Galaxy/The codex of Ida

Cretan nymph, daughter of Melisseus and sister of Adrasteia, who nursed the infant Zeus in the Dictaean cave while the Curetes clashed their arms — distinct from the mountain itself and from the Trojan Ida of the Iliad.1

I

Apollodorus places Zeus' birth in the cave of Dicte and names Ida with Adrastia as the Melisseus-born nymphs who received the child from Rhea alongside the Curetes. Pausanias records that some Cretans claimed the holy nursery on Mount Ida instead — two caves on the island, both insisting they hid the cloud-gatherer.2

II

Hyginus counts Ida among the nurses of Jove, daughters of Melisseus in one tradition — the same Idaean sisterhood Rhea's story names when the infant was fed on Amalthea's milk and the armed dancers drowned every cry.3

the spine ignites as you read · hover a bond on the card — every mention of them lights in the story

BEYOND THE POETS

How the centuries since have seen Ida — art, artifacts and echoes.

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