In Greek mythology, Taygete (Greek: Ταϋγέτη, in Modern Greek Taygeti, Taigeti) was a nymph, one of the Pleiades according to Apollodorus (3.10.1) and a companion of Artemis, in her archaic role as potnia theron, "Mistress of the animals." Mount Taygetos in Laconia, dedicated to the Goddess, was her haunt. Greek mythology comprises the collected narratives of Greek gods, goddesses, heroes, and heroines, originally created and spread within an oral-poetic tradition. ... Hylas and the Nymphs by John William Waterhouse In Greek mythology, a nymph is any member of a large class of female nature spirits, sometimes bound to a particular location or landform. ... This article is about Greek mythology. ... Apollodorus was a popular name in the ancient world. ... This article is about the Greek goddess. ... Taygetus or Taygetos (Greek: Ταΰγετος), also Taigetos is a mountain range of the Peloponnesus, Southern Greece, extending about 65 mi (100 km) north from the southern end of Cape Matapan in the Mani Peninsula. ... Laconia (Λακωνία), also known as Lacedaemonia, was in ancient Greece the portion of the Peloponnesus of which the most important city was Sparta. ...

Olympic Zeus pursued Taygete, who invoked Artemis. The goddess turned Taygete into a doe, and since in this form Zeus raped her, any distinction between the Titaness in her human form and in her doe form is blurred. As Pindar conceived the myth-element in his third Olympian Ode, "the doe with the golden horns, which once Taygete had inscribed as a sacred dedication to Artemis Orthosia," ("right-minded" Artemis) was the very Cerynian Hind that Heracles later pursued. For the knowledgeable poet, the transformation was incomplete, and the doe-form became an offering. Later mythographers have misconceived her transformation as a punishment, after the rape. Karl Kerenyi points out (The Heroes of the Greeks) "It is not easy to differentiate between the divine beast, the heroine and the goddess." In Greek mythology, the Titans (Greek Τιταν, plural Τιτανες) are among a series of gods, some of whom opposed Zeus and the Olympian gods in their ascent to power. ... Pindar (or Pindarus) (522 BC – 443 BC), the greatest lyric poet of ancient Greece, was born at Cynoscephalae, a village in Thebes. ... The Ceryneian Hind, also called Cerynitis, was an enormous hind sacred to Artemis, the chaste goddess of the hunt and moon. ... Statue of Heracles In Greek mythology, Heracles, or Heraklês (glory of Hera, Ἡρακλῆς) was the demigod son of Zeus and Alcmene, the grand-daughter of Perseus and the wife of Amphitryon. ... One of the founders of modern studies in Greek mythology, Karl (Carl, Károly) Kerényi (January 19, 1897 - April 14, 1973) was born in Hungary but became a citizen of Switzerland in 1943. ...

According to Pausanias (iii. 1, 2, etc.) Taygete conceived through Zeus Lacedaemon, the mythical founder of Sparta, and Eurotas. Pausanias was Greek traveller and geographer of the 2nd century A.D., who lived in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. ... Lacedaemon, or Lakedaimon, Grk. ... Sparta (Grk. ... Eurotas is the name of a river in the region of the Peloponnesus in Greece. ...

External link

• Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities 1898: Taygete