Greek Mythology >> Nymphs >> Naiads >> Mycene (Mykene)

MYKENE

Greek Name

Μυκηνη

Transliteration

Mykênê

Latin Spelling

Mycene

Translation

Of Mycenae (town)

MYKENE (Mycene) was the Naiad-nymph of the spring, well or fountain of the town of Mykenai (Mycenae) in Argos (southern Greece). She was a daughter of the local river Inakhos (Inachus) and the wife of the early Argive king Arestor.

PARENTS

INAKHOS (Hesiod Great Eoiae Frag, Pausanias 2.16.4)

OFFSPRING

ARGOS PANOPTES (by Arestor) (combined Apollodorus 2.4 & Pausanias 2.16.4)

ENCYCLOPEDIA

MYCE′NE (Mukênê), a daughter of Inachus and wife of Arestor, from whom the town of Mycenae or Mycene was believed to have derived its name. (Hom. Od. ii. 120; Paus. ii. 16. § 3.)

Source: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.

CLASSICAL LITERATURE QUOTES

Homer, Odyssey 2. 120 ff (trans. Shewring) (Greek epic C8th B.C.) :
"Ladies of older times--the Akhaian (Achaean) ladies of braided tresses like Tyro and Alkmene (Alcmena) and garlanded Mykene (Mycene)."

Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 2. 4 (trans. Aldrich) (Greek mythographer C2nd A.D.) :
"Argos Panoptes . . . Pherekydes (Pherecydes) says that this one was Arestor's son." [N.B. Mykene, wife of Arestor, was presumably the mother of Argos Panoptes.]

Pausanias, Description of Greece 2. 16. 4 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) :
"Homer in the Odyssey mentions a woman Mykene (Mycene) [for whom the town of Mykenai (Mycenae) was named] in the following verse :--‘Tyro and Alkmene (Alcmena) and the fair-crowned lady Mykene.’
She is said to have been the daughter of Inakhos (Inachus) and the wife of Arestor in the poem which the Greeks call the Great Eoiai. So they say that this lady has given her name to the city." [N.B. The Great Eoiai was an archaic poem attributed to Hesiod.]