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Adrasteia

Mythology
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A Cretan nymph entrusted with secretly raising the infant Zeus, protecting him from his father Cronus in Greek mythological tradition.

Detailed Definition
Adrasteia was a nymph entrusted with nurturing the infant Zeus in hiding on Mount Ida to protect him from his father Cronus. Alongside her sister Ida, she used noise and distraction to conceal Zeus’s cries. Poets reference Adrasteia to evoke themes of divine protection, hidden origins, and the nurturing forces that shield future greatness from destruction.
Example
Example in poetry:
Adrasteia, a nymph who helped raise Zeus in secret on Crete, is mentioned in the Orphic Hymns as a guardian of divine infancy; In Nonnus’s Dionysiaca, Adrasteia is invoked as a nurse of the young god Dionysus; Hesiod refers to Adrasteia as one of the Idaean nymphs entrusted with Zeus’s care; Roman poets sometimes conflate Adrasteia with Nemesis, goddess of retribution; Adrasteia appears in fragments of early Greek lyric poetry as a symbol of hidden protection; Later allegorical poetry uses Adrasteia to represent the inevitability of fate under another name.
Additional Notes
Adrasteia (or Adrastia) is a nymph who, with her sister Ida, helped raise the infant Zeus in secret on Crete to protect him from Cronus; she embodies divine nurture and concealment—poets may invoke her in works exploring hidden divinity, childhood of gods, or the tension between fate and protection; sometimes conflated with Nemesis as a goddess of inevitability.
Also Known As
Nemesis of Inevitability Inescapable Justice Adrastia
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