Asterius (giant)

In Greek mythology, Asterius (Ἀστέριος) is a Giant (usually among the ones who took arms against the gods), the child of the deities Gaia (the Earth) and Uranus (the Sky) who fought and was killed by the goddess Athena.

Name
Asterius's name translates to 'starry', and thus 'glitterer, bright'. His name is also spelled Aster (Ἀστήρ), and another number of ways (see below). All variants derive from the word ἀστήρ, meaning 'star', which is itself inherited from the Proto-Indo-European root ' (“star”), from ', "to burn". Asterius' name thus shares an etymology with the names of Astraeus, Astraea, and Asteria.

Mythology
A Giant opponent of Athena is depicted on the Siphnian Treasury, a sixth century BC marble depiction of the Gigantomachy from Delphi, labelled 'Astarias'. Astarias lies dead on the ground near a male figure that has been identified as either Ares or Achilles, as Athena goes on to fight another Giant named Erictypus.

In the epic poem Meropis, the Giant, here spelled as Asterus, is presented as an invulnerable warrior from the Aegean island of Kos, who battles Heracles during his fight against the Meropes, the Koan race of Giants; Athena intervenes to save Heracles from demise and kills Asterus by flaying him. This is paralleled in Apollodorus's account, who wrote that during the fight against the Giants, Athena flayed and killed Pallas, and then used his skin for her aegis. Euripides, in his play Ion also mentions a Giant that Athena flayed during the Gigantomachy and then proceeded to wear his hide, but he names him Gorgon.

Pausanias also tells of Asterius, a son of Anax who was the son of Earth (the goddess Gaia), buried on the island of Asterius, near the Island of Lade, off the coast of Miletus, having bones ten cubits in length.

Culture
Asterius's killing by Athena was celebrated by the Athenians during the Panathenaea, a festival in honour of Athena; the Athenians claimed that the early inhabitants had set the festival up following the death of Asterius. The victory of the gods over the Giants was woven on the robe of the Panathenaea, perhaps with special emphasis on Athena's killing of Asterius, or maybe Enceladus.