Nyctaea
Greek mythological figure
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In Greek mythology Nyctaea (Ancient Greek: Νυκταία, romanized: Nuktaía, lit. 'nocturnal') is a princess featuring in two stories about father-daughter incest, who is eventually turned into an owl by the goddess Athena. Both her tales are preserved in the works of pseudo-Lactantius Placidus, a Latin grammarian of the third century AD, and the second of the Vatican Mythographers.
Etymology
Nyctaea's name is derived from the Greek word νύξ (genitive νυκτός) meaning "night".[1] Νύξ in turn is of Proto-Indo-European origin, from the PIE root *nókʷts, from which 'night' is also descended.[2]
Family
Depending on version, Nyctaea is either the daughter of Nycteus (most notable bearer of that name is usually a king of Thebes, but here identified as a king of the Aethiopians) or the Argive king Proetus.[3]
Mythology
Nycteus
In the first version, Nyctaea harboured an incestuous desire for her father, and confessed her feelings to a nurse, who helped her deceive and trick her father into bedding her by pretending to be some unrelated maiden after the nurse told Nycteus that some foreign maiden was in love with him.[4] When Nycteus found out what was truly going on, he was so enraged he meant to kill Nyctaea, who implored Athena to save her. Athena took her under her protection by changing her into night owl.[5][6]
Proetus
In another version mentioned by the same author, the Argive princess Nyctaea fled her home in terror so she could escape being raped by her father.[5][7] Athena took pity in her and transformed her into a night owl, the bird sacred to Athena.[8][4]
Symbolism
The version with Nycteus is identical to the more popular story of Myrrha (a girl who fell in love with her father Cinyras and tricked him into sleeping with her), and was likely modelled after it.[9] The version with Proetus is closer to the myth of Nyctimene, a maiden who was raped by her father and was turned into an owl by Athena.[10]
