Metis (mythology)
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Metis (Template:IPAc-en; Template:Langx; Modern Greek: Μήτις, meaning 'Wisdom', 'Skill', or 'Craft'), in ancient Greek religion and mythology, was the pre-Olympian goddess of wisdom, counsel and deep thought, and a member of the Oceanids.<ref>Hesiod, Theogony 357; Smith, s.v. Metis.</ref> She is notable for being the advisor and first wife of Zeus, the king of the gods. She first helped him to free his siblings from their father Cronus' stomach and later helped their daughter Athena to escape from the forehead of Zeus, who swallowed both mother and child after it was foretold that she would bear a son mightier than his father.
FunctionEdit
By the era of Greek philosophy in the 5th century BC, Metis had become the first deity of wisdom and deep thought, but her name originally connoted "magical cunning" and was as easily equated with the trickster powers of Prometheus as with the "royal metis" of Zeus, who is titled Metieta (Template:Langx) in the Homeric poems.<ref name="Brown" /> The Stoic commentators allegorised Metis as the embodiment of "prudence", "wisdom" or "wise counsel", in which form she was inherited by the Renaissance.<ref>A.B. Cook, Zeus (1914) 1940, noted in Brown 1952:133 note.</ref>
The Greek word metis meant a quality that combined wisdom and cunning. This quality was considered to be highly admirable, the hero Odysseus being the embodiment of it, for example using such a strategy against Polyphemus, son of Poseidon. In the Classical era, metis was regarded by Athenians as one of the notable characteristics of the Athenian character.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
MythologyEdit
Hesiod's accountEdit
Metis was an Oceanid, one of the 3000 daughters of the Titans Oceanus and Tethys,<ref name=":02">Template:Cite book</ref> and a sister of the river-gods, which also numbered 3000. Metis gave her cousin Zeus an emetic potion to cause his father Cronus, the supreme ruler of the cosmos, to vomit out his siblings - Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades and Poseidon - their father had swallowed out of fear of being overthrown.<ref>Hesiod, Theogony 471; Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1.2.1; Grimal, s.v. Metis.</ref> After Zeus and his siblings won the Titanomachy, the 10-year war among the Titans and the Olympians, he pursued Metis and they got married.<ref>M. Detienne and J.-P. Vernant, Les Ruses de l'intelligence: la Mètis des Grecs (Paris, 1974). Template:ISBN.</ref><ref name="Brown">Norman O. Brown, "The Birth of Athena" Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association 83 (1952), pp. 130–143.</ref>
Metis was both an indispensable aid and a threat to Zeus.<ref>Brown 1952:133</ref> He lay with her, but immediately feared the consequences, for it had been prophesied by Gaia and Uranus that Metis would bear a daughter who would be wiser than her mother, and then a son more powerful than his father, who would eventually overthrow Zeus and become the king of the cosmos in his place.<ref>Hesiod, Theogony, 886–900; Hard, p. 77; Caldwell, p. 16; Tripp, s.v. Metis.</ref> In order to forestall these consequences, Zeus tricked Metis into turning herself into a fly and promptly swallowed her.<ref name="Lang 1901 pp. 194, 262-263">Template:Cite book</ref> However, she was already pregnant with their first and only child, Athena, whom Metis raised in Zeus' mind. It is from this position that Metis continues to give Zeus advice as a ruler.
Once Athena fully grew up, Metis crafted robes, an armor, a shield, and a spear for her daughter, who banged her spear and shield together in order to give her father a terrible headache. Soon, Zeus could not take his headache anymore and had the smith god Hephaestus - a son of Hera, now his queen - cut his head open to let out whatever was in there on the river Triton's banks. Athena emerged from Zeus's mind full grown, wearing the armor her mother made for her. She was soon made the goddess of wisdom, warfare, and crafts.
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Other versionsEdit
According to a scholiast on the Theogony, Metis had the ability of changing her shape at will. Zeus tricked her and swallowed his pregnant wife when she transformed into a {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}Template:Efn (pikràn).<ref>Scholia on Hesiod's Theogony 886</ref> As Keightley notes, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ("bitter") makes little or no sense in that context, and it has been variously corrected to {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}Template:Efn (muîan, meaning "fly") or {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}Template:Efn (mikràn, meaning "small thing") instead.<ref>Keightley, p. 153, note b.</ref>
According to Apollodorus, Metis was raped by Zeus and changed many forms in order to escape him after he pursued her.<ref>Apollodorus, 1.3.6.</ref>
An alternative version of the same myth makes the Cyclops Brontes rather than Zeus the father of Athena before Metis is swallowed.<ref>Gantz, p. 51; Scholia on Homer, Iliad 8.39.</ref>
Hesiod's account is followed by Acusilaus and the Orphic tradition, which enthroned Metis side by side with Eros as primal cosmogenic forces. Plato makes Poros, or "creative ingenuity", a son of Metis.<ref>Plato, Symposium 203b; Morford, p. 133–134.</ref>
Ancient legacyEdit
The similarities between Zeus swallowing Metis and Cronus swallowing his children have been noted by several scholars. This also caused some controversy in regard to reproduction myths.<ref name="King 2020">Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref><ref>Leeming, s.v. Metis.</ref>
Modern legacyEdit
- Metis Island in Antarctica is named after Metis.
- 9 Metis, one of the larger main-belt asteroids, is named after this goddess.
- Metis, a moon of Jupiter, is named after the goddess.
See alsoEdit
FootnotesEdit
NotesEdit
ReferencesEdit
- 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. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website.
- Caldwell, Richard, Hesiod's Theogony, Focus Publishing/R. Pullins Company (June 1, 1987). Template:ISBN.
- Gantz, Timothy, Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, Two volumes: Template:ISBN (Vol. 1), Template:ISBN (Vol. 2).
- Grimal, Pierre, The Dictionary of Classical Mythology, Wiley-Blackwell, 1996. Template:ISBN.
- Hard, Robin, The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology", Psychology Press, 2004, Template:ISBN. Google Books.
- 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. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website.
- Keightley, Thomas, The Mythology of Ancient Greece and Italy, second edition considerably enlarged and improved, London, Whittaker and Co., 1838.
- Leeming, David, "Metis". In The Oxford Companion to World Mythology, Oxford University Press, York University, 2004.
- Morford, Mark P. O., Robert J. Lenardon, Classical Mythology, Eighth Edition, Oxford University Press, 2007. Template:ISBN.
- Plato, (1989) The Symposium. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing Company.
- Smith, William, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London (1873). Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Tripp, Edward, Crowell's Handbook of Classical Mythology, Thomas Y. Crowell Co; First edition (June 1970). Template:ISBN.