Autonoe is attested in Greek genealogical tradition as one of the daughters of Cadmus, founder of Thebes, and Harmonia. In that role she appears in the Theban family-cycle as the wife of Aristaeus and mother of Actaeon (with some sources adding Macris as a possible daughter). Separately, the name Autonoe occurs in extant catalogues of the fifty Nereids, where she is listed as a daughter of the sea-god Nereus and the Oceanid Doris. The sources provided do not present an origin narrative that unifies the Theban Autonoe with the Nereid Autonoe; they are best treated as distinct namesakes or variant local traditions.
No ancient sources in the provided material give a descriptive portrait of Autonoe in either the Theban or Nereid context. Ancient attestations record her by genealogical placement and name only; therefore no details of dress, features, or iconography are preserved in the cited sources.
Ancient sources cited here do not attribute individual supernatural powers, specialized domains, or cultic offices to Autonoe beyond her genealogical and narrative roles. As mother and daughter within the Cadmean family she functions narratively (producing Actaeon, relating to other daughters like Semele, Ino, and Agave). As a Nereid-name in lists, Autonoe would belong generically to the class of sea-nymphs, though no specific acts, interventions, or deeds are recorded for her in the provided materials.
Weaknesses
- otherNo weaknesses attested in the provided sources
Wards
- otherNo warding practices specifically directed at Autonoe are recorded in the provided sources
Aristaeus
Aristaeus (Ancient Greek: Ἀρισταῖος) is a mythic culture-hero and minor godlike figure in Greek tradition, honored as the patron and transmitter of rural arts (notably beekeeping, dairying, olive cultivation, and viticulture). He functions as a liminal figure between mortal heroes and divinities, appearing in local cults across the Greek world and in literary narratives that explain the origin and restoration of pastoral practices.
Actaeon
A mortal hunter of Greek myth who, in multiple traditions, is transformed into a stag and torn apart by his own hounds after transgressing the goddess Artemis. He functions as a mythic exemplar about proper deference to divine boundaries and, in some locales, became the focus of cultic rites and memorials.
Cadmus
Cadmus is a legendary Phoenician prince and culture-hero in Greek myth, credited with founding Thebes, slaying a local dragon/guardian, marrying Harmonia, and—by some ancient sources—bringing a Phoenician script to Greece.
Acacallis
Acacallis (Ancient Greek: Ἀκακαλλίς; also Acalle) is a mythological princess of Crete in Greek tradition, daughter of King Minos and Pasiphae. She functions primarily as a dynastic and etiological figure: in varying accounts she is mother, by gods such as Hermes (Mercury) or Apollo, of eponymous or founder-figures like Cydon (founder of Cydonia), Miletus, or Lydon/ Lydus.
Acanthis
Acanthis is a young woman in Greek myth, daughter of Autonous and Hippodamia, who is transformed into a thistle finch by the gods as an etiological explanation for the bird's name. The story is preserved chiefly in Antoninus Liberalis' Metamorphoses and summarized in modern reference works.
Acaste
Acaste (Ancient Greek: Ἀκάστη) is a named Oceanid — one of the daughters of the Titans Oceanus and Tethys — recorded among the companions of Persephone at the moment of her abduction; the name also appears separately as a nurse of the daughters of King Adrastus of Argos in later genealogical lists.
Achaeus
Achaeus (Ancient Greek: Ἀχαιός, Akhaiós) is an eponymous personal name borne by three mythological human figures in Greek tradition; best attested is Achaeus, son of Xuthus and Creusa, brother of Ion and grandson of Hellen, who is named as father of Archander and Architeles in Pausanias. The name is glossed as meaning "griever," from ἄχος (achos, "grief, pain, woe").
Aegle
Aegle (Ancient Greek: Αἴγλη, 'brightness' or 'dazzling light') is a name applied to several distinct female figures in Greek myth: a daughter of Asclepius associated with health, a Naiad mother of the Charites by Helios and Neaera, one of the Heliades transformed into a poplar after Phaeton's death, a named Hesperid, an alternate name for Coronis in some traditions, a daughter of Panopeus beloved by Theseus, and a nurse of Dionysus. The recurrence of the name links these figures by the themes of brightness, beauty, and filial or nymph-like status rather than by a single unified identity.
Aello
Aello (Ancient Greek: Ἀελλώ) is a named figure in Greek myth primarily attested as one of the Harpies—winged female personifications of storm-wind who harry, snatch, and torment. The name also appears in variant lists as applied to an Actaeonian hunting dog, showing onomastic fluidity in the tradition.
Agaptolemus
Agaptolemus (Ancient Greek: Ἀγαπτόλεμος) is a mythic Greek prince, one of the fifty sons of King Aegyptus, best known as the husband of the Danaid Pirene who, like most of the Danaids, slew her husband on their wedding night at the command of her father Danaus.
Agave
Agave (Ancient Greek: Agaue/Agaúē) is a personal name borne by at least two distinct figures in Greek myth: a Nereid (one of the fifty sea-nymph daughters of Nereus) and a Theban princess, daughter of Cadmus, who appears in myths connected with Dionysus. The name is glossed in Greek sources as 'illustrious', 'noble', or 'high-born'.
Agrius
Agrius (Ancient Greek: Ἄγριος, 'wild') is an onomastic figure in Greek myth whose name is applied to multiple distinct personae—including a Giant, a centaur, a bear‑born twin, a princely son, a suitor of Penelope, and one of Actaeon's dogs—rather than a single unified supernatural being. Each attestation places an Agrius in different narrative registers (Gigantomachy, Heracles' labors, heroic genealogies, the Odyssean cycle, and the Actaeon hunt).
Agron
Agron (Ancient Greek: Ἄγρων, 'wild' or 'rustic') is a human/mortal figure attested in the summary of Antoninus Liberalis' Metamorphoses (as presented on Wikipedia) who, because of impiety toward certain gods, is transformed by Hermes into a plover. The tale functions as an etiological metamorphosis and moral exemplum about observing cult obligations.
Aitolos
Aitolos is a name that appears in Greek-language traditions referring to two distinct figures: Aetolus, a mythic genealogical ancestor in classical Greek myth (son of Endymion, descendant of Deucalion), and Kosmas Aitolos (St. Cosmas of Aetolia), a historical/hagiographic Orthodox teacher whose collected writings emphasize pastoral and ascetical themes. The sources do not present Aitolos as a single folkloric supernatural being.
Alcestis
Alcestis (Ancient Greek: Ἄλκηστις, Álkēstis) is a mortal princess of Greek myth famed for voluntarily dying in place of her husband Admetus and being temporarily returned from the underworld through Heracles’ intervention. Her story highlights conjugal devotion, substitutive death, and the need for purification after contact with chthonic powers.
Community Record
- [1]Autonoe (daughter of Cadmus) — Wikipedia. Wikipedia, 'Autonoë (daughter of Cadmus)'wiki
- [2]Autonoe (mythology) — Wikipedia. Wikipedia, 'Autonoe (mythology)'wiki
- [3]Apollodorus summary (archive audio) — 'The Daughters of Thebe'. Archive item summarizing Apollodorus; cited for listing Cadmus's daughters including Autonoeliterary
- [4]Archive: github.com-blobject-autonoe. Archived page listing Autonoe among Nereids and giving name glossother
- [5]Name gloss and Nereid listing (compilation). Archived compilation noting that Autonoe is glossed 'think for oneself' and appears among the Nereidsother
- [6]Myth Index — Names A: Autonoe entry. MythIndex entry listing Autonoe among Cadmus's daughters and as a Nereid nameother