dramatised in Athenian tragedian Aeschylus' lost play ''Toxotides'' which dealt with Actaeon's death,{{sfn|Kampakoglou|Novokhatko|2018|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=UQNPDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA198 198]}} although this assertion is far from certain.{{sfn|Lamari|Montanari|Novokhatko|2020|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=B773DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA215 215]}}
In a different vase with Actaeon's death, Lyssa is present along with Aphrodite, Eros, Artemis and a woman that could be Semele, indicating a sexual nature of Actaeon's grave offence which led to him being eaten by his own rabid dogs.{{sfn|Lamari|Montanari|Novokhatko|2020|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=B773DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA213 213]}}
=== Others === Lyssa also had a role in the myth of Lycurgus, the Thracian king who tried to ban the worship of Dionysus, the god of madness. In an Apulian vase from around 350 BC, the winged Lyssa supplants Dionysus as the deity causing Lycurgus to attack and kill his wife and son.<ref name="a"/>{{sfn|Kampakoglou|Novokhatko|2018|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=UQNPDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA198 198]}}
Aeschylus identifies her as being the agent sent by Dionysus to madden the impious daughters of Cadmus, who in turn dismember their kinsman Pentheus.<ref name="brill">{{cite encyclopedia | encyclopedia = Brill's New Pauly | publisher = Brill Reference Online | url = https://referenceworks.brill.com/display/entries/NPOE/e715170.xml | doi = 10.1163/1574-9347_bnp_e715170 | last = Waldner | first = Katharina | location = Berlin | title = Lyssa | date = October 1, 2006 | editor-first1 = Hubert | translator = Christine F. Salazar | issn = 1574-9347 | editor-last1 = Cancik | editor-first2 = Helmuth | editor-last2 = Schneider | access-date = December 31, 2024| url-access = subscription }}</ref>
== See also == {{portal|Ancient Greece|Mythology}}
* Erinyes
== Notes == {{reflist}}
== References == === Ancient === * Euripides, ''The Complete Greek Drama'' edited by Whitney J. Oates and Eugene O'Neill, Jr. in two volumes. 1. Heracles, translated by E. P. Coleridge. New York. Random House. 1938. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0102 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.] * Euripides, ''Euripidis Fabulae.'' ''vol. 2''. Gilbert Murray. Oxford. Clarendon Press, Oxford. 1913. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0101 Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library]. * Gaius Julius Hyginus, ''Fabulae'' in ''Fabulae from The Myths of Hyginus'' translated and edited by Mary Grant. University of Kansas Publications in Humanistic Studies. Published in 1960. [https://topostext.org/work/206 Online version at the Topos Text Project.]
=== Modern === * {{cite book | title = Gaze, Vision, and Visuality in Ancient Greek Literature | first1 = Alexandros | last1 = Kampakoglou | first2 = Anna | last2 = Novokhatko | volume = LIV | publisher = de Gruyter | isbn = 978-3-11-056899-8 | date = March 5, 2018 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=UQNPDwAAQBAJ}} * {{cite book | first1 = Anna A. | last1 = Lamari | first2 = Franco | last2 = Montanari | first3 = Anna | last3 = Novokhatko | title = Fragmentation in Ancient Greek Drama | date = August 10, 2020 | publisher = de Gruyter | isbn = 978-3-11-062102-0 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=B773DwAAQBAJ}} * ''Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC)'' VI.1., Zürich and Munich, Artemis Verlag, 1992. {{ISBN|3-7608-8751-1}}. [https://archive.org/details/limc_20210516/Lexicon%20Iconographicum%20Mythologiae%20Classicae/LIMC%20VI-1%20Kentauroi%20et%20Kentaurides-O%C4%B1ax/mode/2up?view=theater Internet Archive].
== External links == * [https://www.theoi.com/Daimon/Lyssa.html LYSSA from The Theoi Project]
{{Ancient Greek personifications}} {{Greek mythology (deities)|state=collapsed}}
Category:Personifications in Greek mythology Category:Insanity Category:Rabies Category:Children of Nyx Category:Children of Gaia Category:Avian humanoids Category:Dog goddesses Category:Greek death goddesses Category:Greek virgin goddesses