Maia  

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Vulcan and Maia[1]

Maia in Greek mythology, was the eldest of the Pleiades, the seven daughters of Atlas and Pleione. She and her sisters, born on Mount Cyllene in Arcadia, are sometimes called mountain goddesses, oreads, for Simonides of Ceos sang of "mountain Maia" (Maia oureias) "of the lively black eyes". Maia was the oldest, most beautiful and shyest. Aeschylus repeatedly identified her with Gaia.

She and her sisters were pursued by Orion, and turned into doves to preserve their safety. According to the Homeric Hymn to Hermes, Zeus in the dead of night secretly begot Hermes upon Maia, who avoided the company of the gods, in a cave of Cyllene. After giving birth to the baby, Maia wrapped him in blankets and went to sleep. The rapidly-maturing infant Hermes crawled away to Thessaly, where by nightfall of his first day he stole some of Apollo's cattle and invented a lyre. Maia refused to believe Apollo when he claimed Hermes was the thief and Zeus then sided with Apollo. Finally, Apollo exchanged the cattle for the lyre.

Maia also raised the infant Arcas to protect him from Hera, who had turned his mother, Callisto, into a bear. Arcas is the eponym of Arcadia.

In Roman mythology, Maia was identified with Maia Maiestas (also called Fauna, Bona Dea (the 'Good Goddess') and Ops), a goddess who may be equivalent to an old Italic goddess of spring. The month of May was named for her; the first and fifteenth of May were sacred to her. On the first of May the flamen of Vulcan sacrificed to her a pregnant sow, an appropriate sacrifice also for an earth goddess such as Bona Dea: a sow-shaped wafer might be substituted.

References

• Harry Thurston Peck, Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, 1898
• Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1911.