L is for Lyssa

This is a challenge to post every day in April (except on Sundays) blogging thematically from A to Z. Go HERE for details. My A-Z theme this year is Greek Mythology inspired by the book The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan that I recently read.  Please be aware that what I write is my interpretation of my findings and may not necessarily be accurate are straight quotes.

From left to right: Zeus, Lyssa, Actaeon, and Artemis

Lyssa:

• One of the primeval gods who was a daughter of Nyx, the goddess of night, who was believed to be the mother of everything mysterious and anything that was inexplicable and unpleasant, such as death, disease, sleep, ghosts, dreams, witchcraft and enchantments.
• Her father was Erebus, who reigned in a palace in the dark regions of the Underworld.
•  As the sister of the many of the dark gods of death, night and the Underworld,
• She personified mad rage and frenzy.  
• She was also the spirit of rabies in dogs and small animals, a deadly disease that causes madness and convulsions and is transmissible to humans.
• She was strongly associated with the Maniae. The Maniae were evil spirits personifying Insanity, madness and crazed frenzy, the goddess of insanity was called Insania or Mania meaning madness. Insania and the Maniae were companions of both Lyssa and her infernal sisters, the Furies (Erinyes), the goddesses of Vengeance & Retribution.
• In Herakles she is called upon by Hera to inflict the hero Heracles with insanity. In this scenario she is shown to take a temperate, measured approach to her role, professing "not to use [her powers] in anger against friends, nor [to] have any joy in visiting the homes of men." She counsels Iris, who wishes to carry out Hera's command, against targeting Heracles but, after failing to persuade, bows to the orders of the superior goddess and sends him into a mad rage that causes him to murder his wife and children.
• She drove Actaeon's hunting dogs mad so they killed him after he had glanced upon a naked Artemis as she was bathing.

I don't like this chick!!!

Sources:
Gods Laid Bare
Tales Beyond Belief
Wikipedia

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Featured Book:

Love Your Frenemies by Mina V. Esguerra