Lampetia

Template:Short description Template:For-multiTemplate:Infobox deity In Greek mythology, Lampetia Template:IPAc-en (Template:Langx or Template:Langx) also spelled Lampetie, was a nymph or goddess and a daughter of the sun god, Helios. She and her sister Phaethusa watched over their father's prized herds of cattle and sheep on the island of Thrinacia (Sicily). Lampetia wielded an orichalcum staff and herded the cattle.<ref name=":3">Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, 4.922</ref>

Family

Lampetia is most commonly described as a daughter of Helios and Neaera, a minor goddess or nymph.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In this telling, she had one younger sister: Phaethusa, but had many half-siblings through her father.<ref name=":0">Homer, Odyssey, 12.111</ref><ref name=":3" />

Lampetia has alternately been named as one of the Heliades, which would have made her the daughter of Helios and Clymene, an Oceanid.<ref name=":1">Ovid, Metamorphoses, 2.301</ref> As one of the Heliades, she would have had up to seven biological sisters: Merope, Helie, Aegle, Phoebe, Aetherie, Phaethusa, and Dioxippe.<ref>Hyginus, Fabulae 154</ref><ref>Scholia ad Homer, Odyssey 17.208</ref> However, different authors have named different combinations and numbers of Heliades.<ref name=":2">Tzetzes, Chiliades, 4.19; For example, Tzetzes names Aegle, Lampetia, Phaethusa, Hemithea, and Dioxippe as Heliades</ref> She would have also had a brother: Phaethon.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Lampetia and Phaethusa still attended to their father's flocks in these versions.

In Hermippus' Trimeters, he writes that Lampetia bore five children by Asclepius, the god of medicine: Machaon, Podaleirius, Iaso, Panacea, and Aegle.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>Template:Greek deities (personifications)

Mythology

As children, Lampetia and Phaethusa were sent to Thrinacia (identified as Sicily) by Neaera to guard their father's prized herd of cattle and sheep.<ref name=":0" /> The animals were beautiful, with white coats and golden horns, and did not age or breed.<ref>Homer, Odyssey, 12.3</ref><ref name=":3" /> In Homer's Odyssey, Odysseus and his men land on Thrinacia. A storm created by Zeus prevented the crew from leaving the island, and the men eventually ran out of supplies. While Odysseus was away praying, his men decided to kill and eat some of the sacred cattle; Lampetia and Phaethusa ran to inform their father, and Helios demanded that Zeus punish the offenders. When the storm finally cleared and the men set sail again, Zeus struck the ship with a bolt of lightning, and all the men except Odysseus died.<ref>Homer, Odyssey, 12.8</ref>

In versions of the story where Lampetia is one of the Heliades and a sister of Phaethon, Lampetia and Phaethusa were transformed into poplar<ref>Polybius, Histories, 2.16</ref><ref name=":2" /> or alder<ref>Strabo, Geography, 5.1</ref> trees while mourning their brother's death. As trees, their tears continued to flow, and crystalized into amber.<ref name=":1" /> However, in the Argonautica, which takes place after Phaethon's death,<ref>Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, 4.592</ref> Lampetia and Phaethusa are still alive and caring for their father's herds.