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Epidotes

In Greek mythology, Epidotes was a divinity who was worshipped at Lacedaemon, and averted the anger of Zeus Hicesius for the crime committed by the Spartan general Pausanias.

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Jun 9, 2026
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In Greek mythology, Epidotes (Ancient Greek: Ἐπιδώτης) was a divinity who was worshipped at Lacedaemon, and averted the anger of Zeus Hicesius (Greek: Ζευς Ικέσιος) for the crime committed by the Spartan general Pausanias.1

Epidotes, meaning the "liberal giver" or "bountiful", occurs also as an epithet of other divinities, such as Zeus at Mantineia and Sparta,2 and of Hypnos and Oneiros at Sicyon, who had a statue in the temple of Asclepius there, which represented them in the act of sending a lion to sleep,3 and lastly of the beneficent gods, to whom a second-century senator, Antoninus, built a sanctuary at Epidaurus.4

Notes

Notes

  1. Pausanias, 3.17.8 (cited by Schmitz)
  2. Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio 8.9.1; Hesychius s.v. (cited by Schmitz)
  3. Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio 2.10.3 (cited by Schmitz)
  4. Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio 2.27.7 (cited by Schmitz)
References

References

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domainLeonhard Schmitz (1870). Smith, William (ed.). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)