In ancient Athens, Eleos (Ancient Greek Ἔλεος masculine gender) or Elea was the personification of compassion.[Bloch, para. 1.] Pausanias described her as "among all the gods the most useful to human life in all its vicissitudes."[ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Cited in ]
Mythology
Pausanias states that there was an altar in Athens dedicated to Eleos,
[Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio ] at which children of
Heracles sought refuge from
Eurystheus' prosecution.
[Apollodorus, 2.8.1] Adrastus also came to this altar after the defeat of the Seven against Thebes, praying that those who died in the battle be buried. Eleos was only recognized in Athens, where she was honored by the cutting of hair and the undressing of garments at the altar.
[Scholia to Sophocles's Oedipus at Colonus, 258]
Statius in Thebaid (1st century) describes the altar to Clementia in Athens (treating Eleos as feminine based on the grammatical gender in Latin): "There was in the midst of the city of an altar belonging to no god of power; gentle Clementia (Clemency) Eleos had there her seat, and the wretched made it sacred".
See also
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( Goddesses of Justice): Astraea, Dike, Themis, Prudentia
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( Goddesses of Injustice): Adikia
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( Aspects of Justice): (see also: Triple deity/Triple Goddess (Neopaganism))
Notes
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Apollodorus, The Library with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. ISBN 0-674-99135-4. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website.
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Bloch, René, "Eleos", in Brill's New Pauly: Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World. Antiquity, Volume 4, Cyr – Epy, edited by Hubert Cancik and Helmuth Schneider, Brill, 2004. .
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Gaius Julius Hyginus, Fabulae from The Myths of Hyginus translated and edited by Mary Grant. University of Kansas Publications in Humanistic Studies. Online version at the Topos Text Project.
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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
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Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio. 3 vols. Leipzig, Teubner. 1903. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
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Statius, Thebaid translated by John Henry Mozley. Loeb Classical Library. Online version at the Topos Text Project.
