View source for Lyssa

{{Short description|Greek goddess of madness and rage}}
{{About|the Greek spirit|the moth genus|Lyssa (moth)|the Nightfall album|Lyssa: Rural Gods and Astonishing Punishments}}
{{Infobox deity
| god_of = Goddess of rage and madness
| image = Lyssa, vase painting, c. 350–340 BC, British Museum.jpg
| caption = Lyssa depicted as a winged figure, surrounded by a nimbus and wielding a [[goad]]. Apulian red-figure kalyx-krater, c. 360&ndash;350 BC.<ref name="a">[[Digital LIMC]] [https://app.dasch.swiss/resource/080E/8G8MRxWiUDuVjytsL4RUCg 8120 (Lyssa 8)]; [[British Museum]] [https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/G_1849-0623-48 1849,0623.48]; ''[[Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae|LIMC]]'' VI.1, [https://archive.org/details/limc_20210516/Lexicon%20Iconographicum%20Mythologiae%20Classicae/LIMC%20VI-1%20Kentauroi%20et%20Kentaurides-O%C4%B1ax/page/n175/mode/2up p. 325].</ref>
| mother = [[Nyx]]
| father = [[Uranus (mythology)|Uranus]]
| type = Greek
| animals = Dog
| roman_equivalent = Ira, Rabies
| mount = Chariot
| siblings = [[Thanatos]], [[Hypnos]], [[Erinyes]], several more
}}
{{Greek myth (personified)}}

'''Lyssa''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|l|ɪ|s|ə}} {{respell|LEE-|sə}}; {{langx|grc|Λύσσα|Lússa|rage, rabies}}), also called '''Lytta''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|l|ɪ|t|ə}}; {{langx|grc|Λύττα|Lútta}}) by the Athenians, is a minor goddess in [[Greek mythology]], the spirit of [[Rage (emotion)|rage]], fury,<ref name="lys">{{Cite journal |date=August 2009 |title=Lyssavirus [lis′ə-vi′′rəs] |journal=Emerging Infectious Diseases |volume=15 |issue=8 |pages=1184 |doi=10.3201/eid1508.999999 |issn=1080-6040 |pmc=2815993}}</ref> and [[rabies]] in animals. She was closely related to the [[Maniae (mythology)|Maniae]], the spirits of madness and insanity. Her Roman equivalent was variously named '''Ira''', '''Furor''', or '''Rabies'''. Sometimes she was multiplied into a host of Irae and Furores. In myth, Lyssa features in stories where she drives people insane to their doom.

The viral genus ''[[Lyssavirus]]'', which includes the [[Rabies virus|causative agent of rabies]], was named after this goddess.

== Etymology ==
Because seeds of [[alyssum]] were used (unsuccessfully) to treat rabies, the flower was named after the disease with the prefix {{lang|grc|α-}} in front, meaning without. Thus Lyssa is the etymological origin of the feminine name [[Alyssa]].<ref>{{cite web |author=Mike Campbell |url=http://www.behindthename.com/name/alyssa |title=Meaning, Origin and History of the Name Alyssa |publisher=Behind the Name |access-date=2013-06-01}}</ref>

== Family ==
In [[Euripides]]' play ''[[Herakles (Euripides)|Herakles]]'', Lyssa is identified as the daughter of the night-goddess [[Nyx]], "sprung from the blood of [[Uranus (mythology)|Uranus]]"—that is, the blood from Uranus' wound following his castration by his son [[Cronus]].<ref name="Herakles">{{Cite book | last = Vellacott | first = Phillip (trans.)  | title =Herakles by Euripides | year = 1963 | pages = 815}}</ref> The 1st-century Latin writer [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]] lists Ira (Wrath, Lyssa) as the daughter of [[Terra (mythology)|Terra]] ([[Gaia (mythology)|Gaia]]) and [[Aether (mythology)|Aether]].<ref>Grant 1960, p. 815</ref> Lyssa could be occasionally be portrayed as a dog.<ref name="brill"/>

== Mythology ==
=== Heracles ===
Lyssa personifies mad rage and frenzy, as well as rabies in animals. In ''Herakles'', she is called upon by [[Hera]] to inflict the hero [[Heracles]] with insanity. In this scenario, she arrives on her chariot and is portrayed as an unmarried virgin. She is shown to take a temperate, measured approach to her role, professing "not to use [her powers] in anger against friends, nor [to] have any joy in visiting the homes of men." She counsels Iris, who wishes to carry out Hera's command, against targeting Heracles but, after failing to persuade, bows to the orders of the superior goddess and sends him into a mad rage that causes him to murder his wife and children.<ref name="Herakles" />

=== Actaeon ===
In a number of ancient Greek vases Lyssa appears on the scene of the death of [[Actaeon]], the hunter who was transformed into a deer and devoured by his own hounds for seeing [[Artemis]] naked or trying to woo [[Semele]]. In a 440s BC red-figure bell-krater by the [[Lykaon Painter]], Lyssa stands to the right of Actaeon, inflicting his dogs with rabies and directing them against him.<ref name="lys"/>{{sfn|Lamari|Montanari|Novokhatko|2020|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=B773DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA214 214]}} It has been theorised that the vase depicts the events of the myth as dramatised in Athenian tragedian [[Aeschylus]]' lost play ''Toxotides'' which dealt with Actaeon's death,{{sfn|Kampakoglou|Novokhatko|2018|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=UQNPDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA198 198]}} although this assertion is far from certain.{{sfn|Lamari|Montanari|Novokhatko|2020|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=B773DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA215 215]}}

In a different vase with Actaeon's death, Lyssa is present along with [[Aphrodite]], [[Eros]], Artemis and a woman that could be Semele, indicating a sexual nature of Actaeon's grave offence which led to him being eaten by his own rabid dogs.{{sfn|Lamari|Montanari|Novokhatko|2020|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=B773DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA213 213]}}

=== Others ===
Lyssa also had a role in the myth of [[Lycurgus of Thrace|Lycurgus]], the Thracian king who tried to ban the worship of [[Dionysus]], the god of madness. In an Apulian vase from around 350 BC, the winged Lyssa supplants Dionysus as the deity causing Lycurgus to attack and kill his wife and son.<ref name="a"/>{{sfn|Kampakoglou|Novokhatko|2018|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=UQNPDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA198 198]}}

[[Aeschylus]] identifies her as being the agent sent by Dionysus to madden the impious daughters of [[Cadmus]], who in turn dismember their kinsman [[Pentheus]].<ref name="brill">{{cite encyclopedia | encyclopedia = [[Brill's New Pauly]] | publisher = Brill Reference Online | url = https://referenceworks.brill.com/display/entries/NPOE/e715170.xml | doi = 10.1163/1574-9347_bnp_e715170 | last = Waldner | first = Katharina | location = Berlin | title = Lyssa | date = October 1, 2006 | editor-first1 = Hubert | translator = Christine F. Salazar | issn = 1574-9347 | editor-last1 = Cancik | editor-first2 = Helmuth | editor-last2 = Schneider | access-date = December 31, 2024| url-access = subscription }}</ref>

== See also ==
{{portal|Ancient Greece|Mythology}}

* [[Erinyes]]

== Notes ==
{{reflist}}

== References ==
=== Ancient ===
* [[Euripides]], ''The Complete Greek Drama'' edited by Whitney J. Oates and Eugene O'Neill, Jr. in two volumes. 1. Heracles, translated by E. P. Coleridge. New York. Random House. 1938. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0102 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.]
* Euripides, ''Euripidis Fabulae.'' ''vol. 2''. Gilbert Murray. Oxford. Clarendon Press, Oxford. 1913. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0101 Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library].
* [[Gaius Julius Hyginus]], ''Fabulae'' in ''Fabulae from The Myths of Hyginus'' translated and edited by Mary Grant. University of Kansas Publications in Humanistic Studies. Published in 1960. [https://topostext.org/work/206 Online version at the Topos Text Project.]

=== Modern ===
* {{cite book | title = Gaze, Vision, and Visuality in Ancient Greek Literature | first1 = Alexandros | last1 = Kampakoglou | first2 = Anna | last2 = Novokhatko | volume = LIV | publisher = de Gruyter | isbn = 978-3-11-056899-8 | date = March 5, 2018 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=UQNPDwAAQBAJ}}
* {{cite book | first1 = Anna A. | last1 = Lamari | first2 = Franco | last2 = Montanari | first3 = Anna | last3 = Novokhatko | title = Fragmentation in Ancient Greek Drama | date = August 10, 2020 | publisher = de Gruyter | isbn = 978-3-11-062102-0 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=B773DwAAQBAJ}}
* ''[[Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae]] (LIMC)'' VI.1., Zürich and Munich, Artemis Verlag, 1992. {{ISBN|3-7608-8751-1}}. [https://archive.org/details/limc_20210516/Lexicon%20Iconographicum%20Mythologiae%20Classicae/LIMC%20VI-1%20Kentauroi%20et%20Kentaurides-O%C4%B1ax/mode/2up?view=theater Internet Archive].

== External links ==
* [https://www.theoi.com/Daimon/Lyssa.html LYSSA from The Theoi Project]

{{Greek mythology (deities)|state=collapsed}}

[[Category:Personifications in Greek mythology]]
[[Category:Insanity]]
[[Category:Rabies]]
[[Category:Children of Nyx]]
[[Category:Children of Gaia]]
[[Category:Avian humanoids]]
[[Category:Dog goddesses]]
[[Category:Greek death goddesses]]
[[Category:Greek virgin goddesses]]