- Paul Anthony Jones
Adrastea
(n.) an intensely, inescapably alluring woman
The fact that an Adrastea is “an alluring woman from whom you cannot escape” cropped up on Twitter a few days ago:
...and we thought you might like to know more about it.
As we mentioned in our tweet, the word Adrastea is an allusive reference to a character of that name from Greek mythology. Not, confusingly, a mountain nymph named Adrastea who is said to have helped to raise Zeus when he was an infant. Instead, this Adrastea was a daughter of Aphrodite and Ares (though some versions of the story claim that her father was Zeus), and a sister of Eros, the god of love.
Ares was the Greek god of war, whom Adrastea was believed to accompany into the heat of battle. Through association with him, she came to be considered a symbol of rebellion, revenge, destiny, and the balance between good and evil, and ultimately was often depicted alongside—or even considered interchangeable with—Nemesis, the goddess of divine retribution.
Because you cannot escape your fate, Adrastea’s name literally means “she from whom you cannot escape”; at its root is a Greek word essentially meaning “not running away”. And it’s that literal meaning, more than Adrastea’s role on the battlefield, that ultimately led to her name becoming a byword for any alluring, inescapable woman.
