#asterodeia

[creationplusimagination]

Made no straigh roads oc named Asterodeia who's instrument is the pan flute

[seasonsofmedea]

talk to me about asterodeia and/or idyia

ok, so asterodeia and idyia are both oceanids who had children with aeetes. asterodeia's only mention is in the argonautica, where she is said to have given birth to absyrtus before aeetes made idyia his wife. however, hesiod and the bibliotheca state that idyia is absyrtus' mother.

idyia is usually agreed to be medea's mother, and is sometimes the mother of chalciope. in valerius flaccus' argonautica, idyia laments medea's departure from colchis:

"Her mother was still stretching out her hands towards the sea, her sister too and all the other maidens who were thy peers, Medea. Above all rings out her mother's voice as she fills all the air with her wailings : ‘Stop thy flight, turn back hither thy vessel from mid-sea; thou canst, my daughter. Whither goest thou?’ she cries; ‘here are all thy folk, and thy father, not yet angry; this is thy land, thy kingdom. Why trustest thou thyself alone to Achaea? What place hast thou there, a stranger among Inachian maidens? Lies there the home of thy desire, the wedlock thou awaitest? Is this the day I prayed my old age might see? Ah, would that like a bird I could rend with hooked talons the very face of that brigand, and hover above his ship and with loud cry demand my daughter back again! To the Albanian prince was she betrothed, not to thee; no compact made her unhappy parents with thee, Aesonides; by no such ruse doth Pelias bid thee escape, or rob the Colchians of their daughters. Keep the fleece, take aught else that our temples hold. But why accuse I thus any mad with undeserved complaint? She herself willed to flee, and avows (ah, horror!) the passion that consumes her. That then was the cause, unhappy girl (for each thing now do I recall), why, ever since the Thessalian oars drew night the shore, no feasting, no seasons gave thee pleasure. No colour hadst thou then, thy voice was faint, thy glance wandered, and ever was thy face a stranger to rejoicing. Why was not so dire a plague revealed to me, that Jason might have taken his place as a son-in-law in our palace, and that thou mightest not have stooped to a flight so base? Or at least we might no have shared all the crime between us, and were voyaging no matter where together; gladly should we both be seeking Thessaly and the city, whate'er its name, of the cruel stranger.’

So spake her mother, and her sister filled everything with like complaints, shrieking aloud; with them the handmaidens raise cries of last farewell and scatter words upon the empty breeze, as by name they call their mistress back again; but the winds and thine own destinies were bearing thee far away."

hesiod says that aeetes married idyia on the gods' advice, which is interesting but is seemingly never brought up again.

i like to think that idyia and asterodeia were close and that idyia thought of her when she saw absyrtus, but this may be unlikely as there were many oceanids.

i think it's likely that asterodeia barely saw absyrtus, which might mean that she never found out about his death, unless she resided on colchis.

i sometimes wonder what asterodeia would have thought of medea if she knew that medea killed her son, and what idyia's relationship with medea was like prior to medea's departure from colchis.

i don't know. they just make me sad.

[thehelplessmortals]

Penelope has a human mama in my fics

[manticoreimaginary]

favourite faces for favourite mythic ladies: Asterodeia with Esti Ginzburg

From the Kaukasos Mountains there flows a stream that bears bands and swirls of the purest gold. The men of this land know it well and have long learned to temper their greed, but strangers who see it always take too much. The bright shimmering surfaces leads down into darker depths, and through every part of this the nymph Asterodeia swims, almost as golden as the water itself. Daughter of the Phasis River, Asterodeia breathes water and gold and darts between the fishermen and their nets.

Only one thing ever draws her from her river for long enough that she considers not returning: King Aeetes of Colchis is beautiful, with eyes like the wine-dark sea, and when they kiss she wonders upon what it would be like to be a mortal queen who reigns far from her home. (It doesn't last: Asterodeia, bright rosy-star, loves her river and her mountain more than any man, whether it be a firm-handed king or their newborn golden son.)