Ate

Ate, in Greek mythology the daughter of Zeus, and the goddess of strife and mischief. She caused so much annoyance in Olympus that her father banished her to earth, where her presence was productive of great misery. Homer (Il. xix. 91) and some tragic authors regard her as the spirit of vengeance or retribution for guilty rashness, and describe the kindly daughters of Zeus, the Litai (Prayers), as dogging her footsteps and counteracting her evil deeds. It is not easy to separate her functions from those of Ara and Erinys. The abstract noun, of which she personifies the meaning, is never found in any prose writer.