Editing Taygete (section)

== Mythology ==
As he mastered each of the local nymphs one by one, Olympic Zeus pursued Taygete, who invoked her protectress Artemis. The goddess turned Taygete into a [[Deer|doe]] with golden horns,<ref>[[Biogeography|Biogeographically]] speaking, in Greece the nearest species of deer in which females carry horns was and is the [[reindeer]] (Ruck and Staples p 173), a fact which has occasioned various speculations: see also  [[Deer (mythology)]]</ref> any distinction between the [[Titan (mythology)|Titan]]ess in her human form and in her doe form is blurred: the nymph who hunted the doe in the company of Artemis ''is'' the doe herself. As [[Pindar]] conceived the [[Mytheme|myth-element]] in his third Olympian Ode, "the doe with the golden horns, which once Taygete had inscribed as a sacred dedication to [[Sanctuary of Artemis Orthia|Artemis Orthosia]]", ("right-minded" Artemis)<ref>Emmet Robbins, "Heracles, the Hyperboreans, and the Hind: Pindar, "OL." 3", ''Phoenix'' '''36'''.4 (Winter 1982:295-305) 302f notes that the association of Artemis with Orthia = Orthosia was under way in the sixth century BCE.</ref> was the very [[Ceryneian Hind]] that [[Heracles]] later pursued. For the poet, the transformation was incomplete, and the doe-form had become an offering. Pindar, who was a very knowledgeable mythographer, hints that the mythic doe, even when slain and offered to Artemis, also ''continues to exist'', to be hunted once again (although not killed) by Heracles at a later time.<ref>Robbins 1982:295-305.</ref>  [[Karl Kerenyi]] points out (''The Heroes of the Greeks'') "It is not easy to differentiate between the divine beast, the heroine and the goddess".

According to [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] (3.1.2, etc.) Taygete conceived [[Lacedaemon (mythology)|Lacedaemon]], the mythical founder of Sparta, through Zeus, and [[Eurotas]]. Pausanias noted, at [[Amyclae]], that the rape of Taygete was represented on the throne.<ref>Pausanias, 3.18.10</ref>

According to [[Pseudo-Plutarch]],<ref>Pausanias (1918). "3.1.2". Description of Greece. with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA; London. At the Perseus Project.</ref> Taygete was the wife of Lacedaemon, sometimes referred to as [[Sparta (mythology)|Sparta]], whose name was given to the city of Sparta. Their son was named [[Himerus (mythology)|Himerus]].

In a rare variant of the myth, Taygete was called the daughter of [[Agenor]].<ref>[[Dictys Cretensis]], 1.9</ref>