Listed 13 sub titles with search on: Homeric world for wider area of: "ALALKOMENES Ancient city VIOTIA" .
ALALKOMENES (Ancient city) VIOTIA
"Alalcomenean" is a surname of the goddess Athena and derives from the infinitive "alalcein", which means "to have the defensive power", or, according to others, it derives from the Boeotian city of Alalcomenae (Il 4.8, 5.908).
Strabo refers to Alalcomenae and says that it is not listed in the Homeric Catalogue of Ships because there was an ancient and celebrated temple dedicated to Athena (Strab. 9,2,36).
Athena. The goddess of strength and wisdom and daughter of Zeus. In Homer, she is presented as a protector of the cities both during peace time (Il. 9.390, 14.178, Od. 2.116, 6.233, 7.110, 20.72, 23.160) and war time (Il. 1.200, 4.78, 5.333 & 837, 6.88, 21.498 etc.).
According to local mythology the goddess was born in Alalcomenae and was brought up by the hero Alalcomeneus.
Athene or Athena, one of the great divinities of the Greeks. Homer (Il. v. 880)
calls her a daughter of Zeus, without any allusion to her mother or to the manner
in which she was called into existence, while most of the later traditions agree
in stating that she was born from the head of Zeus. According to Hesiod (Theog.
886, &c.), Metis, the first wife of Zeus, was the mother of Athena, but when Metis
was pregnant with her, Zeus, on the advice of Gaea and Uranus, swallowed Metis
up, and afterwards gave birth himself to Athena, who sprang from his head. (Hesiod,
l. c. 924.) Pindar Ol. vii. 35, &c.) adds, that Hephaestus split the head of Zeus
with his axe, and that Athena sprang forth with a mighty war-shout. Others relate,
that Prometheus or Hermes or Palamaon assisted Zeus in giving birth to Athena,
and mentioned the river Triton as the place where the event took place. (Apollod.
i. 4. Β§ 6; Schol. ad Pind. Ol. vii. 66.) Other traditions again relate, that
Athena sprang from the head of Zeus in frill armour, a statement for which Stesichorus
is said to have been the most ancient authority. (Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 355; Philostr.
Icon. ii. 27; Schol. ad Apollon. iv. 1310.) All these traditions, however, agree
in making Athena a daughter of Zeus; but a second set regard her as the daughter
of Pallas, the winged giant, whom she afterwards killed on account of his attempting
to violate her chastity, whose skin [p. 398] she used as her aegis, and whose
wings she fastened to her own feet. (Tzetz. ad Lycoph. l. c.; Cic. de Nat. Deor.
iii. 23.) A third tradition carries us to Libya, and calls Athena a daughter of
Poseidon and Tritonis. Athena, says Herodotus (iv. 180), on one occasion became
angry with her father and went to Zeus, who made her his own daughter. This passage
shews more clearly than any other the manner in which genuine and ancient Hellenic
myths were transplanted to Libya, where they were afterwards regarded as the sources
of Hellenic ones. Respecting this Libyan Athena, it is farther related, that she
was educated by the rivergod Triton, together with his own daughter Pallas. (Apollod.
iii. 12. Β§ 3.) In Libya she was also said to have invented the flute; for when
Perseus had cut off the head of Medusa, and Stheno and Euryale, the sisters of
Medusa, lamented her death, while plaintive sounds issued from the mouths of the
serpents which surrounded their heads, Athena is said to have imitated these sounds
on a reed. (Pind. Pyth. xii. 19, &c.; compare the other accounts in Hygin. Fab.
165; Apollod. i. 4. Β§ 2 ; Paus. i. 24. Β§ 1.) The connexion of Athena with Triton
and Tritonis caused afterwards the various traditions about her birth-place, so
that wherever there was a river or a well of that name, as in Crete, Thessaly,
Boeotia, Arcadia, and Egypt, the inhabitants of those districts asserted that
Athena was born there. It is from such birth-places on a river Triton that she
seems to have been called Tritonis or Tritogeneia (Paus. ix. 33. Β§ 5), though
it should be observed that this surname is also explained in other ways; for some
derive it from an ancient Cretan, Aeolic, or Boeotian word, trito, signifying
" head," so that it would mean " the goddess born from the head," and others think
that it was intended to commemorate the circumstance of her being born on the
third day of the month. (Tztez. ad Lycoph. 519.) The connexion of Athena with
Triton naturally suggests, that we have to look for the most ancient seat of her
worship in Greece to the banks of the river Triton in Boeotia, which emptied itself
into lake Copais, and on which there were two ancient Pelasgian towns, Athenae
and Eleusis, which were according to tradition swallowed up by the lake. From
thence her worship was carried by the Minyans into Attica, Libya, and other countries.
(MΓΌller, Orchom. p. 355.) We must lastly notice one tradition, which made Athena
a daughter of Itonius and sister of Iodama, who was killed by Athena (Paus. ix.
34. Β§ 1; Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 355), and another according to which she was the daughter
of Hephaestus.
These various traditions about Athena arose, as in most other cases,
from local legends and from identifications of the Greek Athena with other divinities.
The common notion which the Greeks entertained about her, and which was most widely
spread in the ancient world, is, that she was the daughter of Zeus, and if we
take Metis to have been her mother, we have at once the clue to the character
which she bears in the religion of Greece ; for, as her father was the most powerful
and her mother the wisest among the gods, so Athena was a combination of the two,
that is, a goddess in whom power and wisdom were harmoniously blended. From this
fundamental idea may be derived the various aspects under which she appears in
the ancient writers. She seems to have been a divinity of a purely ethical character,
and not the representative of any particular physical power manifested in nature;
her power and wisdom appear in her being the protectress and preserver of the
state and of social institutions. Everything, therefore, which gives to the state
strength and prosperity, such as agriculture, inventions, and industry, as well
as everything which preserves and protects it from injurious influence from without,
such as the defence of the walls, fortresses, and harbours, is under her immediate
care.
As the protectress of agriculture, Athena is represented as the inventor
of the plough and rake: she created the olive tree, the greatest blessing of Attica,
taught the people to yoke oxen to the plough, took care of the breeding of horses,
and instructed men how to tame them by the bridle, her own invention. Allusions
to this feature of her character are contained in the epithets boudeia, boarmia,
alripha, hippia, or chalinitis. (Eustath. ad Hom. p. 1076; Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 520;
Hesych. s. v. Hippia; Serv. ad Aen. iv. 402; Pind. Ol. xiii. 79.) At the beginning
of spring thanks were offered to her in advance (procharisteria, Suid. s. v.)
for the protection she was to afford to the fields. Besides the inventions relating
to agriculture, others also connected with various kinds of science, industry,
and art, are ascribed to her, and all her inventions are not of the kind which
men make by chance or accident, but such as require thought and meditation. We
may notice the invention of numbers (Liv. vii. 3), of the trumpet (ad Pind. p.
344), the chariot, and navigation. In regard to all kinds of useful arts, she
was believed to have made men acquainted with the means and instruments which
are necessary for practising them, such as the art of producing fire. She was
further believed to have invented nearly every kind of work in which women were
employed, and she herself was skilled in such work : in short Athena and Hephaestus
were the great patrons both of the useful and elegant arts. Hence she is called
ergane (Paus. i. 24. Β§ 3), and later writers make her the goddess of all widom,
knowledge, and art, and represent her as sitting on the right hand side of her
father Zeus, and supporting him with her counsel. (Hom. Od. xxiii 160, xviii.
190; Hymn. in Ven. 4, 7, &c.; Plut. Cim. 10; Ovid, Fast. iii. 833; Orph. Hymn.
xxxi. 8; Spanh. ad Callim. p. 643; Horat. Carm. i. 12. 19; comp. Dict. of Ant.
under Athenaia and Chalkeia.) As the goddess who made so many inventions necessary
and useful in civilized life, she is characterized by various epithets and surnames,
expressing the keenness of her sight or the power of her intellect, such as optiletis,
ophthalmitis, oxuderkes, glaukopis, poluboulos, polumetis, and mechanitis.
As the patron divinity of the state, she was at Athens the protectress
of the phratries and houses which formed the basis of the state. The festival
of the Apaturia had a direct reference to this particular point in the character
of the goddess. (Dict. of Ant. s. v. Apaturia.) She also maintained the authority
of the law, and justice, and order, in the courts and the assembly of the people.
This notion was as ancient as the Homeric poems, in which she is described as
assisting Odysseus against the lawless conduct of the suitors. (Od. xiii. 394.)
She was believed to have instituted the ancient court of the Areiopagus, and in
cases where the votes of [p. 399] the judges were equally diviled, she gave the
casting one in favour of the accused. (Aeschyl. Eum. 753; comp. Paus. i. 28. Β§
5.) The epithets which have reference to this part of the goddess's character
are axiopoinos, the avenger (Paus. iii. 15. Β§ 4), Boulaia, and aguraia. (iii.
11. Β§ 8.)
As Athena promoted the internal prosperity of the state, by encouraging
agriculture and industry, and by maintaining law and order in all public transactions,
so also she protected the state from outward enemies, and thus assumes the character
of a warlike divinity, though in a very different sense from Ares, Eris, or Enyo.
According to Homer (Il. v. 736, &c.), she does not even bear arms, but borrows
them from Zeus; she keeps men from slaughter when prudence demands it (Il. i.
199, &c.), and repels Ares's savage love of war, and conquers him. (v. 840, &c.,
xxi. 406.) She does not love war for its own sake, but simply on account of the
advantages which the state gains in engaging in it; and she therefore supports
only such warlike undertakings as are begun with prudence, and are likely to be
followed by favourable results. (x. 244, &c.) The epithets which she derives from
her warlike character are ageleia, laphria, alkimache, laossoos, and others. In
times of war, towns, fortresses, and harbours are under her especial care, whence
she is designated as erusiptolis, alalkomeneis, polias, poliouchos, akraia, akria,
kledouchos, pulaitis, promachorma, and the like. As the prudent goddess of war,
she is also the protectress of all heroes who are distinguished for prudence and
good counsel, as well as for their strength and valour, such as Heracles, Perseus,
Bellerophontes, Achilles, Diomedes, and Odysseus. In the war of Zeus against the
giants, she assisted her father and Heracles with her counsel, and also took an
active part in it, for she buried Enceladus under the island of Sicily, and slew
Pallas. (Apollod. i. 6. Β§ 1, &c.; comp. Spanheim, ad Callim. p. 643; Horat. Carm.
i. 12. 19.) In the Trojan war she sided with the more civilised Greeks, though
on their return home she visited them with storms, on account of the manner in
which the Locrian Ajax had treated Cassandra in her temple. As a goddess of war
and the protectress of heroes, Athena usually appears in armour, with the aegis
and a golden staff, with which she bestows on her favourites youth and majesty.
(Hom. Od. xvi. 172.)
The character of Athena, as we have here traced it, holds a middle
place between the male and female, whence she is called in an Orphic hymn (xxxi.
10) arsen kai thelus, and hence also she is a virgin divinity (Hom. Hymn. ix.
3), whose heart is inaccessible to the passion of love, and who shuns matrimonial
connexion. Teircsias was deprived of his sight for having seen her in the bath
(Callim. Hymn. pp. 546,589), and Hephaestus, who made an attempt upon her chastity,
was obliged to flee. (Apollod. iii. 6. Β§ 7, 14. Β§ 6; Hom. Il. ii. 547, &c.;
comp. Tzetz. ad Lycophr. 111.) For this reason, the ancient traditions always
describe the goddess as dressed; and when Ovid (Heroid. v. 36) makes her appear
naked before Paris, he abandons the genuine old story. lier statue also was always
dressed, and when it was carried about at the Attic festivals, it was entirely
covered. But, notwithstanding the common opinion of her virgin character, there
are some traditions of late origin which describe her as a mother. Thus, Apollo
is called a son of Hephaestus and Athena--a legend which may have arisen at the
time when the Ionians introduced the worship of Apollo into Attica, and when this
new divinity was placed in some family connexion with the ancient goddess of the
country. (MΓΌller, Dor. ii. 2. Β§ 13.) Lychnus also is called a son of Hephaestus
and Athena. (Spanheim, ad Callim. p. 644.)
Athena was worshipped in all parts of Greece, and from the ancient
towns on the lake Copais her worship was nitroduced at a very early period into
Attica, where she became the great national divinity of the city and the country.
Here she was afterwards regarded as the thea soteira, ugieia, and paionia, and
the serpent, the symbol of perpetual renovation, was sacred to her. (Paus. i.
23. Β§ 5, 31. Β§ 3, 2. Β§ 4.) At Lindus in Rhodes her worship was likewise very
ancient. Respecting its introduction into Italy, and the modifications which her
character underwent there, see MINERVA. Among the things sacred to her we may
mention the owl, serpent, cock, and olive-tree, which she was said to have created
in her contest with Poseidon about the possession of Attica. (Plut. de Is. et
Os.; Paus. vi. 26. Β§ 2, i. 24. Β§ 3; Hygin. Fab. 164.) At Corone in Messenia
her statue bore a crow in its hand. (Paus. iv. 34. Β§ 3.) The sacrifices offered
to her consisted of bulls, whence she probably derived the surname of taurobolos
(Suid. s. v.), rams, and cows. (Horn. Il. ii. 550; Ov. Met. iv. 754.) Eustathius
(ad Hom. l. c.) remarks, that only female animals were sacrificed to her, but
no female lambs. In Ilion, Locrian maidens or children are said to have been sacrificed
to her every year as an atonement for the crime committed by the Locrian Ajax
upon Cassandra; and Suidas (s. v. poine) states, that these human sacrifices continued
to be offered to her down to B. C. 346. Respecting the great festivals of Athena
at Athens, see Dict. of Ant. s. vv. Panathenaea and Arrhephoria.
Athena was frequently represented in works of art; but those in which
her figure reached the highest ideal of perfection were the three statues by Pheidias.
The first was the celebrated colossal statue of the goddess, of gold and ivory,
which was erected on the acropolis of Athens; the second was a still greater bronze
statue, made out of the spoils taken by the Athenians in the battle of Marathon;
the third was a small bronze statue called the beautiful or the Lemnian Athena,
because it had been dedicated at Athens by the Lemnians. The first of these statues
represented the goddess in a standing position, bearing in her hand a Nike four
cubits in height. The shield stood by her feet; her robe came down to her feet,
on her breast was the head of Medusa, in her right hand she bore a lance, and
at her feet there lay a serpent. (Paus. i. 24. Β§ 7, 28. Β§ 2.) We still possess
a great number of representations of Athena in statues, colossal busts, reliefs,
coins, and in vase-paintings. Among the attributes which characterise the goddess
in these works of art, we mention--1. The helmet, which she usually wears on her
head, but in a few instances carries in her hand. It is usually ornamented in
the most beautiful manner with griffins, heads of rams, horses, and sphinxes.
(Comp. Horn. Il. v. 743.) 2. The aegis. (Dict. of Ant. s. v. Aegis.) 3. The round
Argolic shield. in the centre of which is represented the head of Medusa. 4. Objects
sacred to her, such as an olive branch, a serpent, an owl, a cock, and a lance.
Her garment is usually the Spartan tunic without sleeves, and over it [p. 400]
she wears a cloak, the peplus, or, though rarely, the chlamys. The general expression
of her figure is thoughtfulness and earnestness; her face is rather oval than
round, the hair is rich and generally combed backwards over the temples, and floats
freely down behind. The whole figure is majestic, and rather strong built than
slender: the hips are small and the shoulders broad, so that the whole somewhat
resembles a male figure. (Hirt. Mythol. Bilderb. i. p. 46, &c.; Welcker, Zeitschrift
fΓΌr Gesch. der alten Kunst, p. 256, &c.)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited April 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
(Athene) or Pallas Athene: A Greek goddess, identified with
the Roman Minerva. According to the story most generally current, she was the
daughter of Zeus, who had swallowed his first wife, Metis (Counsel), the daughter
of Oceanus, in the fear that she would bring forth a son stronger than himself.
Hephaestus (or, according to another version, Prometheus) clave open the head
of Zeus with an axe, on which Athene sprang forth in full armour, the goddess
of eternal virginity. But her ancient epithet Tritogeneia (born of Triton, or
the roaring flood) points to water--that is, to Oceanus --as the source of her
being. Oceanus was, according to Homer, the origin of all things and of all deities.
The worship of Athene and the story of her birth were accordingly connected with
many brooks and lakes in various regions--especially in Boeotia, Thessalia, and
Libya--to which the name Triton was attached.
From the first, Athene took a very prominent place in the Greek
popular religion. The Homeric hymns represent her as the favourite of her father,
who refuses her nothing. When solemn oaths were to be taken, they joined her name
with those of Zeus and Apollo, in a way which shows that the three deities represent
the embodiment of all divine authority. With the exception of the two gods just
mentioned, there is no other deity whose original character as a power of nature
underwent so remarkable an ethical development. Both conceptions of Athene, the
natural and the ethical, were intimately connected in the religion of Attica,
whose capital, Athens, was named after Athene and was the most important seat
of her worship. Athene was originally the maiden daughter of the god of heaven;
the clear transparent aether, whose purity is always breaking forth in unveiled
brilliancy through the clouds that surround it. As a deity of the sky, she, with
Zeus, is the mistress of thunder and lightning. Like Zeus, she carries the aegis
with the Gorgon's head, the symbol of the tempest and its terrors. In many statues,
accordingly, she is represented as hurling the thunder-bolt. But she also sends
down from sky to earth light and warmth and fruitful dew, and with them prosperity
to fields and plants. A whole series of fables and usages, belonging especially
to the Athenian religion, represent her as the helper and protector of agriculture.
The two deities Erechtheus and Erichthonius, honoured in Attica as powers of the
fruitful soil, are her fosterchildren. She was worshipped with Erechtheus in the
temple named after him the Erechtheum, the oldest sanctuary on the Athenian Acropolis.
The names of her earliest priestesses, the daughters of Cecrops--Aglaurus, Pandrosus,
and Herse--signify the bright air, the dew, and the rain, and are mere personifications
of their qualities, of such value to the Athenian territory.
The sowing season was opened in Attica by three sacred services
of ploughing. Of these, two were in honour of Athene as inventress of the plough,
while the third took place in honour of Demeter. It was Athene, also, who had
taught men how to attach oxen to the yoke; above all, she had given them the olive-tree,
the treasure of Attica. This tree she had made to grow out of the rock of the
citadel, when disputing the possession of the land with Poseidon. Several festivals,
having reference to these functions of the goddess, were celebrated in Attica--the
Callynteria and Plynteria, the Scirophoria, the Arrhephoria or Hersephoria, and
the Oschophoria, which were common to Athene with Dionysus. Even her chief feast,
the Panathenaea, was originally a harvest festival. It is significant that the
presentation of the peplos or mantle, the chief offering at the celebration, took
place in the sowing season. But afterwards more was made of the intellectual gifts
bestowed by the goddess.
Athene was very generally regarded as the goddess of war--an
idea which in ancient times was the prevailing one. It was connected with the
fact that, like her father, Zeus, she was supposed to be able to send storms and
bad weather. In this capacity she appears in story as the true friend of all bold
warriors, such as Perseus, Bellerophon, Iason, Heracles, Diomedes, and Odysseus.
But her courage is a wise courage, not a blind rashness like that of Ares; and
she is always represented, accordingly, as getting the better of him. In this
connection she was honoured in Athenian worship mainly as a protector and defender;
thus (to take a striking example), she was worshipped on the citadel of Athens
under the name of Promachos, "champion," "protector." But
she was also a goddess of victory. As the personification of victory (Athene Nike)
she had a second and especial temple on the Athenian Acropolis. And the great
statues in the temples represented her, like Zeus, with Nike in her outstretched
hand. The occupations of peace, however, formed the main sphere of her activity.
Like all the other deities who were supposed to dispense the blessings of nature,
she is the protectress of growing children; and, as the goddess of the clear sky
and of pure air, she bestows health and keeps off sickness. Further, she is (with
Zeus) the patroness of the Athenian phratriai or unions of kinsfolk. At Athens
and Sparta she protects the popular and deliberative assemblies; in many places,
and especially at Athens, the whole State is under her care (Athene Polias, Poliuchus).
Elsewhere she presides over the larger unions of kindred peoples. The festival
of Athene Itonia at Coronea was a confederate festival of all Boeotia. Under the
title of Panachais she was worshipped as the goddess of the Achaean League.
Speaking broadly, Athene represents human wit and cleverness,
and presides over the whole moral and intellectual side of human life. From her
are derived all the productions of wisdom and understanding, every art and science,
whether of war or of peace. A number of discoveries, of the most various kinds,
is ascribed to her. It has been already mentioned that she was credited with the
invention of the plough and the yoke. She was often associated with Poseidon as
the inventress of horse-taming and ship-building. In the Athenian story she teaches
Erichthonius to fasten his horses to the chariot. In the Corinthian story she
teaches Bellerophon to subdue Pegasus. At Lindus in Rhodes she was worshipped
as the goddess who helped Danaus to build the first fifty-oared ship. In the fable
of the Argonauts it is she who instructs the builders of the first ship, the Argo.
Even in Homer all the productions of women's art, as of spinning and weaving,
are characterized as "works of Athene." Many a Palladion, or statue
of Pallas, bore a spindle and distaff in its left hand. As the mistress and protectress
of arts and handiwork, she was worshipped at the Chalkeia, or Feast of Smiths,
under the title of Ergane. Under this name, too, she is mentioned in several inscriptions
found on the Acropolis. Her genius covers the field of music and dancing. She
is inventor of the flute and the trumpet, as well as of the Pyrrhic war-dance,
in which she was said to have been the earliest performer, at the celebration
of the victory of the Gods over the Giants.
It was Phidias who finally fixed the typical representation of Athene in works
of art. Among his numerous statues of her, three --the most celebrated --were
set up on the Acropolis of Athens. These were:
(1) The colossal statue of Athene Parthenos, wrought in ivory and gold, thirty
feet in height (with the pedestal), and standing in the Parthenon. The goddess
was represented wearing a long robe falling down to the feet, and on her breast
was the aegis with the Gorgon's head. A helmet was on her head; in one hand she
bore a Victory, six feet in height, in the other a lance, which leaned against
a shield adorned with scenes from the battles of the Amazons with the Giants.
(2) The bronze statue of Athene Promachos, erected from the proceeds of the spoils
taken at Marathon, and standing between the Propylaea and the Erechtheum. The
proportions of this statue were so gigantic that the gleaming point of the lance
and the crest of the helmet were visible to seamen on approaching the Piraeus
from Sunium.
(3) The Lemnian Pallas, so named because it had been dedicated by the Athenian
colonists in Lemnos. The attractions of this statue won for it the name of "the
Beautiful." Like the second, it was of bronze; being a representation of
Athene as the goddess of peace, it was without a helmet.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Ergane or Ergatis, that is, the worker, a surname of Athena, who was believed to preside over and instruct man in all kinds of arts. (Paus. v. 14.5, i. 24.3; Plut. de Fort.; Hesych.)
Alalkomeneis, a surname of Athena, derived from the hero Alalcomenes, or from the Boeotian village of Alalcomenae, where she was believed to have been born. Others derive the name from the verb alalkein, so that it would signify the " powerful defender." (Hom. Il. iv. 8; Steph. Byz. s. v. Alalkomenion)
Trito or Tritogeneia and Tritogenes, a surname of Athena (Hom. Il. iv. 515, Od. iii. 378; Hes. Theoy. 924), which is explained in different ways. Some derive it from lake Tritonis in Libya, near which she is said to have been born (Eurip. Ion. 872 ; Apollod. i. 3. § 6; comp. Herod. iv. 150, 179); others from the stream Triton near Alalcomenae in Boeotia, where she was worshipped, and where according to some statements she was also born (Paus. ix. 33. § 4; comp. Horn. Il. iv. 8); the grammarians, lastly, derive the name from trito which, in the dialect of the Athamanians, is said to signify " head," so that it would be the goddess born out of the head of her father. (Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod. iv. 1310; comp. Horn. Hymn. 28. 4 ; Hes. Theog. 924.)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited April 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
With this lake (Tritonis) is connected the question of the epithet Tritogeneia, applied to Pallas as early as the days of Homer and Hesiod. But though the Libyan river and lake were much renowned in ancient times (cf. Aeschyl. Eum. 293; Eurip. Ion, 872, seq.; Pind. Pyth. iv.. 36, &c.), and the application of the name of Pallas to the lake connected with the Tritonis seems to point to these African waters as having given origin to the epithet, it is nevertheless most probable that the brook Triton near Alalcomenae in Boeotia has the best pretensions to that distinction. (Cf. Pausan. ix. 33. § 5; Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod. i. 109,. iv. 1315; Muller, Orchomenos, p. 355; Leake, Northern Greece vol. ii. p. 136, seq.; Kruse, Hellas, vol. ii. pt. 1
This extract is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited April 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
(Trito) or Tritogenia (Tritogeneia). A surname of Athene, derived by some from Lake Tritonis in Libya, by others from the stream Triton near Alalcomenae in Boeotia; and by the grammarians from trito, which, in the dialect of the Athamanians, is said to signify "head" (cf. Il.v. 875; Apollod.i.3.6)
Ageleia or Ageleis, a surname of Athena, by which she is designated as the leader or protectress of the people. (Hom. Il. iv. 128, v. 765, vi. 269, xv. 213, Od. iii. 378, &c)
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