The label Cleite functions as a conventional personal name in Greek mythic repertory rather than a single origin narrative. Multiple distinct women named Cleite appear in different traditional sources: one is the wife of Cyzicus in accounts tied to the Argonauts, who laments and is said to have hanged herself in grief when her husband is accidentally slain by the Argonauts and is associated in some variants with a spring named for her; another Cleite appears among the Danaids in traditions recorded by mythographers (the daughters of Danaus who marry sons of Aegyptus and sometimes kill them); a Cleite is listed among the maenads who accompany Dionysus on his Indian campaign in Nonnus' Dionysiaca; and yet another is named as mother of Meilanion by Erylaus, whose son falls defending Troy (sources and attributions summarized in the collected references). These instances are episodic placements of named mortal women within larger heroic and religious narratives rather than a single cosmogonic or cultic origin.
Surviving summaries and catalogues of the various Cleites provide no consistent physical description or iconography. The sources characterize these women by social and narrative roles—wife, mourner, bride, maenad, mother—and by actions (lamentation, suicide in one account, participation in Dionysian retinues) rather than by bodily detail. Where transformation is attested (a spring named for or deriving from a grieving Cleite), the change is a mythic metamorphosis motif rather than an invariant visual form.
No inherent supernatural powers are attributed to the figures named Cleite in the cited materials. Their attested behaviors are mortal and narrative: intense mourning (one Cleite is said to have hanged herself after Cyzicus' death), participation as a maenad in Dionysian campaigns (a role within Bacchic retinues), involvement in the Danaid wedding-slaying tradition (one Cleite is named among those who killed a husband), and motherhood of a warrior slain at Troy. Only a single tradition links a Cleite to metamorphosis into a spring or the naming of a spring after her; this is presented as an etiological metamorphosis typical of Greek myth rather than an ongoing magical faculty.
Weaknesses
- conditionmortal vulnerability (death, grief)
Wards
None recorded.
Aegius
Aegius (Ancient Greek: Αἴγιος) is a named mortal figure in Greek mythic genealogies, one of the fifty sons of King Aegyptus who married the daughters of Danaus and was slain on his wedding night. He appears only as a genealogical/legendary royal personage within the Danaid cycle rather than as a supernatural being.
Agreus
Agreus (also spelled Argeus) is attested in modern compilations as one of the Pans — a class of rustic, pan-like rural deities in classical Greek mythology. In modern database records he is additionally listed as a son of Apollo; beyond classificatory notes, surviving citations provide no detailed cultic or narrative material for him.
Alkyonides
In classical Greek mythology the Alkyonides (Alcyonides) are the seven daughters of the giant Alcyoneus. Classical summaries record that, in grief at their father's death, the daughters threw themselves into the sea; the mythic name survives in modern Greek toponymy as the Alkyonides Gulf.
Alseid
An Alseid (Ancient Greek: Ἀλσηΐδες, Alsēïdes) is a class of nymph in classical Greek mythology specifically associated with groves and glens. The term functions as a locality-category within the broader Greek taxonomy of nymphs; later modern sources reuse the label for varied fantasy and game creations.
Amphinome
Amphinome is an ancient Greek proper name attested for multiple distinct female figures in myth — chiefly a Nereid (sea-nymph) and several mortal women (including a wife of Aeson and one of the Peliades). The name is also reused in modern taxonomic and creative contexts (annelid genus, butterfly species, and contemporary fantasy), but these are later reuses rather than continuations of a single mythic being.
Androgeos
Androgeos (Greek Ἀνδρόγεως, Latin Androgeus) is a personal name borne by mortal figures in classical Greek and Roman literary tradition, most notably a son of Minos and Pasiphaë whose death in mythic narratives precipitates Athenian tribute to Crete. A separate, less-detailed bearer of the name is listed as a Greek soldier present at the sack of Troy in some sources.
Arge
Arge (Ancient Greek: Ἄργη, Árgē) is a name applied to several distinct female personages in Greek mythic traditions — a boastful huntress transformed by a god, one of the Hyperborean maidens honored at Delos, and a Cretan nymph attested in a rare variant of Dionysus’ birth. The name functions as an individuated personal name across local narratives rather than as a coherent supernatural taxon.
Butes
Boutes (Ancient Greek: Βούτης, Boútēs, literally 'herdsman') is a personal name applied to several distinct figures in Greek mythology — mortal princes, Argonauts, warriors, and local cult-heroes — rather than a single supernatural species. Bearers of the name appear across multiple heroic cycles and locales, notably an Athenian priest-hero, an Argonaut rescued by Aphrodite, and a Thracian punished by Dionysus.
Cilix
Cilix is a figure from Greek myth presented as a Phoenician prince and eponymous founder whose settlement in Asia Minor explains the place-name Cilicia. In modern usage the name is also applied to a genus of insects and to an impact structure on Jupiter's moon Europa, but those are scientific reuses of the name.
Eileithyia
Eileithyia is a Greek divine figure principally associated with childbirth and midwifery. Invoked to ease labour pains and ensure successful delivery, she appears in classical poetry, mythic episodes, and in long-lived local cults (notably cave-sanctuaries in Crete and sanctuaries in Aigion and other locales).
Lacedaemon
Lacedaemon (Lakedaimon, Lacaedemon) is a mythic eponymous king in classical Greek tradition: the legendary founder whose name is given to the region and polis of Lacedaemon/Sparta. He is presented genealogically as a son of Zeus and the Pleiad Taygete and as husband of Sparta, serving an etiological function linking the city to divine ancestry.
Manto (daughter of Teiresias)
Manto is a named figure in classical mythological lists identified in the supplied sources as a daughter of the seer Teiresias. The provided materials record her genealogical identity but do not supply narratives, descriptions, or ritual material concerning her.
Community Record
- [1]Cleite — Wikipedia. Wikipedia, 'Cleite' (entry summarizing multiple mythic women named Clite/Cleite and providing etymology 'renowned, famous')wiki
- [2]Cyzicus - Jason and the Argonauts (summary page). Cyzicus page summarizing the Argonautica episode in which Cyzicus is killed by Jason and noting Cleite's mourning and related variants about a spring/metamorphosisliterary
- [3]Quintus Smyrnaeus (summary as cited). Wikipedia entry citing Quintus Smyrnaeus for the Cleite who is mother of Meilanion (Trojan cycle reference)literary
- [4]Apollodorus / Danaid tradition (summary as cited). Wikipedia entry citing Apollodorus for the Cleite identified among the daughters associated with the Danaid mythsliterary
- [5]Nonnus, Dionysiaca (maenad list — summary as cited). Wikipedia entry citing Nonnus' Dionysiaca for the Cleite who follows Dionysus on his Indian campaignliterary