Admete (Admeta)

In the Heracles cycle Admete is presented as a daughter of King Eurystheus of Tiryns / Mycenae; Eurystheus commands Heracles to fetch for her the girdle of Hippolyte, queen of the Amazons, as one of the labors. In a separate tradition recorded in summaries of local lore, Admete was a priestess of Hera at Argos who fled with the cult image of Hera to Samos; after Samians recovered the image it was purified and restored to the Samian temple by Admete, an event commemorated locally by an annual festival called Tonea. Sources note that the Argive version may have been formulated to claim precedence for Argive worship of Hera.

Surviving sources provide no detailed physical description of Admete; she is identified by social roles (princess of Eurystheus' house and, in one tradition, priestess of Hera) rather than particular bodily or iconographic features.

No supernatural powers are attributed. Literary and local accounts portray her in human, social, and ritual capacities: as the named recipient whose desire for Hippolyte's girdle motivates one of Heracles' labors (and in one report as accompanying Heracles on that expedition), and as a cultic attendant who purified and restored a Hera image following its transfer to Samos. These actions are described as human, ritual, and narrative roles rather than magical abilities.