View source for Taygete

{{Short description|Mythical character}}
{{for|the moon of Jupiter|Taygete (moon)}}
{{Infobox deity
| type = Greek
| name = Taygete
| abode = [[Mount Kyllini|Mt. Cyllene]] on [[Arcadia (region)|Arcadia]], later<br />[[Taygetus|Mt. Taygetos]] on [[Laconia]]
| parents = (a) [[Atlas (mythology)|Atlas]] and [[Pleione (mythology)|Pleione]] or [[Aethra (mythology)|Aethra]]<br />(b) [[Agenor]]
| siblings = {{Collapsible list
 | title = (a) Pleiades
 | bullets = on
 | [[Maia]]
 | [[Electra (Pleiad)|Electra]]
 | [[Alcyone (Pleiad)|Alcyone]]
 | [[Celaeno (Pleiad)|Celaeno]]
 | [[Sterope (Pleiad)|Sterope]]
 | [[Merope (Pleiad)|Merope]]
}}
{{Collapsible list
 | title = (a) [[Hyades (mythology)|Hyades]]
 | bullets = on
 | 1 include [[Dione (mythology)#Nymph or sea-nymph|Dione]] or
 | 2 includes [[Thyone (mythology)|Thyone]] and [[Prodice]] or
 | 3 includes (i) [[Coronis (mythology)|Coronis]], [[Cleeia]] (or [[Cleis]]) and [[Philia]] or{{-}}(ii) [[Aesyle (mythology)|Aesyle]] (or [[Phaisyle]]), [[Eudora (mythology)|Eudora]] and [[Ambrosia (Hyades)|Ambrosia]] or
 | 5 includes (i) Aesyle (or Phaisyle), Coronis, Cleeia (or Cleis), [[Phaeo]] and Eudora or{{-}}(ii) Aesyle (or Phaisyle), Coronis, Eudora, Ambrosia and [[Polyxo]] or{{-}}(iii) [[Pytho (mythology)|Pytho]], [[Synecho]], [[Baccho]], [[Hyades (mythology)#Mythology|Cardie]] and [[Niseis]]
}}
(a) [[Hyas]]
| children = (1) Lacedaemon and [[Eurotas]]{{-}}(2) [[Himerus (mythology)|Himerus]]
| mount = 
| deity_of = The [[Laconia]]n [[Pleiades (Greek mythology)|Pleiad]] [[Nymph]]
| member_of = the Pleiades
| other_names = 
| consort = (1) [[Zeus]]{{-}}(2) [[Lacedaemon (mythology)|Lacedaemon]]
| image = The Pleiades (Elihu Vedder).jpg
| caption = ''The Pleiades'' by [[Elihu Vedder]]
}}

In Classical [[Greek mythology]], '''Taygete''' ({{IPAc-en|t|eɪ|ˈ|ɪ|dʒ|ə|t|iː}};[https://howjsay.com/search?word=taygete&wid=&submit=Submit&flash=y] {{langx|grc|Ταϋγέτη}}, {{IPA|grc|taːyɡétɛː|lang|link=yes}}, {{IPA|el|taiˈʝeti|label=[[Modern Greek]]:}}) was a [[nymph]], one of the [[Pleiades (Greek mythology)|Pleiades]] according to the ''[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Bibliotheca]]'' (3.10.1) and a companion of [[Artemis]], in her archaic role as ''[[potnia theron]]'', "Mistress of the animals", with its likely roots in prehistory. [[Taygetus|Mount Taygetos]] in [[Laconia]], dedicated to the goddess, was her haunt.{{Greek myth (nymph)}}

The [[Taygetus]] mountain on the [[Peloponnese]] was named after her.<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:2008.01.0400:chapter=17 Pseudo-Plutarch, De fluviis, 17]</ref>

== Mythology ==
As he mastered each of the local nymphs one by one, Olympic Zeus pursued Taygete, who invoked her protectress Artemis. The goddess turned Taygete into a [[Deer|doe]] with golden horns,<ref>[[Biogeography|Biogeographically]] speaking, in Greece the nearest species of deer in which females carry horns was and is the [[reindeer]] (Ruck and Staples p 173), a fact which has occasioned various speculations: see also  [[Deer (mythology)]]</ref> any distinction between the [[Titan (mythology)|Titan]]ess in her human form and in her doe form is blurred: the nymph who hunted the doe in the company of Artemis ''is'' the doe herself. As [[Pindar]] conceived the [[Mytheme|myth-element]] in his third Olympian Ode, "the doe with the golden horns, which once Taygete had inscribed as a sacred dedication to [[Sanctuary of Artemis Orthia|Artemis Orthosia]]", ("right-minded" Artemis)<ref>Emmet Robbins, "Heracles, the Hyperboreans, and the Hind: Pindar, "OL." 3", ''Phoenix'' '''36'''.4 (Winter 1982:295-305) 302f notes that the association of Artemis with Orthia = Orthosia was under way in the sixth century BCE.</ref> 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.<ref>Robbins 1982:295-305.</ref>  [[Karl Kerenyi]] points out (''The Heroes of the Greeks'') "It is not easy to differentiate between the divine beast, the heroine and the goddess".

According to [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] (3.1.2, etc.) Taygete conceived [[Lacedaemon (mythology)|Lacedaemon]], the mythical founder of Sparta, through Zeus, and [[Eurotas]]. Pausanias noted, at [[Amyclae]], that the rape of Taygete was represented on the throne.<ref>Pausanias, 3.18.10</ref>

According to [[Pseudo-Plutarch]],<ref>Pausanias (1918). "3.1.2". Description of Greece. with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA; London. At the Perseus Project.</ref> Taygete was the wife of Lacedaemon, sometimes referred to as [[Sparta (mythology)|Sparta]], whose name was given to the city of Sparta. Their son was named [[Himerus (mythology)|Himerus]].

In a rare variant of the myth, Taygete was called the daughter of [[Agenor]].<ref>[[Dictys Cretensis]], 1.9</ref>

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
*Ruck, Carl A.P., and Danny Staples, 1994. ''The World of Classical Myth'' (Carolina Academic Press)
*[[Harry Thurston Peck]], ''Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities'', 1898. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0062 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library]: "Taygete"
*Robbins, Emmet. "Heracles, the Hyperboreans, and the Hind: Pindar, "OL. 3", ''Phoenix'' '''36'''.4 (Winter 1982), pp.&nbsp;295–305.

==External links==
*{{Commons category-inline|Taygete (Pleiad)}}

{{Greek mythology (deities)|state=collapsed}}
{{Metamorphoses in Greco-Roman mythology}}
{{Authority control}}
[[Category:Pleiades (Greek mythology)]]
[[Category:Women in Greek mythology]]
[[Category:Mythological Arcadians]]
[[Category:Retinue of Artemis]]
[[Category:Deeds of Artemis]]
[[Category:Divine women of Zeus]]
[[Category:Metamorphoses into animals in Greek mythology]]
[[Category:Mythological deer]]
[[Category:Laconian mythology]]