Upis (mythology)

Upis was a daughter of Boreas, the god of the north wind, by an unnamed mother. She had several brothers and sisters.

The virgin Upis along with her sisters (Arge, Hekaerge, and Loxo depending on the author) were the first to leave Hyperborea and arrive in Delos along with the Delian gods,{{sfn|Smith|1873|loc=s.v. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0104%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DU%3Aentry+group%3D11%3Aentry%3Dupis-bio-3 Upis 3]}}Pausanias [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.+5.7.8&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160 5.7.8] Artemis and Apollo, before Hyperoche and Laodice did, who carried the offering that had been promised to the childbirth-goddess Eileithyia for the birth of the twins.Herodotus, Melpomene [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Hdt.+4.35&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126 4.35]{{sfn|Grimal|1987|pages= [https://archive.org/details/concisedictionar00grim/page/208/mode/2up?view=theater 209], [https://archive.org/details/concisedictionar00grim/page/314/mode/2up?view=theater 314]}} Upis and the others introduced the worship of Apollo and Artemis, and thus received great honours from the Delians.Callimachus, Hymn to Delos [https://archive.org/details/callimachuslycop00calluoft/page/108/mode/2up?view=theater 4.291–99] The women of Delos would sing hymns to their honour and lavish them with gifts until the end of their lives.

Upis often accompanied Artemis in her various excursions admist the woods; she was present when the hunter Actaeon accidentally stumbled on Artemis and the other maidens bathing nude and was transformed into a deer for his grave transgression.Nonnus [https://archive.org/details/dionysiaca01nonnuoft/page/202/mode/2up?view=theater 5.480–91], [https://archive.org/details/dionysiaca03nonnuoft/page/446/mode/2up?view=theater 48.330 ff] Some other time, the giant Orion joined Artemis as a hunting companion, and then he raped Upis,{{sfn|Grimal|1987|pages= [https://archive.org/details/concisedictionar00grim/page/208/mode/2up?view=theater 209], [https://archive.org/details/concisedictionar00grim/page/314/mode/2up?view=theater 314]}} so Artemis shot him dead with her arrows in punishment.Apollodorus [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+1.4.5&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022 1.4.5]

In the Aeneid, Upis is ordered by Artemis to avenge the death of one of her favourites, the Amazon-like warrior Camilla, who was felled in battle by the Etruscan Arruns.{{sfn|March|2014|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=nZnwAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA111 111]}} Upis witnessed and lamented the death of Camilla, and then proceeded to slay Arruns with an arrow as directed by Artemis.Virgil, Aeneid [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0054%3Abook%3D11%3Acard%3D532 11.533]-[http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0054%3Abook%3D11%3Acard%3D836 867]

Upis was also said to be the name of a mythical being that reared the young Artemis, and might be identified with Boreas' daughter.Scholiast on Callimachus, Hymn to Artemis{{sfn|Smith|1873|loc=s.v. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0104%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DU%3Aentry+group%3D11%3Aentry%3Dupis-bio-2 Upis 2]}} In connection to that, Cicero speaks of a male Upis who became the father of the "third" Artemis/Diana.Cicero, On the Nature of Gods [https://topostext.org/work/137#3.57 3.57]{{sfn|Bell|1991|loc=s.v. [https://archive.org/details/womenofclassical00bell/page/428/mode/2up?view=theater Upis]}}

Upis' tomb in Delos was worshiped in cult, where the ashes of the burnt thighbones were cast after the sacrifice. Furthermore young girls would offer a lock from their hair as offering to her,Pausanias [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.+1.43.4&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160 1.43.4] while the boys offered the hair growing on their cheeks.{{sfn|Bell|1991|loc=s.v. [https://archive.org/details/womenofclassical00bell/page/428/mode/2up?view=theater Upis]}} The Delian cult, which seems to have included several deities connected to Artemis and childbirth (such as Eileithyia) likely went as far back as the Archaic period.{{Cite journal|last=Robertson|first=N.|date=1974|title=Greek Ritual Begging in Aid of Women's Fertility and Childbirth|journal=Transactions of the American Philological Association|volume=113|pages=143–169|doi=10.2307/284008|jstor=284008}} In Ephesus, 'Upis' was also an epithet under which Artemis was worshipped as a goddess of childbirth.{{cite encyclopedia | encyclopedia = Brill's New Pauly | publisher = Brill Reference Online | url = https://referenceworks.brill.com/display/entries/NPOE/e832190.xml | doi = 10.1163/1574-9347_bnp_e832190 | last = Ambühl | first = Annemarie | location = Groningen | title = Opis, Upis | 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 = January 24, 2025}}{{sfn|Smith|1873|loc=s.v. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0104%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DU%3Aentry+group%3D11%3Aentry%3Dupis-bio-1 Upis 1]}}

Orion's sexual assault of Upis might be depicted on an ancient tomb relief frieze in Taranto, dating circa to 300 BC.{{cite journal |last=Carter |first=Joseph Coleman |year=1975 |title=The Sculpture of Taras |journal=Transactions of the American Philosophical Society |series=New Series |volume=65 |issue=7 |pages= 1–196 |doi=10.2307/1006211 |publisher=American Philosophical Society|jstor=1006211}}

{{portal|Ancient Greece|Ancient Rome|Mythology}}

• Callisto
• Nicippe
• Rhodopis and Euthynicus

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• 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.]
• {{cite book | last = Bell | first = Robert E. | title = Women of Classical Mythology: A Biographical Dictionary | publisher = ABC-Clio | date = 1991 | isbn = 9780874365818 | url = https://archive.org/details/womenofclassical00bell/mode/2up?view=theater}}
• Callimachus, Hymns in Callimachus and Lycophron with an English translation by A. W. Mair; Aratus, with an English translation by G. R. Mair, London: W. Heinemann, New York: G. P. Putnam 1921 . [https://archive.org/stream/callimachuslycop00calluoft#page/n5/mode/2up Online text available at the Internet Archive.]
• Cicero, Nature of the Gods from the Treatises of M.T. Cicero translated by Charles Duke Yonge (1812–1891), Bohn edition of 1878. [https://topostext.org/work/137 Online version at the Topos Text Project.]
• {{cite book | author-link = Pierre Grimal | last = Grimal | first = Pierre | title = The Dictionary of Classical Mythology | date = 1987 | publisher = Wiley-Blackwell | isbn = 0-631-13209-0 | url = https://archive.org/details/concisedictionar00grim}}
• Herodotus, The Histories with an English translation by A. D. Godley. Cambridge. Harvard University Press. 1920. {{ISBN|0-674-99133-8}}. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0126 Online version available at Perseus Digital Library].
• {{cite book | last = March | first = Jennifer R. | title = Dictionary of Classical Mythology | publisher = Oxbow Books | isbn = 978-1-78297-635-6 | date = May 31, 2014 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=nZnwAwAAQBAJ}}
• Nonnus, Dionysiaca; translated by Rouse, W H D, I Books I-XV. Loeb Classical Library No. 344, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1940. [https://archive.org/stream/dionysiaca01nonnuoft#page/n7/mode/2up Internet Archive]
• Nonnus, Dionysiaca; translated by Rouse, W H D, III Books XXXVI-XLVIII. Loeb Classical Library No. 346, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1940. [https://archive.org/stream/dionysiaca03nonnuoft#page/n5/mode/2up Internet Archive].
• Pausanias, Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. {{ISBN|0-674-99328-4}}. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0160 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library]
• {{cite book | author-link = William Smith (lexicographer) | last = Smith | first = William | title = A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology | location = London, UK | date = 1873 | publisher = John Murray, printed by Spottiswoode and Co.}} [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0104%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DA Online version at the Perseus.tufts library.]
• Virgil, the Aeneid, with an English translation by Theodore C. Williams. trans. Boston. Houghton Mifflin Co. 1910. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0054%3Abook%3D1%3Acard%3D1 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.]

{{refend}}

• [https://www.theoi.com/Nymphe/NymphaiHyperboreiai.html HYPERBOREAN NYMPHS on the Theoi Project.]

Category:Retinue of Artemis

Category:Characters in the Aeneid

Category:Hyperborea

Category:Delian mythology

Category:Children of Boreas (god)

Category:Women in Greek mythology

Category:Mythological rape victims