vessel

Cornucopia

By Elizabeth Stein for Mythos Atlas. About the author. Editorial notes are grounded in the site's cited sources and can be challenged through the contact page.

Description

Horn of Amalthea

Greek myth, retold in Ovid's Fasti and in Hyginus, has the infant Zeus nursed by the goat Amalthea; a broken horn becomes the inexhaustible cornucopia. Roman coinage and cult give the horn to Fortuna, Abundantia, and river-gods. It is an emblem of plenty in Hellenistic and Roman art, not a quest object with a thief and a dragon. The nurse-goat story is the origin tale; Roman religion spreads the image on altars and reverses of coins.

Primary Sources

“The horn of the goat Amalthea, who fed the infant Jupiter, was filled by the god with endless produce.”
Ovid, Fasti (Amalthea) / Hyginus, Astronomica(c. 8 CE / 1st–2nd century CE)

Powers & Abilities

Infinite AbundanceProsperity BlessingHunger BanishmentWealth Generation