Amalthea (mythology) | Read 10 Min

In Greek mythology, Amalthea or Amaltheia (Ancient Greek: Ἀμάλθεια) is the figure most commonly identified as the nurse of Zeus during his infancy. She is described either as a nymph who raises the child on the milk of a goat or, in some accounts from the Hellenistic period (c. 323–30 BC) onwards, as the goat itself.

From as early as the 6th century BC, there survive references to the "horn of Amalthea" (known in Latin as the cornucopia), a magical horn said to be capable of producing endless amounts of any food or drink desired. In a narrative attributed to the mythical poet Musaeus and dating to around the 4th century BC, Amalthea, a nymph, nurses the infant Zeus and owns a goat which is terrifying in appearance. After Zeus reaches adulthood, he uses the goat's skin as a weapon in his battle against the Titans (the earlier generation of gods). The first known author to describe Amalthea as a goat is the 3rd-century BC poet Callimachus, who presents a rationalised version of the myth in which Zeus is fed on Amalthea's milk. Aratus, also writing in the 3rd century BC, identifies Amalthea with the star Capella, and describes her as "Olenian" (the meaning of which is unclear).

Scholars disagree as to when the tale of Zeus's upbringing was first merged with that of the magical horn. They are explicitly combined by the Roman poet Ovid (1st century BC/AD), whose story of Zeus's nursing weaves together elements from multiple accounts. A passage from a marginal note in a manuscript of Aratus's version has been taken as evidence that the two myths may have been connected prior to Ovid. In the Fabulae, a 2nd-century AD mythological handbook, Amalthea hides the infant in a tree and gathers the Kouretes to dance noisily, so that the child's crying cannot be heard. Other accounts of Zeus's upbringing describe Amalthea as related to Melisseus, the mythical king of Crete, including an Orphic version of the story.

Among the few surviving depictions of Amalthea in ancient art are a relief from the 1st century BC or AD, showing her nursing Zeus between two Kouretes, and coins and medallions from the Roman Empire. Between the 16th and 18th centuries, she was the subject of works by painters such as Giorgio Vasari and Jacob Jordaens, and sculptors such as Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Pierre Julien.

Etymology and origins

The etymology of Amáltheia (Ἀμάλθεια) is unknown. Scholars from the 19th century offered various hypotheses, among them derivations from álthō, althaínō (ἄλθω, ἀλθαίνω, 'to tend, to nourish') and amalḕ theía (ἀμαλὴ θεία, 'divine goat'). In 1917, Alfred Chilton Pearson described earlier etymologies as inadequate, suggesting that the name is related to amalós (ἀμαλός, 'soft, tender, weak') and amálē (ἀμάλη, 'sheaf, bundle'). The verb amaltheúein (ἀμαλθεύειν, 'to nurture') was thought by Otto Gruppe, writing in 1906, to derive from Amalthea's name. According to Pearson, the two words should instead be understood as having existed alongside each other, with this notion of "abundance" being embodied in certain mythological figures. In 1999, Gerard Mussies derived Amalthea's name from amalthḗs (ἀμαλθής, 'not softening'), which he saw as referring to the goat's udder, taut with milk.

There is no mention of Amalthea in Hesiod's Theogony, an 8th-century BC poem containing the earliest known account of Zeus's birth. Hesiod writes that the newborn Zeus is taken to a cave on "Mount Aigaion" on the island of Crete; some scholars interpret this as "Goat's Mountain" (aigós, αἰγός meaning "goat's"), and thus as related to the story of Amalthea. Other scholars, including Martin Litchfield West, see no reason to view the name for the mountain as referring to a goat. According to Apostolos Athanassakis, elements of the story of Zeus's raising such as Amalthea and the Kouretes (male figures who dance loudly around the child in some versions) have their origins in traditions from Crete.

Mythology

Horn of Amalthea

The "horn of Amalthea", later referred to in Latin literature as the cornucopia, is a magical horn generally described as being able to produce an inexhaustible supply of any food or drink desired. The tale of this horn seems to have originated as an independent tradition from that of Zeus's raising, though it is uncertain when the two merged. The "horn of Amalthea" is mentioned as early as the 6th century BC by poets such as Anacreon and Phocylides, and is commonly referenced in comedies, such as those by Cratinus, Aristophanes, and Antiphanes (who date to the 5th or 4th century BC). The 4th-century BC comic poet Eubulus composed a now-lost work titled Amaltheia, which Richard L. Hunter believes may have dealt with the horn-owning Amalthea and represented her as an innkeeper.

According to the Bibliotheca – a 1st- or 2nd-century AD mythological compendium by an author referred to as "Apollodorus" – the 5th-century BC mythographer Pherecydes described the horn's ability to provide endless food and drink as desired. Apollodorus also transmits that it is considered to belong to Amalthea, a nymph (a type of young, female divinity). In a lost poem by the 5th-century BC poet Pindar, Heracles fought against the river god Achelous (who was in the form of a bull) for the hand of Deianeira, and during the fight Heracles pulled off one of his opponent's horns. Achelous reclaimed this horn from Heracles by trading it for a magical horn obtained from Amalthea, a daughter of Oceanus. In the same passage in which he cites Pherecydes, Apollodorus retells this story; he describes the nymph Amalthea as the daughter of Haemonius, whose name, meaning "Thessalian", indicates that she is separate from the nurse of Zeus. In Apollodorus's account, Amalthea's horn is that of a bull (an element also mentioned by the 4th-to-3rd-century BC comic poet Philemon), seemingly a result of confusion with the bull's horn of Achelous. In the versions of the myth told by Diodorus Siculus (1st century BC) and Strabo (1st century BC/AD), the horn of Amalthea is identified with that of Achelous.

Nurse of Zeus

In stories of Zeus's infancy, Amalthea is the figure most commonly described as his nurse, and in this role she is often considered a nymph. She appeared in the account of Zeus's upbringing from the now-lost Eumolpia, probably a theogony composed in or before the second half of the 4th century BC, and attributed in antiquity to the mythical poet Musaeus. This account is described in a summary – written by an author referred to as "Pseudo-Eratosthenes" – of the Catasterismi, a now-lost work of astral mythology attributed to the 3rd-to-2nd-century BC scholar Eratosthenes. According to Pseudo-Eratosthenes, in the version by Musaeus, Zeus's mother Rhea gives him as a newborn to the goddess Themis; he is then handed over to the nymph Amalthea, who has the infant reared by a she-goat. This goat is said to be the offspring of the god Helios; she is so terrifying in appearance that, out of fear, the Titans (the gods from the generation before Zeus) had asked Gaia, their mother, to conceal her in a Cretan cave. Gaia complied, entrusting the goat to Amalthea. After Zeus reaches adulthood, he receives an oracle advising him to use the goat's skin as a weapon in his war against the Titans, because of its terrifying nature. The narrative from Musaeus is also recounted in De astronomia, a work of astral mythology probably composed in the 2nd century AD. De astronomia specifies that this goatskin used against the Titans is the aegis (a divine attribute which varies in form depending on the source).

Various accounts of Zeus's upbringing present Amalthea as a goat; these versions start appearing in the Hellenistic period (c. 323–30 BC). The earliest known author to describe her as a goat is the 3rd-century BC poet Callimachus, in his Hymn to Zeus. He relates that, after Zeus's birth, the god is taken by the Arcadian nymph Neda to a hidden location in Crete, where he is reared by the nymph Adrasteia and fed the milk of Amalthea. In his description of Zeus's suckling of the breast of Amalthea, Callimachus employs the word mazón (μαζόν), which suggests the breast of a human rather than the teat of a goat; in doing so, Susan Stephens writes that Callimachus "calls attention to his own rationalizing variant of the myth". According to a scholium on Callimachus's account (that is, a marginal note in a manuscript of his text), from one of Amalthea's horns flows ambrosia and from the other comes nectar (the food and drink of the gods, respectively). In the version of Zeus's infancy from Diodorus Siculus, the child is reared by nymphs on the milk of the goat Amalthea, as well as honey; Diodorus Siculus adds that Amalthea is the source of Zeus's epithet aigíokhos (αἰγίοχος, 'aegis-bearing'). An account which is largely the same as that given by Pseudo-Eratosthenes is found in a scholium on the Iliad, though the scholiast (the scholium's author) describes Amalthea herself as the goat which terrifies the Titans.

In works of astral mythology, the tale of the goat who nurses the young Zeus is adapted to provide an aition (or origin myth) for certain stars. The 3rd-century BC poet Aratus, in his description of the constellation of the Charioteer (Auriga), explains that the star of the Goat (Capella) sits on the Charioteer's left shoulder. He identifies this goat with Amalthea, describing it as the goat who suckled Zeus; in this passage, he employs the word mazón for the goat's breast, similarly to Callimachus, who may be his source for this information. He also refers to her as the "Olenian" goat, which may be an allusion to a version in which Zeus is reared (by a goat) near the Achaean city of Olenos, or to the location of the star on the arm (ōlénē, ὠλένη) of the Charioteer. Alternatively, it may indicate that the goat's father is Olenus (the son of Hephaestus), an interpretation given by a scholium on the passage. At the end of the account given by Pseudo-Eratosthenes, the text contains a lacuna (or gap), where it has been proposed that Zeus was described as placing the goat among the stars. Emma Gee believes that in the Catasterismi the god would have performed this action for the goat's role in his defeat of the Titans, and her nursing of him during his youth.

Merging of traditions

According to Robert Fowler, the nursing of Zeus by a goat and the originally independent tradition of the magical horn had become "entangled" by the time of Pherecydes. Jan N. Bremmer writes that the Roman poet Ovid (active around the beginning of the 1st century AD) was the first to bring the two tales together. In Ovid's account, presented in his Fasti, Amalthea is once again the goat's owner, and is a naiad (or water nymph) who lives on Mount Ida. She hides the young Zeus in Crete (away from his father, Cronus), where he is suckled by the she-goat. On one occasion, the goat snaps off one of its horns on a tree, and Amalthea, filling the broken horn with fruit, brings it back to Zeus; this tale, an aition for the cornucopia, appears to be the earliest attempt at providing an origin for the object. Zeus later places the goat (and perhaps her broken-off horn) in the heavens, the goat becoming the star Capella. Ovid's narrative brings together elements from multiple earlier accounts, which he intertwines in an episode characterised by John F. Miller as a "miniature masterpiece". His source for the narrative's overall outline appears to be Eratosthenes: he describes Amalthea as a nymph, and seemingly alludes to Zeus's war with the Titans. He notably departs from the Eratosthenic story by describing the goat as 'beautiful' (formosa) and as having majestic horns. Ovid harks back to Aratus in the first words of his narrative, which mirror the opening phrase of Aratus's poem, and by describing the goat as "Olenian". Barbara Boyd also sees in Ovid's narrative considerable influence from the Callimachean account of Zeus's infancy.