Limos

For the French municipality known as Limós in Occitan, see Limoux. For the plural of limo, see limousine. For the Greek island, see Limnos.

In Greek mythology, Limos (Ancient Greek: Λιμός, romanized: Līmós, lit. 'Famine, Hunger, Starvation')^[1] is the personification of famine or hunger. Of uncertain sex, Limos was, according to Hesiod's Theogony, the offspring of Eris (Strife), with no father mentioned.^[2] Like all of the children of Eris given by Hesiod, Limos is a personified abstraction allegorizing the meaning of the Greek word limos, and represents one of the many harmful things which might be thought to result from discord and strife, with no other identity.^[3]

Limos was held in particular regard at Sparta. The equivalent in Roman mythology is Fames.

Gender

The gender of the Greek word limos can be either masculine or feminine.^[4] The same gender uncertainty applied also to the personification, which could be considered as either a man or a woman. At Byzantium there was a statue of Limos as a man, while there was a painting of Limos as a woman at Sparta.^[5]

Descriptions

In Hesiod's Works and Days, Limos is presented as the antithesis of Demeter (the goddess of grain).^[6] According to Hesiod, in contrast to Demeter, who loves the hard-working man, filling his "granary with the means of life", Limos hates him, and "is ever the companion of a man who does not work".^[7] The Greek Iambic poet Semonides (c. seventh century BC), describes Limos as "a hostile housemate, enemy of the gods".^[8] These archaic descriptions of Limos as a "companion" and "housemate" seemingly regard Limos as a being able to enter one's house and dwell there.^[9]

At Sparta

Limos was one of seven abstractions respected, and possibly deified, at Sparta. The other six were Phobos (Fear), Aidos (Modesty or Reserve), Hypnos (Sleep), Thanatos (Death), Gelos (Laughter), and Eros (Love). These were all abstractions associated with physical states of the body, or psychological states with physical manifestations.^[10] Also at Sparta, there was a painting of Limos (as mentioned above) at the temple of Apollo^[11] "in the form of a woman"^[12] and described as "a woman pale, and emaciated, with her hands tied behind her."^[13]

Notes

1. 'Limos' is variously translated as 'Famine' (Hard, p. 31; Gantz, p. 10), 'Hunger' (Most, p. 21) or 'Starvation' (Caldwell, p. 42 on 212–232); compare LSJ s.v. λιμός.
2. Grimal. s.v. Limos; Hesiod, Theogony 227 (Caldwell, p. 43).
3. Hard, p. 31; Gantz, p. 10.
4. Farone p. 67.
5. West, p. 231 n. 227 Λιμόν. For the statue at Byzantium see Codinus, p. 60 Bekker, which mentions statues of the biblical pair of Adam and Eve as being located alongside those of Limos paired with the female Euthenia (Prosperity). For the painting at Sparta see Athenaeus, 10.452a-b [= Callisthenes FGrH 124 F 13]; Polyaenus, 2.15.
6. Hopkinson, 135.
7. West, p. 231 n. 227 Λιμόν; Hopkinson, 135; Hesiod, Works and Days 299–302.
8. Semonides, fr. 7.100.
9. Giuseppetti, p. 114 n. 52.
10. Richer p. 92–93.
11. Richer p. 102 n. 26; West, p. 231 n. 227 Λιμόν.
12. Athenaeus, 10.452a-b [= Callisthenes FGrH 124 F 13].
13. Richer p. 102 n. 26; Polyaenus, 2.15. Polyaenus is relating the same anecdote about Hippodamas as Callisthenes, and so is presumably describing the same painting, although according Polyaenus, the painting "hung in the temple of Chalcioecus", presumably referring to the sanctuary of Athena Chalkiokos at Sparta.

References

• Athenaeus, The Learned Banqueters, Volume V: Books 10.420e-11, edited and translated by S. Douglas Olson, Loeb Classical Library No. 274, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2009. ISBN 978-0-674-99632-8. Online version at Harvard University Press.
• Caldwell, Richard, Hesiod's Theogony, Focus Publishing/R. Pullins Company (June 1, 1987). ISBN 978-0-941051-00-2. Internet Archive.
• Codinus, George, De signis, Statius et Aliis spectatu dignis Constatinopoli in Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae: Georgius Codinus, edited by Immanuel Bekker, translated into Latin by Peter Lambeck, Bonn, Impensis Ed. Weberi, 1843. Internet Archive.
• Farone, Christopher, A., "Boubrôstis, Meat Eating and Comedy: Erysichthon as Famine Demon in Callimachus’ Hymn to Demeter" in Gods and Religion in Hellenistic Poetry, edited by M.A. Harder, R.F. Recruit, G.C. Walker, Peeters Publishers, 2012. ISBN 978-9042924840.
• Gantz, Timothy, Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996. Two volumes: ISBN 978-0-8018-5360-9 (Vol. 1), ISBN 978-0-8018-5362-3 (Vol. 2).
• Giuseppetti, Massimo, "Two Poets for a Goddess: Callimachus’ and Philicus’ Hymns to Demeter" in Gods and Religion in Hellenistic Poetry, edited by M.A. Harder, R.F. Recruit, G.C. Walker, Peeters Publishers, 2012. ISBN 978-9042924840.
• Grimal, Pierre, The Dictionary of Classical Mythology, Wiley-Blackwell, 1996. ISBN 978-0-631-20102-1. Internet Archive.
• Hard, Robin (2004), The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology", Psychology Press, 2004, ISBN 9780415186360. Google Books.
• Hesiod, Theogony, in Hesiod, Theogony, Works and Days, Testimonia, Edited and translated by Glenn W. Most. Loeb Classical Library No. 57. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2018. ISBN 978-0-674-99720-2. Online version at Harvard University Press.
• Hesiod, Works and Days, in Hesiod, Theogony, Works and Days, Testimonia, Edited and translated by Glenn W. Most. Loeb Classical Library No. 57. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2018. ISBN 978-0-674-99720-2. Online version at Harvard University Press.
• Hodkinson, Stephen, and Anton Powell. 1999. Sparta: new perspectives. London: Duckworth. ISBN 978-1-910589-32-8.
• Kilarski, Marcin, Nominal Classification: A History of its Study From the Classical Period to the Present, John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2013, ISBN 978-90-272-4612-7.
• Liddell, Henry George, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, revised and augmented throughout by Sir Henry Stuart Jones with the assistance of Roderick McKenzie, Clarendon Press Oxford, 1940. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Richer, Nicolas, "Aidōs at Sparta" in Sparta: new perspectives, edited by Stephen Hodkinson, and Anton Powell, 1999, London: Duckworth. ISBN 978-1-910589-32-8.
• Semonides in Greek Iambic Poetry: From the Seventh to the Fifth Centuries BC, edited and translated by Douglas E. Gerber. Loeb Classical Library No. 259. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1999. Online version at Harvard University Press.
• Shpherd, R., Polyænus's Stratagems of war; translated from the original Greek, London, 1793.
• West, M. L. (1966), Hesiod: Theogony, Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-814169-6.