HARMONIA

HARMONIA was a nymph of the Akmonian Wood near Thermiskyra--the legendary town of the Amazones on the Black Sea coast of Anatolia. She was loved by the god Ares and bore him the first generation of Amazon women--or perhaps just the tribe's first queens, such as Otrera.

Harmonia was probably either the Naiad-nymph of a spring or fountain of the town of Themiskyra or one of the Meliai (Meliae) nymphs--ash-tree Dryades from whose wood the first spears were crafted.

The Amazonian Harmonia does not appear to have been idenfitied with the Theban Harmonia. They both have the Greek word harmonia "harmony" for a name, but in the case of the Amazon it no doubt referred to the harmony of military formation whereas the Theban queen was harmony in the sense of marital bliss.

PARENTS

Perhaps a daughter of the River THERMODON

OFFSPRING

THE AMAZONES (by Ares) (Apollonius Rhodius 2.986)

CLASSICAL LITERATURE QUOTES

Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 2. 986 ff (trans. Rieu) (Greek epic C3rd B.C.) :
"The Amazones of the Doiantian plain [by the river Thermodon on the Black Sea] were by no means gently, well-conducted folk; they were brutal and aggressive, and their main concern in life was war. War, indeed, was in their blood, daughters of Ares as they were and of the Nymphe Harmonia, who lay with the god in the depths of the Akmonian (Acmonian) Wood and bore him girls who fell in love with fighting."

SOURCES

GREEK

• Apollonius Rhodius, The Argonautica - Greek Epic C3rd B.C.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A complete bibliography of the translations quoted on this page.