Cleothera

Background

The daughters of Pandareus were born to Pandareus and Harmothoë, who were from either western Asia Minor or the island of Crete. After their father incurred the wrath of Zeus by stealing a sacred golden dog from his temple in Crete, he was killed by Zeus (with no mention of flight to Athens or Sicily in standard sources). Following his death, the daughters were adopted and raised by the goddess Aphrodite. The gods bestowed gifts upon them: Homer says Aphrodite gave them beauty, Hera wisdom, and Artemis stature.

When the girls came of age, Aphrodite sought suitable husbands for them. While she was away in heaven consulting Zeus to secure happy marriages, the sisters were kidnapped by the Harpies, who gave them to the Erinyes (Furies) to serve as handmaidens, never to be seen again. In Homer's account, only the two younger daughters were taken by the Harpies; Aëdon (wife of Zethus and mother of Itylus) is a separate figure, not a sister of the kidnapped daughters.

Origins, Family & the Question of Homeland

Cleothera's name, derived from the Ancient Greek Κλεόθηρα, carries the meaning 'glory seeker'—a fitting epithet for a figure whose story is shaped by forces far beyond her own agency. She was born to Pandareus and his wife Harmothoë, making her the sister of Aëdon and Merope. Some ancient authors additionally list a brother and a sister named Chelidon among Pandareus' children, though those particular genealogical traditions omit Cleothera and Merope entirely.

The family's geographic roots remain a point of scholarly contention. Pandareus is most commonly associated with Miletus in western Asia Minor, yet because of his adventures on Crete, some sources relocate the family to a Cretan city bearing the same name. A further tradition places them in Ephesus, a version that again excludes Cleothera. The modern scholar Francis Celoria has argued that the Pandareus of Miletus and the Pandareus of Ephesus were originally conceived as entirely separate mythological figures, suggesting that Cleothera's genealogy belongs specifically to the Milesian-Cretan strand of the legend.

The Theft of the Golden Dog & the Family's Downfall

The catastrophe that upended Cleothera's life began with her father's audacious crime. Pandareus attempted to steal a sacred golden dog that guarded the temple of Zeus in Crete. The theft incurred the wrath of the king of the gods, and the family was forced into a desperate flight—first to Athens, then onward to the island of Sicily. Their exile ended in tragedy: Zeus himself struck down both Pandareus and Harmothoë as punishment for the sacrilege.

The loss of their parents left the three daughters orphaned and vulnerable. In one variant of the myth, Zeus did not stop at killing the parents. He set the Harpies upon all three girls, apparently including the eldest, Aëdon, who in other versions had already married Zethus, king of Thebes. The Harpies snatched the young women and carried them off to the Erinyes, the goddesses of vengeance, who then conscripted them into servitude.

This darker telling underscores how completely the family's fate was sealed by a single act of hubris against the divine order.

Divine Patronage & the Kidnapping by the Erinyes

In the most widely attested version of the myth, the orphaned Cleothera and her sister Merope were taken under the protection of Aphrodite, the goddess of love and sensuality, who raised them as her own. The other Olympian goddesses joined in bestowing gifts upon the young women: Hera granted them wisdom and beauty, Artemis gave them a stately bearing, and Athena instructed them in the arts and crafts traditionally associated with women. By the time they reached maturity, both sisters had grown into women of striking beauty.

Aphrodite, eager to secure them suitable and happy marriages, ascended to heaven to consult Zeus directly. It was during her absence that the Erinyes struck. Assisted by either the winds or the Harpies, the goddesses of rage and revenge kidnapped Cleothera and Merope, dragging them away to serve as their handmaidens. The sisters were never seen again, their promising futures—shaped by divine blessing and the promise of marriage—snatched away in a single moment of violence.

Iconography & Place Among the Abducted

Though Cleothera's story is preserved almost entirely in literary sources, a rare visual trace survives through the testimony of the second-century traveller Pausanias. He records an ancient painting by the renowned archaic artist Polygnotus that depicted the myth of the maidens. Notably, in this artwork the sisters are identified not as Cleothera and Merope but as Cameiro and Clytie, a discrepancy that highlights the fluidity of names across Greek mythological traditions.

The painting shows the two women crowned with flowers and engaged in a game of dice—a serene, almost domestic image that stands in stark contrast to the violent kidnapping and servitude described in the literary accounts. Within the broader tapestry of Greek mythology, Cleothera's abduction belongs to a well-established pattern of women seized by supernatural forces. She stands alongside figures such as Persephone, Europa, Cydippe, and the pair Hilaeira and Phoebe, all of whom were carried off from their former lives by powers beyond human control.

This recurring motif underscores a persistent anxiety in Greek storytelling about the vulnerability of women to divine and chthonic authority.