AMALTHEA, in Pagan Mythology, daughter of Melissus, king of Crete, and nurse of Jupiter, whom she fed with honey and goats' milk. According to others, Amalthæa was a goat, which Jupiter translated into the sky, with her two kids, and gave one of her horns to the daughters of Melissus, as a reward for their care over his infant years. This horn had the peculiar property of furnishing them with whatever they wished for, and was thence called the cornu copia, or horn of plenty.