Lyssa
Goddess of mad rage and rabid frenzy who drove Heracles to murder his own children
The Myth of Lyssa
Lyssa was the goddess or spirit of mad rage, fury, and rabies. She was born from the blood of Ouranos when Kronos castrated him, or in other traditions from Nyx. Her most famous mythological appearance is in Euripides' Heracles, where Hera dispatches Iris and Lyssa to drive Heracles insane. Even Lyssa herself protests the assignment, telling Iris she does not wish to harm so great a hero, but divine orders compel her. She enters Heracles like a charioteer mounting a car, and he descends into a hallucination in which he believes he is storming the walls of Eurystheus' city. In reality, he murders his own wife and children. Lyssa's reluctance in Euripides gives her a surprising moral dimension — she is an instrument of divine cruelty, not its author.
Parents
Ouranos' blood (or Nyx)
Symbols
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