Atthis (mythology) explained

In Greek mythology, Atthis (Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: Ἀτθίς) or Attis (Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: Ἄττις) was the eponymous heroine of Attica.

Family

Atthis was an Athenian princess as the daughter of the autochthonous King Cranaus and Pedias, the Lacedaemonian daughter of Mynes. She was the sister of Cranaë and Cranaechme.^[1]

Mythology

When Attis died a virgin, her father Cranaus named in her honour the land Attica which was formerly called Actaea (Acte or Actica) after King Actaeus, its former ruler.

Other use

The two birds into which Philomele and her sister Procne were metamorphosed, were likewise called Attis.^[2]

Notes

1. [Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]
2. Martial, 1.54.9 & 5.67.2

References

• Pausanias, Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. . Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
• Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio. 3 vols. Leipzig, Teubner. 1903. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.