Taygete (Ancient Greek: Ταϋγέτη) was the name of one of the Pleiades, seven daughters of Atlas and Pleione. She was the mother of Lacedaemon by Zeus, making her the ancestress of the Spartan royal family.
Taygete was one of seven Pleaides; the others were her sisters Maia, Celaeno, Alcyone, Electra, Sterope and Merope. The seven sisters were transformed into stars by Zeus, to save them from the advances of Orion. In some legends, Electra faded away after the Sack of Troy, but in others it is Merope, who is ashamed of her relationship with Sisyphus.
Etymology[]
The first element of the name Taygete probably comes from τηΰς (tēǘs), which means “big”, "great", or "many". Mt. Taygetus, is named after the Pleiad.
Mythology[]
Taygete was a companion of Artemis. As Pindar accounted, Zeus pursued Taygete, who invoked her protectress Artemis. The goddess turned Taygete into a doe with golden horns. although any distinction between the Pleiad in her human form and in her doe form is blurred: as the Pleiad-nymph who hunted the doe in the company of Artemis is the doe herself.
As Pindar conceived the mytheme in his third Olympian Ode, "the doe with the golden horns, which was once Taygete had inscribed as a sacred dedication to Artemis Orthosia ("right-minded" Artemis), was the very Ceryneian Hind that Heracles later pursued.
For the poet, the transformation was incomplete, and the doe-form had become an offering. Pindar, who was a very knowledgeable mythographer, hints that the mythic doe, even when slain and offered to Artemis, also continues to exist, to be hunted once again (although not killed) by Heracles at a later time. The scholar Karl Kerenyi points out (The Heroes of the Greeks) "It is not easy to differentiate between the divine beast, the heroine and the goddess".
Pausanias noted, at Amyclae, that the rape of Taygete was represented on the throne.
Family[]
Taygete is the daughter of Atlas and Pleione or Aethra and was one of the Pleiades.
According to Pausanias, Taygete conceived Lacedaemon, the mythical founder of Sparta, through Zeus. Scholia on Pindar and Lycophron state that Taygete and Lelex were the parents of Eurotas.
According to Pseudo-Plutarch, Taygete was the wife of Lacedaemon, and was sometimes referred to as Sparta, whose name was given to the city of Sparta. Their son was named Himerus.
In a rare variant of the myth that is stated only once by Dictys Cretensis, Taygete was called the daughter of Agenor.
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| Pleiades of Greek mythology | |
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| Alcyone • Celaeno • Electra • Maîa • Merope • Sterope • Taygete | |