Alastor

Alastor

Alastor (English translation: "avenger") can refer to a number of people and concepts related to Greek mythology:Citation | last = Schmitz | first = Leonhard | author-link = | contribution = Alastor | editor-last = Smith | editor-first = William | title = Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology | volume = 1 | pages = 89 | publisher = Little, Brown and Company | place = Boston | year = 1867 | contribution-url = http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/0098.html ]

*Alastor was an epithet of the Greek god Zeus, according to Hesychius of Alexandria and the "Etymologicum Magnum", which described him as the avenger of evil deeds, specifically, familial bloodshed. As the personification of a curse, it was also an epithet of the Erinyes.Citation | last = Rose | first = Herbert Jennings | author-link = H. J. Rose | contribution = Alastor | editor-last = Hornblower | editor-first = Simon | title = Oxford Classical Dictionary | volume = | pages = | publisher = Oxford University Press | place = Oxford | year = 1996 | contribution-url = ] The name is also used, especially by the tragic writers, to designate any deity or demon who avenges wrongs committed by men. [Pausanias, "Description of Greece" viii. 24. § 4] [Plutarch, "De Defectu Oraculorum" 13, &c.] [Aeschylus, "Agamemnon" 1479, 1508, "The Persians" 343] [Sophocles, "The Trachiniae" 1092] [Euripides, "Phoenician Women" 1550, &c.] In Euripides' play "Elecktra", Orestes questions an oracle who calls upon him to kill his mother, and wonders if the oracle was not from Apollo, but some malicious "alastor". [Euripides, "Elecktra" 979] There was an altar to Zeus Alastor just outside the city walls of Thasos. [Citation | first = Susan Guettel | last = Cole | author-link = | first2 = | last2 = | author2-link = | editor-last = Herman Hansen | editor-first = Mogens | editor2-last = | editor2-first = | contribution = Civic Cult and Civic Identity | contribution-url = | title = Sources for the Ancient Greek City-State: Symposium August, 24-27 1994 | year = 1994 | pages = 310 | place = Copenhagen | publisher = Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters | url = http://books.google.com/books?id=y-c56ta4BKwC | doi = | id = ]
**By the time of the 4th century BC, "alastor" in Greek had degraded to a generic type of insult, with the approximate meaning of "scoundrel".
*Alastor, a son of Neleus and Chloris. When Heracles took Pylos, Alastor and his brothers, except Nestor, were killed by him. [Apollodorus, i. 9. § 9] [Scholiast on Apollonius of Rhodes, i. 156] According to Parthenius of Nicaea, he was to be married to Harpalyce, who, however, was taken from him by her father Clymenus. [Parthenius of Nicaea, c. 13]
*Alastor, a Lycian, who was a companion of Sarpedon, and was slain by Odysseus. [Homer, "Iliad" v. 677] [Ovid, "Metamorphoses" xiii. 257]
**"Alastorides" is a patronymic form given by Homer to Tros, who was probably a son of the Lycian Alastor mentioned above. [Homer, "Iliad" xx. 463]
*Another, unrelated Alastor is mentioned in the "Iliad" of Homer. [Homer, "Iliad" viii. 333, xiii. 422]
*Alastor, in Christian demonology, came to be considered a kind of possessing entity.cite book | last = Sorenson | first = Eric | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = Possession and Exorcism in the New Testament and Early Christianity | publisher = Mohr Siebeck | date = 2002 | location = | pages = 78 | url = http://books.google.com/books?id=zh4o4LijeQkC | doi = | id = | isbn = 3-16-147851-7] He was likened to Nemesis. The name Alastor was also used as a generic term for a class of evil spirits. Edward Alexander Crowley, 20th century ceremonial magician, changed his first name to Aleister. The difference in spelling can be attributed to the fact that 'Alastor Crowley' does not add up to 666 in any kind of English gematria.

ee also

*Alastor in other media

References


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  • Alastor — ? Alastor Научная классификация Царство: Животные Тип: Членистоногие Класс: Насекомые …   Википедия

  • Alastor — (griechisch Ἀλάστωρ) ist in der griechischen Mythologie der Dämon des auf Frevel beruhenden Fluches. Insbesondere bezieht es sich auf den Fluch, der auf dem Haus des Atreus lastete, ursprünglich verursacht durch den Mord des Orestes an… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • ALASTOR — Plutonis equorum unus, quorum nomina ponit Claudian. l. 1. de Rapt. Proserp. circa fin. Orphnaeus crudele micans, Aethonque sagittâ Ocior, et Stygii crudelis gloria Nycteus Armenti, Ditisque notâ signatus Alastor, Item unus sociorum Sarpedonis ad …   Hofmann J. Lexicon universale

  • Alastor — (gr., Bestrafer des Bösen), 1) Beiname[256] rächender Götter; 2) Sohn des Peleus u. der Chloris; wollte die Harpalyke, Tochter des Klymenos, heirathen, aber sein Schwiegervater schlich ihm, da er die Braut heimführen wollte, nach u. erschlug ihn …   Pierer's Universal-Lexikon

  • Alástor — (griech.), Rachegeist, der den Frevler rastlos verfolgt und in seinem Geschlecht fortwirkt …   Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon

  • Alástor — (grch.), in den griech. Dramen der Rachegeist, der für jeden Frevel eine rächende Tat hervorruft …   Kleines Konversations-Lexikon

  • Alastor — ALASTOR, ŏris, Gr. Ἀλάστωρ, ορος, ein eingebildeter Plagegeist der Alten, daher Cicero selbst aus Rache gegen den August auf die verzweifelten Gedanken fiel, in dessen Haus zu schleichen, und sich bey dem Heerde in demselben umzubringen, damit er …   Gründliches mythologisches Lexikon

  • Alastor [1] — ALASTOR, ŏris, ein Beynamen des Jupiters, nach welchem er so viel heißt, als einer, der die bösen und lasterhaften Menschen bestrafet. Phurnut. de N.D. c. 9 …   Gründliches mythologisches Lexikon

  • Alastor [2] — ALASTOR, ŏris, (⇒ Tab. XXX.) des Neleus und der Chloris Sohn, Apollod. lib. I. c. 9. §. 9. heurathete des Clymenus Tochter, die Harpalyce. Indem er aber mit solcher nach Hause kehren wollte, so folgete ihm sein Schwiegervater nach, und, weil er… …   Gründliches mythologisches Lexikon

  • Alastor [3] — ALASTOR, ŏris, einer von des Sarpedons Leuten aus Lycien, welchen Ulysses vor Troja erlegete. Homer. Iliad. Ε. v. 677. & Ovid. Metam. XIII. v. 257 …   Gründliches mythologisches Lexikon

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