Enyo

For other uses, see Enyo (disambiguation).

Enyo (/ˈn/; Greek: Ἐνυώ) was a goddess of war in Greek mythology, the companion of the war god Ares. She is also called the "sister of War",[1] in a role closely resembling that of Eris; with Homer in particular representing the two as the same goddess. She is also accredited as the mother of the war god Enyalius, by Ares.[2] However, the name Enyalius or Enyalios can also be used as a title for Ares himself.[3]

As goddess of war, Enyo is responsible for orchestrating the destruction of cities, often accompanying Ares into battle,[4] and depicted "as supreme in war".[5] During the fall of Troy, Enyo inflicted terror and bloodshed in the war, along with Eris ("Strife"), and Phobos ("Fear") and Deimos ("Dread"), the two sons of Ares.[6] She, Eris, and the two sons of Ares are depicted on Achilles’s shield.[6]

Enyo was involved in the war of the Seven Against Thebes and Dionysus's war with the Indians as well.[7][8] Enyo so delighted in warfare that she even refused to take sides in the battle between Zeus and the monster Typhon:

Eris (Strife) was Typhon's escort in the mellay, Nike (Victory) led Zeus into battle… impartial Enyo held equal balance between the two sides, between Zeus and Typhon, while the thunderbolts with booming shots revel like dancers in the sky.[9]

The Romans identified Enyo with Bellona, and she also has similarities with the Anatolian goddess Ma.

At Thebes and Orchomenos, a festival called Homolôïa, which was celebrated in honour of Zeus, Demeter, Athena and Enyo, was said to have received the surname of Homoloïus from Homoloïs, a priestess of Enyo.[10] A statue of Enyo, made by the sons of Praxiteles, stood in the temple of Ares at Athens.[11]

In Hesiod's Theogony (270273), Enyo was also the name of one of the Graeae, three sisters who shared one eye and one tooth among them, along with Deino ("Dread") and Pemphredo ("Alarm").[12]

Notes

  1. Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy, 8.424.
  2. Eustathius on Homer 944
  3. Willcock, Malcolm M. (1976). A companion to the Iliad : based on the translation by Richard Lattimore ([9th print.] ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 58. ISBN 0-226-89855-5.
  4. Homer, Iliad 5. 333, 592
  5. Pausanias, Description of Greece 4. 30. 5
  6. 1 2 Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy
  7. Statius, Thebaid
  8. Nonnus, Dionysiaca
  9. Nonnus, Dionysiaca 2. 358 and 2. 475 ff
  10. Suidas s. v.; comp. Müller, Orchomen. p. 229, 2nd edit. (cited by Schmitz)
  11. Pausanias, Description of Greece, I. 8. § 5. (cited by Schmitz)
  12. Harris, Stephen L., and Gloria Platzner. Classical Mythology: Images and Insights (Third Edition). California State University, Sacramento. Mayfield Publishing Company. 2000, 1998, 1995, pp. 273–274, 1039.

References

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