AMALTHEIA, in the earlier Greek mythology, the foster mother of Zeus. She is sometimes represented as the goat which suckled the infant god in a cave in Crete, sometimes as a nymph of uncertain parentage, who brought him up on the milk of a goat. This goat having broken off one of its horns, Amaltheia filled the horn with flowers and fruits and presented it to Zeus, who placed it, together with the goat, amongst the stars. Accord ing to another story, Zeus himself broke off the horn and gave it to Amaltheia, promising that it would supply in abundance whatever she desired. Amaltheia gave it to Achelous (her reputed brother), who exchanged it for his own horn which had been broken off in his contest with Heracles for the possession of Deianeira. Speaking generally, it was regarded as the symbol of inexhaustible riches and plenty, and became the attribute of various divinities and of rivers as fertilizers of the land. Cretan coins represent the infant Zeus being suckled by the goat; other Greek coins exhibit him suspended from its teats or in still other carried in the arms of a nymph. (Ovid, Fasti, v. 115 ; Metam., ix. 87. )