Maia

Maia
Member of the Pleiades
Hermes and Maia, detail from an
Attic red-figure amphora (c. 500 BC)
AbodeMount Cyllene, Arcadia
Genealogy
ParentsAtlas and Pleione or Aethra
Siblings
(b) Hyades
(c) Hyas
ConsortZeus
ChildrenHermes

Maia (/ˈm.ə, ˈm.ə/; Ancient Greek: Μαῖα; also spelled Maie, Μαίη; Latin: Maia),[1] in ancient Greek religion and mythology, is one of the Pleiades and the mother of Hermes, one of the major Greek gods, by Zeus, the king of Olympus.[2]

  1. ^ The alternate spelling Maja represents the intervocalic i as j, pronounced similarly to an initial y in English; hence Latin maior, "greater," in English became "major."
  2. ^ Homer, Odyssey 14.435; Apollodorus, 3.10.2; Horace, Odes 1.10.1 & 2.42 ff.; Tzetzes on Lycophron, 219