Join Request: Hi, all!
I'd like to be the minor goddess, Ate, if you please.
Ate was the Greek goddess of obsession, guilty, infatuation, and mischief. She was a trickster who would lead men into actions that would be their demise.
Her mother was Eris and her father was Zeus. Is rumored to be the lover of Prometheus, the Titan God of forethought, and together, it is rumored they birthed Peithos, companion to Aphrodite and goddess of seduction, and persuasion.
Short Bio: ATE (Atê), according to Hesiod (Theog. 230), a daughter of Eris, and according to Homer (Il. xix. 91) of Zeus, was an ancient Greek divinity, who led both gods and men to rash and inconsiderate actions and to suffering.
She once even induced Zeus, at the birth of Heracles, to take an oath by which Hera was afterwards enabled to give to Eurystheus the power which had been destined for Heracles. When Zeus discovered his rashness, he hurled Ate from Olympus and banished her for ever from the abodes of the gods. (Hom. Il. xix. 126, &c.)
In the tragic writers Ate appears in a different light: she avenges evil deeds and inflicts just punishments upon the offenders and their posterity (Aeschyl. Choeph. 381), so that her character here is almost the same as that of Nemesis and Erinnys.
She appears most prominent in the dramas of Aeschylus, and least in those of Euripides, with whom the idea of Dike (justice) is more fully developed. (Blünmer, Ueber Idee die des Schicksals, &c. p.64,&c.)
Source: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.
How she came to be banished from Olympus: Homer, Iliad 19. 85 ff (trans. Lattimore) (Greek epic C8th B.C.) :
"[Agamemnons addresses Akhilleus :]
`It is the god who accomplishes all things. Ate is the elder daughter of Zeus, the accursed who deludes all; her feet are delicate and they step not on the firm earth, but she walks the air above men's heads and leads them astray. She has entangled others before me. Yes, for once Zeus even was deluded, though men say he is the highest one of gods and mortals. Yet Hera who is female deluded even Zeus in her craftiness on that day when in strong wall-circled Thebe Alkmene was at her time to bring forth the strength of Herakles. Therefore Zeus spoke forth and made a vow before all the immortals :
`Hear me, all you gods and all you goddesses: hear me while I speak forth what the heart within my breast urges. This day Eileithyia of women's child-pains shall bring forth a man to the light who, among the men sprung of the generation of my blood, shall be lord over all those dwelling about him.'
Then in guileful intention the lady Hera said to him : `You will be a liar, not put fulfilment on what you have spoken. Come, then, lord of Olympos, and swear before me a strong oath that he shall be lord over all those dwelling about him who this day shall fall between the feet of a woman, that man who is born of the blood of your generation.'
So Hera spoke. And Zeus was entirely unaware of her falsehood [for he was beguiled by Ate], but swore a great oath, and therein lay all his deception. But Hera in a flash of speed left the horn of Olympos and rapidly came to Argos of Akhaia, where she knew was the mighty wife of Sthenelos, descended of Perseus. And she was carrying a son, and this was the seventh month for her, but she brought him sooner into the light, and made him premature, and stayed the childbirth of Alkmene, and held back the birth pangs. She went herself and spoke the message to Zeus, son of Kronos :
`Father Zeus of the shining bolt, I will tell you a message for your heart. A great man is born, who will be lord over hte Argives, Eurystheus, son of Sthenelos, of the seed of Perseus, your generation. It is not unfit that he should rule over the Argives.' She spoke, and the sharp sorrow struck at his deep heart.
He caught by the shining hair of her head the goddess Ate in the anger of his heart, and swore a strong oath, that never after this might Ate, who deludes all, come back to Olympos and the starry sky. So speaking, he whirled her about in his hand and slung her out of the starry heaven, and presently she came to men's establishments. But Zeus would foreever grieve over her eath time that he saw his dear son doing some shameful work of the tasks that Eurystheus set him.
Reply
