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HEBE
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HEBE , in See also:Greek See also:mythology, daughter of See also:Zeus and See also:Hera, the goddess of youth. In the Homeric poems she is the See also:female counterpart of See also:Ganymede, and acts as cupbearer to the gods (Iliad, iv. 2). She was the See also:special attendant of her See also:mother, whose horses she harnessed (Iliad, v. 722). When Heracles was received amongst the gods, Hebe was bestowed upon him in See also:marriage (Odyssey, xi. 603). When the See also:custom of the heroic See also:age, which permitted female cupbearers, See also:fell into disuse, Hebe was replaced by Ganymede in the popular mythology. To See also:account for her retirement from her See also:office, it was said that she fell down in the presence of the gods while handing the See also:wine, and was so ashamed that she refused to appear before them again. Hebe exhibits many striking points of resemblance with the pure Greek goddess See also:Aphrodite. She is the daughter of Zeus and Hera, Aphrodite of Zeus and See also:Dione; but Dione and Hera are often identified. Hebe is called Dia, a See also:regular epithet of Aphrodite; at Phlius, a festival called Kiovorouot (the days of See also:ivy-cutting) was annually celebrated in her See also:honour (See also:Pausanias, ii. 13); and ivy was sacred also to Aphrodite. The See also:apotheosis of Heracles and his marriage with Hebe became a favourite subject with poets and painters, and many instances occur on vases. In later See also:art she is often represented, like Ganymede, caressing the See also:eagle. See R. Kekul6, Hebe (1867), mainly dealing with the representations of Hebe in art; and P. Decharme in Daremberg and Saglio's Dictionnaire See also:des antiquates. The meaning of the word Hebe tended to transform the goddess into a See also:mere personification of the eternal youth that belongs to the gods, and this conception is frequently met with. Then she becomes identical with the See also:Roman See also:Juventas, who is simply an See also:abstraction of an attribute of See also:Jupiter Juventus, the See also:god of increase and blessing and youth. To Juventas, as personifying the eternal youth of the Roman See also:state, a See also:chapel was dedicated in very See also:early times in the See also:cella of See also:Minerva in the See also:temple of Jupiter Capitolinus. With this temple is connected the See also:legend of Juventas and See also:Terminus, who alone of all the gods refused to give way when it was being built—an indication of the eternal solidity and youth of See also:Rome. The cult of Juventas did not, however, become firmly established until the See also:time of the second Punic See also:war. In 218 the Sibylline books ordered a See also:lectisternium in honour of Juventas and a supplicatio in honour of See also:Hercules, and in 191 a temple was dedicated in her honour in the See also:Circus See also:Maximus. In later times Juventas became the personification, not of the Roman youth, but of the See also:emperor, who assumed the attributes of a god (See also:Livy v. 54, xxi. 62, See also:xxxvi. 36; See also:Dion. Halic. iii. 69; G. Wissowa in See also:Roscher's Lexikon der Mythologie). Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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