Dolos (mythology)
In Greek mythology, Dolos or Dolus ("Deception") is the spirit of trickery and guile. He is also a master at cunning deception, craftiness, and treachery. He is an apprentice of the titans Prometheus and Pseudologi. His female counterpart is Apate, who is the goddess of fraud and deception. He was the son of Gaia (Earth)) and Aether (Hyginus, Fabulae Theogony 3) or Erebus and Nyx (Cicero, De Natura Deorum 3.17). He became known for his skill when he attempted to make a fraudulent copy statue of Veritas, in order to trick people into thinking they were seeing the real statue.[1] He ran out of the clay he was using to create the statue, and had to leave the feet unfinished as he quaked in fear while his skill-master looked over his attempt at deceitfulness. To his surprise, Prometheus was rather amazed at the similarity between the statues, so Dolos then became a master at his crafty and tricky ways. There are even some stories of Dolos tricking gods into lies. His Roman equivalent is Mendacius.
References
- ↑ Moshe Idel, "Golem: Jewish Magical and Mystical Traditions On the Artificial Anthropoid". p. 4.