Galaxy/The codex of Sterope

Sterope (also Asterope) is one of the Pleiades, a daughter of Atlas and Pleione. Apollodorus makes her the wife of Oenomaus of Pisa; Hyginus instead calls Oenomaus the son of Ares and Asterope daughter of Atlas. She is tied to the Pelops–Hippodameia cycle at Olympia.

Adapted from Wikipedia, "Sterope (Pleiades)" · CC BY-SA 4.0

I.Among the Pleiades

Sterope is listed with the other Atlantides in Apollodorus' catalogue of the Pleiades (Bibliotheca 3.10.1). Variant spelling Asterope appears in Hyginus and some astronomical lists; both names point to the same Pleiad in standard handbooks.

II.Oenomaus

Apollodorus says Sterope was married to Oenomaus, the king who challenged suitors of his daughter Hippodameia to a chariot race. Pausanias describes the east pediment of the temple of Zeus at Olympia with Oenomaus and Sterope among the figures of the Pelops myth (Description of Greece 5.10.6–7; cf. 6.21.7 on related local lore).

Hyginus Fabulae 84 makes Oenomaus the son of Mars (Ares) and Asterope daughter of Atlas — so Sterope/Asterope is mother rather than wife in that branch. The contradiction is a standing mythographic fork, not a modern error.

III.Homonyms

Other Steropes exist in Greek myth (including a Cyclops Steropes). The Pleiad is identified by Atlas parentage and the Oenomaus connection at Pisa–Olympia.

AT A GLANCE

Greek nameSteropē (Στερόπη)
Roman nameSterope
Typenymph
Domainsthe Pleiades · wife of Oenomaus · Pisa and the chariot race
ParentageAtlas · Pleione
SymbolsPleiades star-cluster · Olympia / Pisa (Oenomaus)
Cult centersPisa (Elis) · Olympia (east pediment tradition)
EtymologyAncient Greek Στερόπη (Sterópē) or Ἀστερόπη (Asterópē), "lightning" / "star-face."
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