#nyctaea

[sarafangirlart]

Athena holding a little owl 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺

[lesbodysseus]

Hi hi hi hi!!!! Give us an infodump :-)

I finally decided I wanna answer this ask by info dumping about the bird trio because I love them

FIRST OFF the bird trio is what I call Athena's pet crow(Corone), her pet owl(Nyctimene/Nyctaea) and Apollo's pet raven(Lycius) I'm gonna split this post into 3 section talking about the myths behind all of them because they're all niche and dear to my heart I love you bird trio

1 — LYCIUS

Lycius was originally a human before Apollo transformed him into a white raven, he was the son of Clinis, a rich Babylonian man, and his wife Harpe, he had 3 siblings, two brothers named Harpasus and Ortygius and a sister named Artemiche.

Lycius' father Clinis had seen the Hyperboreans sacrificing donkeys to Apollo and he wanted to do the same but Apollo was like "if u do that I will smite you I DON'T WANT ANY DONKEYS" but Lycius and Harpasus both insisted their father sacrifice the donkeys anyways but Ortygius and Artemiche being the only ones of their siblings with a brain were like "dad I really don't think that's a good idea if Apollo himself told us not to do that" and Clinis was like "you're right kids I'm glad I at least have two kids with a brain who know how to listen to the Gods" but Lycius and Harpasus do what they want so they let the donkeys loose and drove them to Apollo's altar and guess what that pissed Apollo off HMMMM WHO COULD'VE SEEN THAT COMING Apollo proceeded to drive the donkeys insane and the donkeys proceeded to attack and try to eat the entire family so all six of them prayed to the Gods for help and were transformed by birds, Lycius however was the only one to be saved directly by Apollo when he transformed him into a white raven and took him under his wing as a pet I guess he got over his beef with him in the end so all's well that ends well or however that fuckass saying went idk dude

Lycius didn't stay a white raven for long however, Apollo had tasked him with watching over Coronis(Asclepius' mom) and when Lycius was spying on her he found out Coronis was cheating on Apollo with a mortal man so he went to Apollo like "OH BOY YOU WILL NOT BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENED" and told him about Coronis' infidelity, Lycius was expecting Apollo to be proud of him and reward him for a job well done maybe even feed him for once(/JOKE APOLLO HOPEFULLY FEEDS LYCIUS WELL) but nope Apollo crashed out on Lycius for giving him bad news(translation: for just doing his job that Apollo gave to him) and transformed into a normal boring mundane black raven.

2 — Corone

Corone was also a human before she was transformed into a crow by Athena, she was the daughter of a Phocian king named Coronaeus nothing else is known of about her family outside of her father however.

Corone was very beautiful so much so that Poseidon fell in love with her she refused him but he became angry at her and chased her down to try to rape her since she wouldn't sleep with him consensually ig as she ran away from him, Athena being the protector of virgins offered her assistance to Corone by transforming her into a crow.

Corone goes through a similar situation to Lycius which she also tells him about, that Athena had entrusted her to watch over the infant Erichthonius after Athena had put him in a box and gave it to the daughters of Cecrops and told them not to open the box, the girls disobeyed Athena however and Corone flew to tell Athena the gossip which made Athena get mad at her for giving her bad news(AGAIN. JUST DOING HER JOB.) and she cursed her so that crows can never fly over the Acroplis of Athens ever again.

3 — NYCTIMENE/NYCTAEA

alright Nyctimene has A LOT of different origin stories but basically the general consensus is that she was a mortal woman before Athena transformed her into the owl because there was some sort of incestous relationship between her and her father, I'll try to give a simplified version of all her different myths that I know of talking about her.

Nyctimene was the daughter of Epopeus, a king of Lesbos, but he raped her and out of either shame or guilt at having been raped by her father she fled to a forest and refused to show her face in the daylight, Athena felt bad for her and transformed her into an owl because of her nocturnal nature.

In another myth the reason she was transformed as a punishment for having slept with her father instead of Athena feeling sympathy for her but is vague on what had really happened between her and her father or whether or not she was raped.

Another myth says Nyctimene felt ashamed after she "realized" that she had slept with her father implying her father had tricked her and Nyctimene didn't know it was him til after she slept with him.

One source says Nyctimene was not raped by Epopeus but instead of a guest named Corymbus but this is kind of the odd ball since all the other myths relate to her dad.

An anonymous Greek source says that she had fled her father who is referred to as Clymenus instead of Epopeus.

In another version, here she is called Nyctaea however, her father is Nycteus and she is the one who develops incestous feelings for him and she tells this to a nurse of hers, the nurse then helps her trick Nycteus into sleeping with Nyctimene convincing him that Nyctimene was just some random girl that totally had no familial relation to him 100%, Nycteus found out he was deceived however and he was so mad that he tried to kill Nyctimene who asked for help from Athena who then turned her into an owl to save her.

That same source also lists another version of Nyctaea's story, her father is Proteus(yeah like Perseus' asshole uncle) and he tried to rape Nyctaea but she fled her home out of fear of being raped and Athena feeling sympathetic for her transformed her into an owl and took her in.

Yeah those are all the sources of Nyctimene's story that I could find of Nyctimene's story, I also wanna mention that during the conversation between Corone and Lycius I mentioned earlier where they're complaining about getting punished for doing their jobs, Corone also shows resentment for Nyctimene for having stolen her place as Athena's favourite bird, a fragment from Callimachus however also has a crow warning an owl against tale bearing to not anger Athena, the crow and owl could very well be Corone and Nyctimene, idk but I just find it sweet how even though Corone resents Nyctimene for having taken her place as the most beloved bird of Athena(though keep in mind the source for the Corone-Lycius convo is Ovid not Callimachus so it could just be a difference in writers) she still warns her against doing the same mistakes she did to not be punished by Athena like she was.

OKAY END OF INFODUMP idk I'm just a very big fan of the bird trio and I wanted to talk about them to someone because they're all dear to my heart, I like to imagine Corone and Lycius as bffs because of their convo in Ovid's Metamorphosis I just vibe with the vision of them being gossipers like maybe their Gods don't wanna hear their news but they sure as hell do, I like to imagine as well that despite Corone being upset she isn't Athena's favourite anymore she still tries to be nice to Nyctimene when she can be.

[sarafangirlart]

A bunch of characters who had their narrative/characterization taken and given to Medusa in retellings bc god forbid retelling authors focus on anyone other than Medusa, Persephone and Hades and god forbid they actually expand on what little lore Medusa does have:

Auge: being a priestess of Athena who was let down by her but then helped last minute.

Triteia: being a priestess of Athena who had intercourse with a male god that Athena doesn’t like (and nowhere does it say she reacts negatively to that mind you).

Cassandra: being a victim of constant abuse and getting raped in a temple only for Athena to avenge her.

Danaids: being a black woman in Ancient Greece and all the baggage that comes with that.

Praxithea: being the first priestess of Athena in Athens.

Bellerophon: resenting the gods and calling them out for their cruelty.

Nyctaea and Corone: being a victim who was transformed in order to protect her.

Io: being a priestess who was abandoned and abused by the goddess she served and later turned into an African goddess.

Andromeda: fucking Perseus being Perseus’s love interest

Megapenthes: being the one who kills Perseus.

[sarafangirlart]

Danaë in her tower

Sometimes her prison is an underground chamber (which is probably the version y’all are familiar with) but I like the one with the tower bc it ties her to Rapunzel, ever since I’ve realized their commonalities I’ve been thinking about them lol

I like to think Danaë took up several hobbies to pass the time much like Rapunzel, but unlike Rapunzel, she actually remembers her life before her imprisonment and misses her friends, the girls she’s playing with in the fresco are her cousins Nyctaea and Iphianassa.

[sarafangirlart]

[sarafangirlart]

Athena and Nyctaea, otherwise known as Nyctimene.

This is probably the easiest video I made it’s only three frames with minimum changes lol

[sarafangirlart]

Athena with Nyctimene:

Lol

[sarafangirlart]

Thinking about Danaë and Nyctaea, her cousin (and an alternative version of Nyctimene). Danaë was the daughter of Acrisius, Nyctaea was the daughter of Proetus. Acrisius and Proetus were twins and they HATED each other so much they started a civil war over Argos. But what if before their conflict reached a boiling point, Danaë and Nyctaea grew up together, and bc Danaë is (usually) an only child then Nyctaea and her sisters were like actual sisters to her. Then the war broke out and they were separated, only to then be isolated even more by Acrisius imprisoning his daughter and Proetus attempting to assault his own daughter.

Idk I’m just trying to give Danaë more complexity and I’m grasping at straws here lol