Asterius

In Greek mythology, Asterius 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, and another number of ways (see below). All variants derive from the word , 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.