Lampad (original) (raw)

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Torch-bearing nymphs of the goddess Hecate

In Greek mythology, the Lampads or Lampades (Ancient Greek: Λαμπάδες, from Ancient Greek: λαμπάς, romanized: lampás, lit. 'torch')[1] are torch-bearing nymphs who follow the goddess Hecate.

According to a scholium on Homer's Iliad, the Lampades are among the types of nymphs mentioned by the lyric poet Alcman (fl. seventh century BC); the scholiast describes them as the nymphs "who carry torches and lights with Hecate",[2] a description which Timothy Gantz claims was probably a creation of the scholiast, rather than of Alcman or another writer.[3] According to Claude Calame, the scholium's connection of these nymphs with Hecate is likely related to the common association of the goddess with torches.[4]

In Greek hexameters from Selinus dating to the fourth century BC, there is mention of "goddesses, bright with torches",[5] which Sarah Iles Johnston interprets as referring to the Lampades, pointing to their attestation as torch-carrying goddesses, and their association with Hecate, who is mentioned immediately after these figures in the text.[6]

1. ^ Serafini, p. 14. On lampás, see LSJ λαμπάς.
2. ^ Scholia minora on Homer's Iliad, 6.21 [= Alcman, fr. 63 Campbell, pp. 438, 439 = fr. 63 PMG (Page, p. 53)].
3. ^ Gantz, p. 141.
4. ^ Calame, p. 486. For a more detailed discussion of the Alcman fragment in the context of Hecate's association with torches, see Serafini, pp. 13–5.
5. ^ Johnston, pp. 32; Jordan and Kotansky, p. 57. Jordan and Kotansky render the last word of the phrase as [λ]αμπάδας.
6. ^ Johnston, pp. 32–3. Other scholars have provided differing interpretations: Jan Bremmer suggests identification with Demeter and Persephone, while Richard Janko points to Hecate and Persephone as possible candidates.

• Calame, Claude, Alcman: Introduction, texte critique, témoignages, traduction et commentaire, Rome, Edizioni dell'Ateneo, 1983. Internet Archive.
• Campbell, David A., Greek Lyric, Volume II: Anacreon, Anacreontea, Choral Lyric from Olympus to Alcman, Loeb Classical Library No. 143, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1988. ISBN 978-0-674-99158-3. Online version at Harvard University Press. Internet Archive.
• Gantz, Timothy, Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, Two volumes: ISBN 978-0-8018-5360-9 (Vol. 1), ISBN 978-0-8018-5362-3 (Vol. 2).
• Johnston, Sarah Iles, "Goddesses with Torches in the Getty Hexameters and Alcman fr. 94", in Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, Vol. 191 (2014), pp. 32–35. Internet Archive.
• Jordan, David R., and Roy D. Kotansky, "Ritual Hexameters in the Getty Museum: Preliminary Edition", in Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, Vol. 178 (2011), pp. 54–62. JSTOR 41616753.
• Liddell, Henry George, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, revised and augmented throughout by Sir Henry Stuart Jones with the assistance of Roderick McKenzie, Clarendon Press Oxford, 1940. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Page, Denys Lionel, Sir, Poetae Melici Graeci, Oxford University Press, 1962. ISBN 978-0-198-14333-8.
• Serafini, Nicola, "La Dea Ecate, le Torce e le Ninfe Lampadi: Un Frammento di Alcmane da Rivalutare (Fr. 63 Davies)", in Quaderni Urbinati di Cultura Classica, Vol. 104, No. 2 (2013), pp. 11–22. JSTOR 24645051.