Asteropea

Role: daughter of Pelias · First appears: Book 8 · Chapter 11

Asteropea was a daughter of Pelias and a sister of Antinoe. After Medea persuaded the daughters that she could make their father young, they took part in the process that ended with Pelias cut up and too little of him left for burial. They moved with Antinoe to Arcadia to escape condemnation for their father’s death, and their tombs were raised there. Mico the painter recorded their names beneath their portraits.

Relationship record

Life events

• Pelias’s daughters moved to Arcadia to escape condemnation for their father’s death.(Book 8 · Chapter 11 · 📍 Arcadia)
  • With: Antinoe
  • “This compelled them to go and live in Arcadia, and when they died their sepulchres were raised here.”

Book 8 · Chapter 11

• parent: Pelias (Asteropea is identified among the named daughters of Pelias.) “And if you should turn to the left from the temple of Poseidon, in about five stades you will come to the tombs of the daughters of Pelias. The people of Mantinea say they dwelt here to avoid the vituperations which came upon them for the death of their father. For as soon as Medea came to Iolcos she forthwith plotted against Pelias, really working for Jason’s interest, while ostensibly hostile to him. She told the daughters of Pelias that, if they liked, she could make their father a young man instead of an old man. So she slew a ram and boiled his flesh with herbs in a caldron, and she brought the old ram out of the caldron in the shape of a young man alive. After this she took Pelias to boil and cut him up, but his daughters got hardly enough of him to take to burial. This compelled them to go and live in Arcadia, and when they died their sepulchres were raised here. No poet has given their names so far as I know, but Mico the painter has written under their portraits the names Asteropea and Antinoe.”
• siblings with Antinoe (Both are named as the daughters of Pelias in the surrounding passage.) “No poet has given their names so far as I know, but Mico the painter has written under their portraits the names Asteropea and Antinoe.”
• with Medea (Medea deceived the daughters of Pelias into attempting to restore their father.) “She told the daughters of Pelias that, if they liked, she could make their father a young man instead of an old man. So she slew a ram and boiled his flesh with herbs in a caldron, and she brought the old ram out of the caldron in the shape of a young man alive. After this she took Pelias to boil and cut him up, but his daughters got hardly enough of him to take to burial. This compelled them to go and live in Arcadia, and when they died their sepulchres were raised here. No poet has given their names so far as I know, but Mico the painter has written under their portraits the names Asteropea and Antinoe.”
• with Mico (painter) (Mico painted Asteropea's portrait.) “No poet has given their names so far as I know, but Mico the painter has written under their portraits the names Asteropea and Antinoe.”

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Extracted from the original text of Pausanias' Description of Greece. Made with Rho MD.