ate

/ayt/; Brit. /et/, v.

pt. of eat.

* * *

▪ Greek mythology

      Greek mythological figure who induced rash and ruinous actions by both gods and men. She made Zeus—on the day he expected the Greek hero Heracles, his son by Alcmene, to be born—take an oath: the child born of his lineage that day would rule “over all those dwelling about him” (Iliad, Book XIX). Zeus's wife, the goddess Hera, implored her daughter Eileithyia, the goddess of childbirth, to delay Heracles' birth and to hasten that of another child of the lineage, Eurystheus, who would therefore become ruler of Mycenae and have Heracles as his subject. Having been deceived, Zeus cast Ate out of Olympus, after which she remained on earth, working evil and mischief. Zeus later sent to earth the Litai (“Prayers”), his old and crippled daughters, who followed Ate and repaired the harm done by her.

* * *