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AMALTHEIA

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Originally appearing in Volume V01, Page 779 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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AMALTHEIA , in See also:

Greek See also:mythology, the See also:foster-See also:mother of See also:Zeus. She is sometimes represented as the See also:goat which suckled the See also:infant-See also:god in a See also:cave in See also:Crete, sometimes as a nymph of uncertain parentage (daughter of See also:Oceanus, Haemonius, See also:Olen, Melisseus), who brought him up on the See also:milk of a goat. This goat having broken off one of its horns, Amaltheia filled it with See also:flowers and fruits and presented if to Zeus, who placed it together with the goat amongst the stars. According to another See also:story, Zeus himself See also:broke off the See also:horn and gave it to Amaltheia, promising that it would See also:supply whatever she desired in abundance. Amaltheia gave it to See also:Achelous (her reputed See also:brother), who exchanged it for his own horn which had been broken off in .hiS contest with Heracles for the See also:possession of Deianeira. According to See also:ancient mythology, the owners of the horn were many and various. Speaking generally, it was regarded as the See also:symbol of inexhaustible riches and plenty, and became the attribute of various divinities (Hades, Gaea, See also:Demeter, See also:Cybele, See also:Hermes), and of See also:rivers (the See also:Nile) as fertilizers of the See also:land. The See also:term " horn of Amaltheia " is applied to a fertile See also:district, and an See also:estate belonging to See also:Titus See also:Pomponius See also:Atticus was called Amaltheum. Cretan coins represent the infant Zeus being suckled by the goat; other Greek coins exhibit him suspended from its teats or carried in the arms of a nymph (See also:Ovid, See also:Fasti, v. 115; Metam. ix. 87).

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