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ERIGONE

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Originally appearing in Volume V09, Page 744 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ERIGONE , in See also:

Greek See also:mythology, daughter of Icarius, the See also:hero of the See also:Attic deme Icaria. Her See also:father, who had been taught by See also:Dionysus to make See also:wine, gave some to some shepherds, who became intoxicated. Their companions, thinking they had been poisoned, killed Icarius and buried him under a See also:tree on See also:Mount See also:Hymettus (or threw his See also:body into a well). Erigone, guided by her faithful See also:dog Maera, found, his See also:grave, and hanged herself on the tree. Dionysus sent a See also:plague on the See also:land, and all the maidens of See also:Athens, in a See also:fit of madness, hanged themselves like Erigone. Icarius, Erigone and Maera were set among the stars as See also:Bootes (or See also:Arcturus), See also:Virgo and Procyon. The festival called Aeora (the " See also:swing ") was subsequently instituted to propitiate Icarius and Erigone. Various small images (in See also:Lat. See also:oscilla) were suspended on trees and swung backwards and forwards, and offerings of See also:fruit were made (See also:Hyginus, Fab. 130, Poet. astron. ii. 4; See also:Apollodorus iii. 14). The See also:story was probably intended to explain the origin of these oscilla, by which Dionysus, as See also:god of trees (Dendrites), was propitiated, and the baneful See also:influence of the dog-See also:star averted (see also OSCILLA).

End of Article: ERIGONE

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