Thalia (Ancient Greek: Θάλεια), also spelled Thaleia, is a goddess of Greek mythology, one of the three Charites (known in Roman mythology as the Graces). She personifies festivity, rich banquets and abundance, and in the standard genealogy is a daughter of Zeus and the Oceanid Eurynome, alongside her sisters Aglaea and Euphrosyne. Like her fellow Graces she is closely associated with Aphrodite, in whose retinue she belongs.
Adapted from Wikipedia, "Thalia (Grace)" · CC BY-SA 4.0
I.Overview
In Greek mythology, Thalia is one of the Charites, the goddesses of grace and beauty who are called the Graces in Roman mythology. She is regarded as the goddess of festivity and rich banquets.
Her name, from the Ancient Greek θάλεια, is an adjective applied to feasts meaning rich, plentiful, luxuriant and abundant, fitting her role among the divine personifications of charm and good cheer. She should be distinguished from Thalia the Muse of comedy, who bears the same name.
II.Family
In the standard genealogy Thalia is a daughter of Zeus and the Oceanid Eurynome, and one of three Charites together with her sisters Aglaea and Euphrosyne. Alternative traditions instead make her a daughter of Dionysus and Koroneia, or of the sun-god Helios and the Naiad Aegle.
As one of the Graces she dwells on Mount Olympus among the gods.
III.Mythology
Thalia was honoured as the goddess of festivity and rich banquets, and was associated with Aphrodite as part of the love-goddess's retinue.
In art she and her sisters were usually depicted dancing together in a circle, a motif that recurs in later sculpture such as Antonio Canova's The Three Graces.
IV.Cult
Boeotia in central Greece was a major centre of cult for the Charites, including Thalia, where the three Graces received worship together.