Apate

In Greek mythology, Apate (/ˈæpətiː/; Ancient Greek: Ἀπάτη Apátē) is the goddess and personification of deceit. Her mother is Nyx, the personification of the night. In Roman mythology her equivalent is Fraus (Fraud), while her male counterpart is Dolus (Deception), and her opposite number Aletheia, the goddess of truth.

Apate was the daughter of the primordial deities Erebus (Darkness) and Nyx (Night).

The only myth in which Apate appeared was that of the affair between Zeus, king of the gods, and Semele, a Theban princess who bore him the god of wine, Dionysus. After knowing this infidelity of her husband, Hera sought the help of Apate in her scheme of punishing the mortal paramour of Zeus. Apate then willingly gave her a magical girdle which Hera then used to trick Semele into asking Zeus to appear before in his true form which resulted in her death (i.e. Semele) because no mortal being can directly gaze the presence of a god. The story as recounted in Nonnus' Dionysiaca were as follows:

• Hesiod, Theogony from The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, MA.,Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website.
• Marcus Tullius Cicero, Nature of the Gods from the Treatises of M.T. Cicero translated by Charles Duke Yonge (1812–1891), Bohn edition of 1878. Online version at the Topos Text Project.
• Marcus Tullius Cicero, De Natura Deorum. O. Plasberg. Leipzig. Teubner. 1917. Latin text available at the Perseus Digital Library.