ASTEROPE HESPERIA

ASTEROPE-HESPERIA was a Naiad-nymph of the River Kebren (Cebren) in the Troad. As she was fleeing the amorous embrace of the Trojan prince Aisakos (Aesacus), she stepped on a venomous snake and died.

Asterope-Hesperia's names are more reminiscent of a star-nymph than a Naiad which might suggest she was first envisaged as a shooting-star dying upon the earth.

PARENTS

KEBREN (Apollodorus 3.147, Ovid Metamorphoses 11.767)

CLASSICAL LITERATURE QUOTES

Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3. 147 (trans. Aldrich) (Greek mythographer C2nd A.D.) :
"Aisakos (Aescaus) [son of Priamos (Priam) king of Troy], who married Kebren's (Cebren's) daughter Asterope."

Ovid, Metamorphoses 11. 767 ff (trans. Melville) (Roman epic C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) :
"Yet he [Aesacus] was not a boor at heart nor unassailable by love, and many a time through all the woods pursued Hesperie Cebrenis (Hesperia of the Cebren). He saw her by her father Cebren's river bank, her hair loose on her shoulders drying in the sun. The Nymphe, observed, took flight, as a frightened hind flees from a grizzled wolf, or a mallard caught far from the lake she's left flies from a hawk. He followed in pursuit, she swift in fear, he swift in love, when lurking in the grass a snake, look, struck her as she fled and fanged her foot and left its venom in her veins--her flight, her life cut short! Beside himself he held her lifeless in his arms and cried ‘I chased you! Oh it breaks my heart! But this I never feared! Oh, never worth so much to win you! Two of us, poor soul, have laid you low: the viper gave the wound, and I the cause. The greater guilt have I: for your death's solace I myself shall die.’ Then from the cliff-top that the booming waves had eaten out below he flung himself into the sea."

SOURCES

GREEK

• Apollodorus, The Library - Greek Mythography C2nd A.D.

ROMAN

• Ovid, Metamorphoses - Latin Epic C1st B.C. - C1st A.D.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A complete bibliography of the translations quoted on this page.