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Phoebe (mythology)

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In ancient Greek religion, Phoebe (/ˈfiːbi/; Greek: Φοίβη Phoibe, associated with Phoebos or "shining") was one of the first generation of Titans, who were one set of sons and daughters of Uranus and Gaia.

Mythology

Phoebe was traditionally associated with the moon (see Selene), as in Michael Drayton's Endimion and Phœbe (1595), the first extended treatment of the Endymion myth in English. Her consort was her brother Coeus, with whom she had two daughters, Leto, who bore Apollo and Artemis, and Asteria, a star-goddess who bore an only daughter Hecate. Given the meaning of her name and her association with the Delphic oracle, Phoebe was perhaps seen as the Titan goddess of prophecy and oracular intellect.

Through Leto, Phoebe was the grandmother of Apollo and Artemis. The names Phoebe and Phoebus (masculine) came to be applied as synonyms for Artemis and Apollo respectively (as well as for Selene and Helios).

According to a speech, that Aeschylus in The Eumenides puts in the mouth of the Delphic priestess herself, Phoebe received control of the Oracle at Delphi from Themis: "Phoebe in this succession seems to be his private invention," D. S. Robertson noted, reasoning that in the three great allotments of oracular powers at Delphi, corresponding to the three generations of the gods, "Ouranos, as was fitting, gave the oracle to his wife Gaia and Kronos appropriately allotted it to his sister Themis." In Zeus' turn to make the gift, Robertson speculates, Aeschylus could not report that the oracle was given directly to Apollo, who had not yet been born, and thus Phoebe was interposed. These supposed male delegations of the powers at Delphi as expressed by Aeschylus are not borne out by the usual modern reconstruction of the sacred site's pre-Olympian history.

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References

• Aeschylus, The Eumenides in Aeschylus, with an English translation by Herbert Weir Smyth, Ph. D. in two volumes. Vol 2. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. 1926. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Diodorus Siculus, Diodorus Siculus: The Library of History. Translated by C. H. Oldfather. Twelve volumes. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1989. Online version by Bill Thayer.
• Fontenrose, Joseph Eddy, Python: A Study of Delphic Myth and Its Origins, University of California Press, 1959. ISBN 9780520040915.
• Gantz, Timothy, Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, Two volumes: ISBN 978-0-8018-5360-9 (Vol. 1), ISBN 978-0-8018-5362-3 (Vol. 2).
• Hyginus, Gaius Julius, Fabulae in Apollodorus' Library and Hyginus' Fabuae: Two Handbooks of Greek Mythology, Translated, with Introductions by R. Scott Smith and Stephen M. Trzaskoma, Hackett Publishing Company, 2007. ISBN 978-0-87220-821-6.

Sources

Theoi

Ancient

Hesiod

Theogony

132-136

But afterwards she lay with Heaven and bore deep-swirling Oceanus, Coeus and Crius and Hyperion and Iapetus, [135] Theia and Rhea, Themis and Mnemosyne and gold-crowned Phoebe and lovely Tethys.

404–412

Again, Phoebe came to the desired embrace of Coeus. [405] Then the goddess through the love of the god conceived and brought forth dark-gowned Leto, always mild, kind to men and to the deathless gods, mild from the beginning, gentlest in all Olympus. Also she bore Asteria of happy name, whom Perses once [410] led to his great house to be called his dear wife. And she [Asteria] conceived and bore Hecate whom Zeus the son of Cronos honored above all.

Aeschylus

Eumenides

1–8

First, in this prayer of mine, I give the place of highest honor among the gods to the first prophet, Earth; and after her to Themis, for she was the second to take this oracular seat of her mother, as legend tells. And in the third allotment, with Themis' consent and not by force, [5] another Titan, child of Earth, Phoebe, took her seat here. She gave it as a birthday gift to Phoebus, who has his name from Phoebe.

Apollodorus

1.1.3

And again he begat children by Earth, to wit, the Titans as they are named: Ocean, Coeus, Hyperion, Crius, Iapetus, and, youngest of all, Cronus; also daughters, the Titanides as they are called: Tethys, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, Dione, Thia.

1.2.2

Now to the Titans were born offspring: to Ocean and Tethys were born Oceanids, to wit, Asia, Styx, Electra, Doris, Eurynome, Amphitrite, and Metis; to Coeus and Phoebe were born Asteria and Latona [Λητώ = Leto];

Diodorus Siculus

5.67.1

To Coeus and Phoebê was born Leto,

Hyginus

Theogony

[10] From Polus and Phoebe came Latona, Asteria, Aphirape, Perses, and Pallas.

Modern

Fontenrose

p. 396

Our sources differ about the succession of deities who ruled Delphi before Apollo came. Aeschylus says Gaia, Themis, Phoibe; Euripides omits Phoibe; so does Pausanias, ... the Pindaric Scholiast says Night, Themis, and then Python as either successor or consort of Themis (see p. 376, note 14). Not ver different is Menander Rhetor, who says that Apollo contested Delphi with Poseidon, Themis and Night. Now those scholars [cont.]

p. 397

who maintain that the myth of Apollo's predecessors at Delphi, especially as Aechylus tells it, was framed with the purpose of fitting Delphic origins to Hesiodic theogony, are undoubtedly right. ... ⁴²

In the classical period an effort was made to remove tales of conflict from the sacred history of Delphi. Aeschylus makes no mention of combat or contests in the opening lines of Eumenides: Phoibe Ge's daughter gave the oracle to Apollo as a gift; there was nothing but harmony and good will among the Delphian gods.

⁴² ... Eur. IT 1259-1269; Paus. 10.5.5 f.; ...

Gantz

p. 37

The fourth marriage of Titans is that of Koios and Phoibe (Th 404-9). Neither figurew performs any noteworthy deeds, save save for Aischylos' story that Phoibe gave Delphi to Apollo as a present (Eun 4-8), but they do produce two daughters, Leto and Asterie.

p. 88

but in Aischylos' Eumenides we find a quite different version, that Gaia voluntarily gave the site to her daughter Themis, Themis gave it to her sister Phoibe, and Phoibe gave it in turn to her grandson Apollo (Eum 1-8). Since the peaceful transfer of power from female to male forms a very appropriate prologue to the content of this particular play, we should probably suspect Aischylean invention here, though certainly to good effect.

Smith

s.v. Phoebe

Phoebe

（Φοίβη).

1. A daughter of Uranus and Ge, became by Coeus the mother of Asteria and Leto. (Hes. Th. 136, 404, &c.; Apollod. 1.1.3, 2.2.) According to Aeschylus (Einm. 6) she was in possession of the Delphic oracle after Themis, and prior to Apollo.