Algea (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Algea (Ancient Greek: Ἄλγεα, lit. 'pain, grief')^[1] is used by Hesiod in the plural as the personifications of pain.

In Hesiod's Theogony, the Algea are represented as the children of Eris, the goddess of strife.^[2] They were siblings to Lethe, Limos, Horkos, Ponos and many other personifications.^[3]

"And hateful Eris bore painful Ponos ("Hardship"),

Lethe ("Forgetfulness") and Limos ("Starvation") and the tearful Algea ("Pains"),

Hysminai ("Battles"), Makhai ("Wars"), Phonoi ("Murders"), and Androktasiai ("Manslaughters");

Neikea ("Quarrels"), Pseudea ("Lies"), Logoi ("Stories"), Amphillogiai ("Disputes")

Dysnomia ("Anarchy") and Ate ("Ruin"), near one another,

and Horkos ("Oath"), who most afflicts men on earth,

Then willing swears a false oath."^[4][5]

• Beekes, Robert S. P., Etymological Dictionary of Greek, 2 vols, Leiden, Brill, 2009. ISBN 978-90-04-17418-4.
• Caldwell, Richard, Hesiod's Theogony, Focus Publishing/R. Pullins Company (June 1, 1987). ISBN 978-0-941051-00-2. Internet Archive.
• Grimal, Pierre, The Dictionary of Classical Mythology, Wiley-Blackwell, 1996. ISBN 978-0-631-20102-1
• Hesiod, Theogony from The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, MA.,Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Schmitz, Leonhard (1870). "Algos". In Smith, William (ed.). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Vol. 1. p. 131.