Adrasteia



 Adrasteia

  Adrasteia was a nymph who was charged by Rhea with nurturing the infant Zeus, in secret in the Dictaean cave, to protect him from his father Kronos.

Adrasteia and her sister Ida, the nymph of Mount Ida, who also cared for the infant Zeus, were perhaps the daughters of Melisseus. The sisters fed the infant milk from the goat Amaltheia. The Korybantes, also known as the Curetes, whom the scholiast on Callimachus calls her brothers, also watched over the child; they kept Kronos from hearing him cry by beating their swords on their shields, drowning out the sound.

On the mainland of Greece, the spring called Adrasteia was at the site of the Temple of Nemean Zeus, a late Classic temple of c. 330 BC, but built on an archaic platform in a very ancient sanctuary near the cave of the Nemean Lion.

 