'nocturnal') is a princess featuring in two stories about father-daughter incest, who is eventually turned into an owl by the goddess Athena.
Both her tales are preserved in the works of pseudo-Lactantius Placidus, a Latin grammarian of the third century AD.
Nyctaea's name is derived from the Greek word νύξ (genitive νυκτός) meaning "night".
When Nycteus found out, he was so enraged he meant to kill Nyctaea, who implored Athena to save her.
[4][5] In another version mentioned by the same author, the Argive princess Nyctaea fled her home in terror so she could escape being raped by her father.