Other Divine Unions In Greek Mythology
| Adonis | Arachne | Asteria and Perses | Astraeus |
| Attis | Cybele | Eos | Hecate |
| Helios | Hyperion and Theia | Korybantes | Selene |
Asteria and Perses: Asteria was the daughter of the Titans Coeus and Phoebe, and sister of Leto. Perses was the son of the Titan Crius and the Nymph Eurybia. Asteria and Perses were god and goddess of shining light.
Hecate: Daughter of Asteria and Perses, she was a triple moon goddess, as well as a goddess of the underworld. She was a wisdom goddess, and also the goddess of prosperity, magic, charms, and enchantment. As goddess of the underworld she was accompanied by a pack of hounds. She was also goddess of safe travel, and a deliverer of souls, who, like Hermes, had her image placed at crossroads in the form of a column with three faces, called a triple Hecate.
Hyperion and Theia: Hyperion was the Titan god of the sun. These Titan siblings had four children together.
Helios: He was the son of Hyperion and Theia. Though Apollo was god of the light, Helios personified the sun. He was an ancient Greek sun god. Later in the classical period he would ride his Golden chariot across the sky, led by winged horses of dazzling white.
Astraeus: Son of Hyperion and Theia, he was the starry night sky.
Selene: She was a daughter of Hyperion and Theia. A moon goddess, Selene is the full moon, rising from her daily bath in the ocean, spreading her broad wings, and lighting the night sky.
Eos: Daughter of Hyperion and Theia, she was the colorful Dawn, often appearing as a winged goddess, tilting an urn from which fell the morning dew. With her brother Astraeus as father, she gave birth to the Four Winds, the East wind Eurus, the south wind Notus, the west wind Zephyrus, and the North wind Boreas.
Adonis: He was a Phonecian Deity that later appeared in the Greek pantheon, symbolizing vegetation's renewal. According to the Greek legend, he was born from a myrtle or myrrh tree. Soon after Adonis was born, Aphrodite, the goddess of love, discovered the young deity. She hid him in a chest which she gave for safekeeping to Persephone, the goddess of the Underworld. However, Persephone opened the chest and was so struck with the beauty of the child she decided to keep him. Aphrodite appealed to Zeus, who decided Adonis should spend a third of each year with himself on Olympus, a third with Persephone and a third with the Goddess of Love. When Adonis grew up, Aphrodite fell passionately in love with him. Out hunting one day, Adonis was killed by a boar. It is at this point, in some versions of the myth, that Aphrodite managed to secure his release from the Underworld for half of each year.
Arachne: She was a mythical woman who was a spinner and weaver. She challenged Athena, Greek goddess of handicrafts, and won a contest between them. Athena was angry and turned Arachne into a spider so that now she could only weave webs.
Cybele: She was the great mother goddess of Phyrigian mythology, whom the Greeks knew as a Rhea. She probably originated as a mountain goddess and was sometimes referred to as the “Lady of Ida,” a mountain in western Anatolia. She inhabited the wild and dangerous regions of the earth and ruled over the fiercest of wild animals. Cybele's origins have sometimes been tracked back as far as Catal Hoyuk, a large Neolithic site in southern Anatolia. There, archeologists unearthed a terracotta figure believed to be the mother goddess in the act of giving birth. Cybele was primarily associated with the earth, and in particular with a black stone enshrined at Pergamum. Other cities where worship of the great mother was particularly fervent were Troy and Pessinus. In Phrygia, Cybele may have been known as Kubaba, or “Lady of the Cube.” She is sometimes associated with an ancient goddess of that name who was worshipped at Carchemish in the Hittite Empire. The shrines of both goddesses were situated in caves or near rocks. The cult of Cybele eventually spread from Asia Minor to Greece. In the 5th century B.C., a magnificent statue of the goddess, flanked by lions, was placed in her temple in Athens. In 204 B.C. the black stone sacred to Cybele was brought from Phyrigia to Rome. An oracle had foretold that if the Phryigian mother were brought from Pergamum, she would aid the Romans in their war against the Carthaginians.
At Cybele's annual celebrations, held in spring, a chariot harnessed to lions would be drawn through the streets of Rome. According to the historian Lucretius (99-55 B.C.): "Born from her sacred precinct in her cart she drove a yoke of lions; her head they wreathed with a battlemented crown, because embattled on glorious heights she sustains towns; and dowered with this emblem even now the image of the divine mother is carried in awesome state through great countries. On her the diverse nations in the ancient rite of worship call as the mother of Ida, and they give her Phrygian bands to bear her company, because from those lands first they say corn began to be produced throughout the whole world.” The public rites of Cybele were orgiastic and ecstatic. Her priests, the Galli or Galloi, would beat and castrate themselves in mad frenzies of passion, using whips decorated with knuckle bones. The celebrations were accompanied by the sacrifice of a bull or ram, during which the initiate, or high priest or priestess of Cybele, stood beneath a platform and was drenched in the blood of the sacrificial animal. Cybele's followers believed that her mysteries would lead them to be reborn after death in a new life. Cybele's attributes are a mirror, a pomegranate, and a key.
The great myth attached to the goddess is that in which she takes vengeance on Attis for his infidelity and causes him to go mad, to castrate himself and to die. Eventually, however she gives him back his life. According to another story, Cybele and Gordius, the king of Phrygia, had a son whom they called Midas. This was the Midas who, after wishing that everything he touched might turn to gold, found himself unable to eat or drink until the god Dionysos took pity on him.
Attis: He was the consort of Cybele, the great mother goddess of Phrygia in Asia Minor. He was originally a Phonecian god. A vegetation god, he was sometimes known as “Papas” or father. The best known story of Attis is one in which his desperate love for Cybele drove him insane, leading him to castrate himself under a pine tree. Flowers and trees grew up from his blood. Although he died, the god was reborn and united with Cybele. The cult of Cybele spread to Greece and Rome, and with it, that of Attis. Cybele was said to have fallen in love with Attis, who was regarded as a handsome young shepherd. She chose him as her priest and imposed a vow of chastity on him. However, Attis fell in love with a river nymph, so Cybele caused him to suffer a fit of madness during which he mutilated himself. When the god recovered, he was about to kill himself when Cybele changed him into a fir tree.
Korybantes: They are the companions of the great mother, Cybele, of Phrygian mythology. They performed frenzied dances, took part in orgiastic revelries and were believed to have the power to induce and heal madness. According to one tradition they were the offspring of Zeus, who impregnated earth by falling on it as rain; in another lineage they are cited as the offspring of the solar logos Apollo, equivalent to Amon-Ra of Egypt and Thalia, muse and sensual, nature goddess of joy and love.