Galaxy/The codex of Phoebe

In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Phoebe (Ancient Greek: Φοίβη, "bright") was a Titaness, daughter of Uranus and Gaia. Consort of her brother Coeus, she bore Leto and Asteria and is thus grandmother of Apollo, Artemis, and Hecate. Hesiod calls her golden-crowned; Aeschylus credits her with holding Delphi's oracle before gifting it to Apollo. Distinct from the Leucippid Phoebe and from Artemis' lunar epithet of the same name.

Adapted from Wikipedia, "Phoebe (Titaness)" · CC BY-SA 4.0

I.Family and attributes

As one of the Titans born to Sky and Earth, Phoebe married Coeus and bore Leto (mother of Apollo and Artemis) and Asteria (mother of Hecate). Roman poets later used Phoebe and Phoebus as names for the moon and sun — Luna/Diana and Sol/Apollo — but Phoebe herself was not actively worshipped as a moon goddess in her own right; her grandchildren inherited the bright name.

Hesiod's Theogony gives her the epithet khrysostéphanos, "golden-crowned."

II.Delphi and the Gigantomachy

In the opening of Aeschylus' Eumenides the Delphic priestess recounts that Gaia held the oracle, then Themis, then Phoebe, who passed both the shrine and her name to her grandson Apollo as a birthday gift. Modern scholars have doubted whether this Delphic succession is Aeschylus' invention rather than early cult history.

Despite sparse mythology, she appears on the Pergamon Altar Gigantomachy frieze fighting a beast-featured Giant with a flaming torch beside her daughter Asteria.

AT A GLANCE

Greek namePhoibē (Φοίβη)
Typetitan
Domainsbrightness · the lineage of Leto · ancestry of prophecy
EpithetsChrysostephanos
ParentageUranus · Gaia
Cult centersDelphi
EtymologyGreek Phoíbē is the feminine of Phoîbos, "pure, bright, radiant" — an epithet of Apollo that also yielded senses of prophecy (phoibázō, "to prophesy").
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