Autonoe
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For other uses of the name Autonoe see Autonoe
In Greek mythology, Autonoë (Greek Ἀυτονόη) was a daughter of Cadmus, founder of Thebes, Greece, and the goddess Harmonia. She was the wife of Aristaeus and mother of Actaeon and possibly Macris.[1] In Euripides' play The Bacchae, she and her sisters were driven into a bacchic frenzy by the god Dionysus when Pentheus, the king of Thebes, refused to allow his worship in the city. When Pentheus came to spy on their revels, Agave, the mother of Pentheus and Autonoe's sister, spotted him in a tree. They tore him to pieces.
Actaeon, the son of Autonoe, was eaten by his own hounds. Autonoe, being distressed, left Thebes to go to Ereneia, a village of the Megarians, where she died. [2]
[edit] See Also
- Autonoe (moon) — a satellite of Jupiter
[edit] Notes
- ^ Apollodorus, Library 3.4.2
- ^ Pausanias, Description of Greece 1.44.5
