Metaneira
historical figure · 2 works · 2 mentions · 4 anchored passages
deep-bosomed mother · well-girded Metaneira
in the texts
Theomnestus and Apollodorus Against Neaera
One of the seven girls raised and sold by Nicaretê; beloved of Lysias the sophist, who sought to have her initiated at Eleusis.
Philostratus, son of Dionysius, of Colonus, deposes that he knows that Neaera was a slave of Nicaretê, to whom Metaneira also belonged, that they were residents of Corinth, and that they stayed at his house when they came to Athens for the mysteries, and that Lysias the son of Cephalêus, who was an intimate friend of his, established them in his house.
So he asked Nicaretê to come to the mysteries bringing with her Metaneira that she might be initiated, and he promised that he would himself initiate her.
When she had reaped the profit of the youthful prime of each, she sold them, all seven, without omitting one—Anteia and Stratola and Aristocleia and Metaneira and Phila and Isthmias and this Neaera.
Hymn 2 to Demeter
Metaneira is the wife of Celeus and mother of Demophoon who receives disguised Demeter and interrupts her son's immortalization.
and we will go to our father's house and tell Metaneira, our deep-bosomed mother, all this matter fully, that she may bid you rather come to our home than search after the houses of others.
So the great queen Deo received it to observe the sacrament And of them all, well-girded Metaneira first began to speak:
Then awe and reverence and pale fear took hold of Metaneira, and she rose up from her couch before Demeter, and bade her be seated.