Ate

Ate, in Greek mythology, the personification of criminal folly, the daughter of Zeus and Eris (Strife). She misled even Zeus to take a hasty oath, whereby Heracles became subject to Eurystheus. Zeus thereupon cast her by the hair out of Olympus, whither she did not return, but remained on earth, working evil and mischief (Iliad, xix. 91). She is followed by the Litae (Prayers), the old and crippled daughters of Zeus, who are able to repair the evil done by her (Iliad, ix. 502). In later times Ate is regarded as the avenger of sin (Sophocles, Antigone, 614, 625).

See J. Girard, Le Sentiment religieux en Grèce (1869); J.F. Scherer, De Graecorum Ates Notione atque Indole (1858); E. Berch, Bedeutung der Ate bei Aeschylos (1876); C. Lehrs, Populare Aufsatze aus dem Alterthum (1875); L. Schmidt, Die Ethik der alten Griechen (1882).

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