Zeus going to Alalcomenes for guidance in his marriage is SO much more meaningful to me with the knowledge that Alalcomenes himself raised Athena 😭💞🙏
Alalcomenae is a small village, and it lies at the very foot of a mountain of no great height. Its name, some say, is derived from Alalcomenes, an aboriginal [earthborn], by whom Athena was brought up.
—Pausanias 9.33.5
Athena was called Alalcomeneis in the Iliad, possibly as a reference to this! Near the town’s temple of Athena is a river called Triton, which would *also* explain her Homeric epithet of Tritogeneia, if Zeus gave birth to her there, and if its nymphs nursed her in her youth.
For it is said that when Hera was at odds with Zeus, and was no longer willing to consort with him, but hid herself, he was wandering about, utterly perplexed, and fell in with Alalcomenes the earthborn, and was taught by him that, to trick Hera, he must pretend to wed another wife.
So Alalcomenes helped him, and they secretly cut down a tall and beautiful oak, and shaped it and dressed it in bridal array, and called it Daedalá: then the hymeneal bridal song was duly chanted, and the nymphs of Triton brought up lustral water, and Boeotia supplied flutes and festal processions.
But when these performances went on, Hera could bear it no longer, but came down from Cithaeron, followed by the women of Plataea, and from anger and jealousy came running up to Zeus, and when the counterfeit became manifest, she was reconciled to him and with joy and laughter herself, led the bridal procession, and gave additional honour to the statue, and called the festival Daedala, and nevertheless from jealousy burnt the thing, lifeless though it was.
—Plutarch’s On the Daedala fragment
Zeus wandering about, deep in thought, trying to think what he can do to get Hera back with him again is really really cute. Either he finds the guy who raised his daughter or he meets a friend he’ll one day trust enough to raise his daughter.
In the second paragraph I emphasized some important cult details of the festival which Pausanias emphasized about the festival, below. I am curious if “Boeotia provided…” refers to the people of Boeotia or if a nymph-goddess named Boeotia was at the wedding.
Oh!! And !! I love that Hera got to just… laugh. Like the whole scheme was so ridiculous, but their petty squabble was so unimportant that all she could do was laugh about it and reunite with her man. I also love that, implicitly, Hera had been hanging out in Plataea and was comforted by its women. I imagine one of her priestesses feeding her breakup cake and telling Hera that her man didn’t deserve her.
Not far from Alalcomenae is a grove of oaks. Here the trunks of the oaks are the largest in Boeotia. To this grove come the Plataeans and lay out portions of boiled flesh. They keep a strict watch on the crows which flock to them […] They cut down the trunk of the tree on which the crow has settled, and make of it the Daedala; for this is the name that they give to the wooden image also [in addition to calling the wooden image “Plataea” after the daughter of River Asopos].
—Pausanias 9.3.4
💞💞💞
Hera, Athena, and Zeus being a big happy family ahhh. This is just like how Hera, Zeus, and Dionysus are a big happy family in Lesbos, according to Sappho. Or like how Servius recorded Hermes getting angry at anybody who didn’t come to the wedding of Hera and Zeus 💞💞 similar in concept was that vase where Ares and Hermes physically restrained Ixion in the court of Hera, bc he considered himself equal to Zeus and wanted to defile Hera’s chastity. Or that play where Castor and Polydeuces served in Hera’s entourage, protecting her on the way to the Judgement of Paris.
If Athena was born already, then she was definitely there when they renewed their vows.
