Nyctimene (mythology)

{{Infobox character

| name = Nyctimene

| image = File:Metamorphosis of Nyctimene.jpeg

| caption = Minerva transforms Nyctimene into an owl,{{efn|The Latin distich says: "Nyctimene is Minerva's nightly (fowl) for being wanton. Thence the crow contests her." The German couplet says: "Nyctimene commits an atrocity with her father and becomes an owl."}} 1641 engraving by Johann Wilhelm Baur.

| gender = Female

| title = Princess

| alias = Nyctaea

| species = Human, then owl

| relatives = Epopeus (father)

| lbl21 = Birthplace

| data21 = Lesbos

}}

Nyctimene ({{IPAc-en|n|ɪ|k|t|ɪ|m|æ|n|i}}, {{langx|grc|Νυκτιμένη|Nuktiménē|she who stays up at night}}) was, according to Greek and Roman mythology, a princess and a rape victim, the daughter of Epopeus, a king of Lesbos. She was transformed into an owl by the goddess Athena, who took pity on her for her gruesome fate.{{cite encyclopedia | last = Käppel | first = Lutz | doi = 10.1163/1574-9347_bnp_e827030 | editor-first1 = Hubert | editor-last1 = Cancik | editor-first2 = Helmuth | editor-last2 = Schneide | location = Kiel | title = Nyctimene | encyclopedia = Brill's New Pauly | publisher = Brill Reference Online | date = 2006 | access-date = May 17, 2023 | translator = Christina F. Salazar | url = https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/brill-s-new-pauly/nyctimene-e827030| url-access = subscription }} The owl was one of Athena's most prominent and important symbols.

Etymology

Nyctimene's name is derived from the Greek words {{lang|grc|νύξ}} (genitive {{lang|grc|νυκτός}}) meaning "night"{{sfn|Liddell|Scott|1940|loc=s.v. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:entry=nu/c νύξ]}} and {{lang|grc|μένω}} meaning "I stay",{{sfn|Liddell|Scott|1940|loc=s.v. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:entry=me/nw μένω]}} that is, she who stays up at night (the owl). Both compound words are of Proto-Indo-European origin; {{lang|grc|νύξ}} from the PIE root *nókʷts,{{sfn|Beekes|2010|page=[https://archive.org/details/etymological-dictionary-of-greek/page/1027/mode/2up?view=theater 1027]}} and {{lang|grc|μένω}} from *men-.{{sfn|Beekes|2010|page=[https://archive.org/details/etymological-dictionary-of-greek/page/931/mode/2up?view=theater 931]}}

In order for the name to translate to "moon of the night", as suggested by another proposed etymology,{{cite book | last1 = Hall | first1 = Leslie S. | last2 = Richards | first2 = Gregory | title = Flying Foxes: Fruit and Blossom Bats of Australia | date = 2000 | publisher = UNSW Press | isbn = 9780868405612 | page = [https://books.google.com/books?id=Da6ySizodsAC&pg=PA9 9] | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Da6ySizodsAC | language = en}} it would have to be spelled {{lang|grc|Νυκτιμήνη}} with two etas instead of {{lang|grc|Νυκτιμένη}} with one.

Mythology

According to Hyginus, her father Epopeus desired her and raped her. Out of shame or guilt, she fled to the forest and refused to show her face in daylight.{{cite web | author = Rosemary M. Wright | title = A Dictionary of Classical Mythology: Summary of Transformations | website = mythandreligion.upatras.gr | url = http://mythandreligion.upatras.gr/english/m-r-wright-a-dictionary-of-classical-mythology/ | access-date = January 3, 2023 | publisher = University of Patras}} Taking pity on her, the goddess Athena transformed her into the nocturnal owl which, in time, became a widespread symbol of the goddess.Hyginus, Fabulae [https://topostext.org/work/206#204 204], [https://topostext.org/work/206#253 253]{{sfn|Forbes Irving|1990|page=110}} In Ovid's Metamorphoses, the transformation was a punishment for "desecrating her father's bed" (patrium temerasse cubile), which insinuates that she had sexual intercourse with her own father, but no further explanation is given of whether she was raped, seduced or herself the seducer.Ovid, Metamorphoses [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/ovid-metamorphoses/1916/pb_LCL042.101.xml 2.591-5] In the Metamorphoses, Nyctimene's story is narrated by Corone (the crow), who also complains that her place as Minerva's sacred bird is now being usurped by Nyctimene, who is so ashamed of herself that she will not be seen by daylight.

Servius says that Nyctimene was filled with shame after realizing she had slept with her father, implying some sort of trickery to have occurred.Servius, On Virgil's Georgics [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Serv.+G.+1.403&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2007.01.0092 1.403] Another scholiast says that Nyctimene was raped not by Epopeus but rather a visiting guest named Corymbus.{{sfn|Pagès|Villagra|2022|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=Bm9pEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT206 206]}} An anonymous Greek paradoxographer writes that she fled her father, who is here named Clymenus.Paradoxographoi, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=eTUOAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA222 222]

A variation of her story about Nyctaea is found in pseudo-Lactantius Placidus's commentary on the Thebaid.{{sfn|Pagès|Villagra|2022|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=Bm9pEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT206 206]}}

Legacy

Her name has been given to a genus of bats and an asteroid.

Footnotes

References

Bibliography

{{cite book | url = https://archive.org/details/etymological-dictionary-of-greek/mode/ | author-link = Robert S. P. Beekes | last = Beekes | first = Robert S. P. | title = Etymological Dictionary of Greek | location = Leiden, the Netherlands | publisher = Brill Publications | date = 2010 | volume = ΙΙ | isbn = 978-90-04-17419-1 | series = Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series | editor = Lucien van Beek}}
{{cite book | title = Metamorphosis in Greek Myths | location = Oxford, New York, Toronto | first = Paul M. C. | last = Forbes Irving | publisher = Clarendon Press, Oxford University Press | series = Oxford Classical Monographs | date = 1990 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=URvXAAAAMAAJ | isbn = 0-19-814730-9}}
Hyginus, Gaius Julius, [http://www.theoi.com/Text/HyginusFabulae1.html The Myths of Hyginus]. Edited and translated by Mary A. Grant, Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1960.
{{cite book | first1 = Henry George | last1 = Liddell | first2 = Robert | last2 = Scott | title = A Greek-English Lexicon, revised and augmented throughout by Sir Henry Stuart Jones with the assistance of Roderick McKenzie | location = Oxford | publisher = Clarendon Press | date = 1940 | author1-link = Henry Liddell | author2-link = Robert Scott (philologist)}} [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057 Online version at Perseus.tufts project.]
Maurus Servius Honoratus, In Vergilii carmina comentarii. Servii Grammatici qui feruntur in Vergilii carmina commentarii; recensuerunt Georgius Thilo et Hermannus Hagen. Georgius Thilo. Leipzig. B. G. Teubner. 1881. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0053 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library].
{{cite book | author = Ovid | author-link = Ovid | title = Metamorphoses | volume = I: Books 1-8 | translator = Frank Justus Miller, revised by G. P. Goold | series = Loeb Classical Library 42 | location = Cambridge, MA | publisher = Harvard University Press | date = 1916}}
{{cite book | title = Myths on the Margins of Homer: Prolegomena to the Mythographus Homericus | first1 = Joan | last1 = Pagès | first2 = Nereida | last2 = Villagra | publisher = De Gruyter | date = May 9, 2022 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Bm9pEAAAQBAJ | isbn = 9783110751154}}
{{cite book | title = Paradoxographoe | first = Anton | last = Westermann | author-link = Anton Westermann | publisher = Harvard College Library | date = 1839 | location = London | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=eTUOAAAAYAAJ}}