Night
Maia
ΜαῖαRoman: Maia
The shyest of the Pleiades, who lived alone in a cave and raised a thief.
Attic vase — Staatliche Antikensammlungen, Munich 2304
- 2
- epithets
- 1
- cult site
- 1
- offspring
- 1
- union
- 1
- recorded birth
Vitals
- Kind
- Nymph
- Generation
- 3
- Domains
- the mountain cave, nursing, the Pleiades
- Accent
- Night — darkness, the moon, sleep, the crossroads
- Sacred symbols
- the star cluster, the cave on Kyllene
- Principal cult sites
- Mount Kyllene in Arkadia
What they were called
Μαῖα
little mother, nurse
εὐπλόκαμος
of the lovely braids
Lineage
See in the treeDescent
FatherAtlasHesiod, TheogonyHer mother is the Okeanid Pleione, outside the v1 roster. Maia is the eldest of the seven Pleiades.
Offspring in this roster
Notable myths
The Cave on Kyllene
Zeus came to Maia in a shadowy cave at dead of night while Hera slept, and she bore Hermes on the fourth of the month. She had avoided the company of the gods entirely. The hymn's first scene is her scolding a day-old baby who has just committed the first theft in history and is lying about it in his cradle.
Homeric Hymns, Hymn to Hermes 1-19, 154-181
The account
Maia is the eldest of Atlas's seven daughters, the Pleiades, and the one who kept to herself. The Homeric Hymn calls her shy and says she avoided the gatherings of the blessed gods and lived in a deep shadowy cave on Kyllene, where Zeus came to her at night while Hera slept. She bore Hermes there. The hymn's comedy depends on her: when the newborn comes back at dawn smelling of cattle and climbs into his cradle holding his tortoise-shell lyre, she tells him she knows exactly where he has been and that Apollo will not be gentle about it, and he answers with a speech about how he does not intend to live in a cave on nothing when the other gods have offerings. She is included in this roster because she is the only figure in it who is a nymph rather than a god, and because Hermes without a mother is a gap in the tree.
Ancient sources
- Hesiod, Theogony 938
- Homeric Hymns, Hymn to Hermes 1-19, 154-181
Where a line reference is not given, the work is cited without one rather than guessed at.
Image credit
- Title
- Hermes Maia Staatliche Antikensammlungen 2304
- Artist
- Nikoxenos Painter
- Date
- Unknown
- Licence
- Public domain
