Deimos (deity)
| Deimos | |
|---|---|
Personification of fear | |
 A painting of Phobos and Deimos | |
| Genealogy | |
| Parents | Ares and Aphrodite |
| Siblings | Phobos, Harmonia |
In Greek mythology, Deimos /ˈdaɪmɒs/ (Ancient Greek: Δεῖμος, lit. 'fear'[1] pronounced [dêːmos]) is the personification of fear.[2] He is the son of Ares and Aphrodite, and the brother of Phobos. Deimos served to represent the feelings of dread and terror that befell those before a battle, while Phobos personified feelings of fear and panic in the midst of battle.
Genealogy
[edit]In Hesiod's Theogony, Deimos is the son of Ares and Cytherea (Aphrodite), and the sibling of Phobos and Harmonia.[3] According to the Greek antiquarian Semus of Delos, Deimos is the father of the monster Scylla.[4]
Mythology
[edit]Deimos mainly appears in an assistant role to his father, who causes disorder in armies.[citation needed] In the Iliad, he accompanied his father, Ares, into battle with the Goddess of Discord, Eris, and his brother Phobos (fear).[5] Deimos is also depicted on Agamemnon’s shield alongside his brother Phobos.[6] In the Shield of Herakles, Phobos and Deimos accompany Ares into battle and remove him from the field once Herakles injures him.[7] The poet Antimachus, in a misrepresentation of Homer's account, portrays Deimos and Phobos as the horses of Ares.[8] In Nonnus's Dionysiaca, Zeus arms Phobos with lightning and Deimos with thunder to frighten Typhon.[9] Later in the work, Phobos and Deimos act as Ares's charioteers to battle Dionysus during his war against the Indians.[10]
Namesake
[edit]In 1877, the American astronomer Asaph Hall discovered the two satellites of the planet Mars. Hall named the two moons Phobos and Deimos. Deimos is the smaller of the two satellites.[11]
Notes
[edit]- ^ Beekes, s.v. δεῖμα, pp. 309–10.
- ^ Brill's New Pauly, s.v. Deimos.
- ^ Gantz, p. 80; Hesiod, Theogony, 933.
- ^ Brill's New Pauly, s.v. Deimos; FGrHist 396 F22.
- ^ Homer, Iliad, 4.436
- ^ "Homer, Iliad, Book 11, line 1". www.perseus.tufts.edu. Retrieved 2025-10-07.
- ^ Hesiod, Shield of Heracles 460
- ^ Matthews, p. 150.
- ^ Nonnus, Dionysiaca, 2.414
- ^ Nonnus, Dionysiaca, 29.364
- ^ Hall, A (1878). "Names of the Satellites of Mars". Astronomische Nachrichten. 92 (3): 47–48. Bibcode:1878AN.....92...47H. doi:10.1002/asna.18780920304.
References
[edit]- Beekes, Robert S. P., Etymological Dictionary of Greek, 2 vols, Leiden, Brill, 2009. ISBN 978-90-04-17418-4.
- Brill’s New Pauly: Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World. Antiquity, Volume 4, Cyr-Epy, editors: Hubert Cancik, Helmuth Schneider, Brill, 2004. ISBN 978-90-04-12267-3. Online version at Brill.
- Gantz, Timothy, Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, Two volumes: ISBN 978-0-8018-5360-9 (Vol. 1), ISBN 978-0-8018-5362-3 (Vol. 2).
- Hesiod, Shield of Heracles from The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, MA.,Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website.
- Hesiod, Theogony from The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, MA.,Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website.
- Homer, The Iliad with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, Ph.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924. ISBN 978-0674995796. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Matthews, V. J., Antimachus of Colophon, Brill, 1995. ISBN 978-90-04-10468-6. Online version at Brill.