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The Oceanids (The Naiads of the Sea), Gustave Doré, 1860s

In Greek mythology, the nymph daughters of the Titan Oceanus (Ocean), were known collectively as the Oceanids. Four ancient sources give lists of names of Oceanids. The oldest, and longest such list, given by the late 8th–early 7th century BC Greek poet Hesiod, names 41 Oceanids.[1] Hesiod goes on to say that these "are the eldest ... but there are many besides" and that there were "three thousand" Oceanids,[2] a number interpreted as meaning "innumerable".[3] While some of these names, such as Peitho, Metis and Tyche, certainly reflected existing traditions, many were probably mere poetic inventions.[4] The probably nearly as old Homeric Hymn to Demeter lists twenty-one names, sixteen of which match those given by Hesiod,[5] and were probably taken directly from there.[6]

The roughly contemporary (? c. 1st century AD) Greek mythographer Apollodorus and the Latin mythographer Hyginus also give lists of Oceanids. Apollodorus gives a list containing seven names,[7] as well as mentioning five other Oceanids elsewhere.[8] Of these twelve names, eight match Hesiod.[9] Hyginus, at the beginning of his Fabulae, lists sixteen names, while elsewhere he gives the names of ten others.[10] Of these 26 names, only nine are found in Hesiod, the Homeric Hymn, or Apollodorus. Many other names are given in other ancient sources.

The names of the Oceanids are of different types.[11] The Oceanids were the nymphs of springs,[12] and some of the names apparently reflect this aquatic connection, with some perhaps being the names of actual springs.[13] Other names have no apparent connection with water. Some, consistent with the Oceanids' function, as specified by Hesiod, of having "youths in their keeping" (i.e. being kourotrophoi),[14] represent things which parents might hope to be bestowed upon their children: Plouto ("Wealth"), Tyche ("Good Fortune"), Idyia ("Knowing"), and Metis ("Wisdom").[15] Others appear to be geographical eponyms, such as Europa, Asia, Ephyra (Corinth), and Rhodos (Rhodes).[16]

Several of the names given for Oceanids, are also names given for Nereids, the fifty sea nymphs who were the daughters of the sea god Nereus and the Oceanid Doris.

List

Named Oceanids
Name Sources Notes
Hes.[17] Hom. Hymn[18] Ap.[19] Hyg.[20] Other
Acaste ✓ ✓ Only mentioned by name in a single myth
Admete ✓ ✓ ✓
Adrasteia ✓[21] Apollodorus, 1.1.6 makes the nymphs Adrasteia and Ida, the nurses of Zeus, daughters of Melisseus, leader of the Kuretes of Crete
Aethra ✓[22] [23]
Aetna [24]
Amalthea ✓[25] [26] Nurse of Zeus, but not always an Oceanid[27]
Amphirho ✓
Amphitrite ✓+[28] The name of a Nereid[29]
Argia ✓+[30] Mother of Phoroneus, by Inachus, according to Hyginus[31] however according to Apollodorus, the mother of Phoroneus was an Oceanid named Melia.[32]
Asia ✓ ✓ [33] The name of a Nereid[34]
Asterodia [35]
Asterope [36]
Beroe [37] The name of a Nereid[34]
Callirhoe ✓ ✓ ✓[38]
Calypso ✓ ✓ The name of a Nereid;[39] "probably not" the same as the Calypso who was the lover of Odysseus[40]
Camarina [41]
Capheira [42]
Cerceis ✓
Ceto [43] The name of a Nereid[39]
Chryseis ✓ ✓
Clio [44] The name of a Nereid[34] and a muse.
Clitemneste ✓
Clymene ✓ ✓[45] [46] The name of a Nereid[34]
Clytie ✓ ✓
Coryphe [47]
Daeira [48]
Dione ✓ The name of a Nereid[39]
Dodone [49]
Doris ✓ ✓ The name of a Nereid[34]
Electra ✓ ✓ ✓
Ephyra ✓[50] [51] The name of a Nereid[34]
Euagoreis ✓
Eudora ✓ The name of a Nereid[52] and one of the Hyades[53]
Europa ✓ [54]
Eurynome ✓ ✓+[55] ✓ [56]
Galaxaura ✓ ✓
Hesione [57]
Hestyaea ✓
Hippo ✓
Iache ✓
Ianeira ✓ ✓ The name of a Nereid[58]
Ianthe ✓ ✓ ✓
Ida ✓[59] Apollodorus, 1.1.6 makes the nymphs Adrasteia and Ida, the nurses of Zeus, daughters of Melisseus, leader of the Kuretes of Crete
Idyia
or Eidyia 		✓ ✓[60] [61]
Leucippe ✓
Libye [62]
Lyris ✓
Lysithoe [63] Mother of Heracles by Zeus in some myths.[64]
Melia (consort of Apollo) [65] See also (below) the Argive Oceanid Melia who was the consort of Inachus
Melia (consort of Inachus) ✓[32] Mother of Phoroneus by Inachus, according to Apollodorus,[32] however, according to Hyginus, the mother of Phoroneus was Argia.[31] See also (above) the Theban Oceanid Melia who was the consort of Apollo
Meliboea ✓[66]
Melite ✓ ✓[34] The name of a Nereid[67]
Melobosis ✓ ✓
Menestho ✓
Menippe ✓
Mentis ✓
Merope ✓[68]
Metis ✓ ✓[69]
Mopsopia [70]
Neaera [71]
Nemesis [72] A daughter of Nyx according to Hesiod and Hyginus[73]
Ocyrhoe ✓ ✓
Pasiphae ✓
Pasithoe ✓
Peitho ✓ [74]
Periboea [75]
Perse
or Perseis 		✓+[76] ✓[77] [78]
Petraea ✓
Phaeno ✓
Philyra ✓[79] [80]
Pleione ✓[81] ✓[82] [83]
Plexaura ✓ The name of a Nereid[39]
Plouto or Pluto ✓ ✓
Polydora ✓
Polyphe [84]
Polyxo ✓
Prymno ✓
Rhodea,
Rhodeia,
or Rhodia 		✓ ✓
Rhodope ✓ ✓
Rhodos
or Rhode 		[85] A daughter of Poseidon and Aphrodite[86]
The Sirens [87] Usually the daughters of Achelous and Melpomene[88][89]
Stilbo ✓
Styx ✓ ✓ ✓ [90] According to Hyginus a daughter of Nyx[91]
Telesto ✓
Theia [92] Mother of the Cercopes
Thoe ✓ The name of a Nereid[34]
Thraike [93]
Tyche ✓ ✓
Urania ✓ ✓
Xanthe ✓ [94] The name of a Nereid[34]
Zeuxo ✓

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Hesiod, Theogony 349–361: Peitho, Admete, Ianthe, Electra, Doris, Prymno, Urania, Hippo, Clymene, Rhodea, Callirhoe, Zeuxo, Clytie, Idyia, Pasithoe, Plexaura, Galaxaura, Dione, Melobosis, Thoe, Polydora, Cerceis, Pluto, Perseis, Ianeira, Acaste, Xanthe, Petraea, Menestho, Europa, Metis, Eurynome, Telesto, Chryseis, Asia, Calypso, Eudora, Tyche, Amphirho, Ocyrrhoe, and Styx.
  2. ^ Hesiod, Theogony 362–364.
  3. ^ Hard, p. 40.
  4. ^ West 1966, p. 260; Hard, p. 41.
  5. ^ Homeric Hymn to Demeter, 418–423. The matching names are: Acaste, Admete, Callirhoe, Calypso, Chryseis, Electra, Galaxaura, Ianeira, Ianthe, Melobosis, Ocyrhoe, Pluto, Rhodea, Styx, Tyche, and Urania. The additions are: Iache, Leucippe, Melite, Phaeno, and Rhodope.
  6. ^ West 1966, p. 260; Evelyn-White, note to Homeric Hymn to Demeter 418.
  7. ^ Asia, Styx, Electra, Doris, Eurynome, Amphitrite, and Metis (1.2.2).
  8. ^ Callirrhoe (2.5.10), Idyia (1.9.23), Melia (2.1.1), Meliboea (3.8.1), and Pleione (3.10.1).
  9. ^ The matching names are: Asia, Callirhoe, Doris, Electra, Eurynome, Idyia, Metis, and Styx. The additions are: Amphitrite, Melia, Meliboea, and Pleione.
  10. ^ Hyginus lists seventeen names, but one is unintelligible: Hestyaea, Melite, Ianthe, Admete, Stilbo, Pasiphae, Polyxo, Eurynome, Euagoreis, Rhodope, Lyris, Clytia, <unintelligible>, Clitemneste, Mentis, Menippe, Argia (Fabulae Th. 6; Smith and Trzaskoma, p. 95.). The other ten names are: Philyra (Fab. 138; Smith and Trzaskoma, p. 146), Merope (Fab. 154; Smith and Trzaskoma, p. 150), Persis (Fab. 156; Smith and Trzaskoma, p. 150), Ida, Amalthea, and Adrasteia (Fab. 182; Smith and Trzaskoma, p. 158), Pleione (Fab. 192; Smith and Trzaskoma, p. 162), Ephyra (Fab. 275.6; Smith and Trzaskoma, p. 181), Aethra (Astronomica 2.21).
  11. ^ For a detailed treatment of many of the Hesiodic names see West 1966, pp. 264 ff.
  12. ^ West 1966, p. 259 ll. 337-70; Caldwell, p. 48; Most, p. 31.
  13. ^ West 1966, p. 260; Evelyn-White, note to Hes. Th. 346.
  14. ^ West 1966, p. 263 346. κουρίξουσι; Hesiod, Theogony 347.
  15. ^ Fowler 2013, p. 13.
  16. ^ Fowler 2013, pp. 13–16.
  17. ^ Hesiod, Theogony 349–361.
  18. ^ Homeric Hymn to Demeter, 418–423.
  19. ^ Apollodorus, 1.2.2, except where otherwise indicated.
  20. ^ Hyginus, Fabulae Th. 6 (Smith and Trzaskoma, p. 95), except where otherwise indicated.
  21. ^ Hyginus, Fabulae 182
  22. ^ Hyginus, Astronomica 2.21
  23. ^ Pherecydes, fr. 90c Fowler; Ovid, Fasti 5.171
  24. ^ Stephanus of Byzantium, s.v. Παλιχη
  25. ^ Hyginus, Fabulae 182; an outdated Latin text of Hyginus' Fabulae has Althaea, see Smith and Trzaskoma, p. 191 endnote to 182; West 1983, p. 133.
  26. ^ Scholia ad Homer, IIiad 21.194
  27. ^ According to Apollodorus, 2.7.5, she was the daughter of Haemonius, according to others she was a goat, see Frazer's note 3.
  28. ^ Also Apollodorus, 1.4.5
  29. ^ Hesiod, Theogony, 243, 254, and Apollodorus, 1.2.7
  30. ^ Also Hyginus, Fabulae 143
  31. ^ a b Hyginus, Fabulae 143
  32. ^ a b c Apollodorus, 2.1.1
  33. ^ According to Andron of Halicarnassus fr. 7 Fowler = FGrHist 10 F 7, Asia was the daughter of Oceanus and Pompholyge, see Fowler 2013, p. 13; Bouzek and Graninger, p. 12. Fowler 2013, p. 15, calls the name Pompholyge, an ad hoc invention.
  34. ^ a b c d e f g h i Hyginus, Fabulae Th. 8
  35. ^ Scholia on Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 3.242 (Parisian, Florentine).
  36. ^ Stephanus of Byzantium, s.v. Akragantes
  37. ^ Virgil, Georgics 4.341 calls Clio and Beroe "sisters, ocean-children both", possibly meaning they were Oceanids; cf. Nonnus, Dionysiaca 41.153
  38. ^ Apollodorus, 2.5.10
  39. ^ a b c d Apollodorus, 1.2.7
  40. ^ Caldwell, p. 49 n. 359, see also West 1966, p. 267 359. καὶ ἱμερόεσσα Καλυψώ; Hard, p. 41. Odysseus' Calypso is usually the daughter of the Titan Atlas, e.g. Homer, Odyssey 1.51–54.
  41. ^ Pindar, Olympian Odes 5.1–4
  42. ^ Diodorus Siculus, 5.55
  43. ^ Nonnus, Dionysiaca 26.355
  44. ^ Virgil, Georgics 4.341 calls Clio and Beroe "sisters, ocean-children both", possibly meaning they were Oceanids.
  45. ^ Hyginus, Fabulae 156
  46. ^ Tzetzes, Chiliades 4.19.359; possibly the same as the Clymene at Virgil, Georgics 4.345
  47. ^ Cicero, De Natura Deorum 3.59
  48. ^ Pausanias, 1.38.7; cf. Pherecydes, fr. 45 Fowler, where she is called a sister of Styx, so presumably an Oceanid, see Fowler 2013, p. 16.
  49. ^ Epaphroditus, fr. 57 Braswell–Billerbeck, see Braswell, pp. 240, 242; Harder, vol. 1 p. 196, vol. 2 p. 383.
  50. ^ Hyginus, Fabulae 275.6
  51. ^ Eumelus fr. 1 Fowler (apud Pausanias, 2.1.1)
  52. ^ Hesiod, Theogony 244; Apollodorus, 1.2.7
  53. ^ Hyginus, Astronomica 2.21.1, Fabulae 192
  54. ^ According to Andron of Halicarnassus fr. 7 Fowler = FGrHist 10 F 7, Europa was the daughter of Oceanus and Parthenope, see Fowler 2013, p. 13; Bouzek and Graninger, p. 12. Fowler 2013, p. 15, calls the name Parthenope, "elsewhere variously a Siren, a daughter of Ankaios, and a paramour of Herakles" an ad hoc invention.
  55. ^ Also Apollodorus, 1.3.1
  56. ^ Homer, Iliad 18.399, Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 1.503–504
  57. ^ Acusilaus, fr. 34 Fowler; Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound 560.
  58. ^ Homer, Iliad 18.47; Apollodorus, 1.2.7; Hyginus, Fabulae Th. 8
  59. ^ Hyginus, Fabulae 182; an outdated Latin text of Hyginus' Fabulae has Idothea, see Smith and Trzaskoma, p. 191 endnote to 182; West 1983, p. 133.
  60. ^ Apollodorus, 1.9.23
  61. ^ Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica, 3.243–244
  62. ^ According to Andron of Halicarnassus fr. 7 Fowler = FGrHist 10 F 7, Libye was the daughter of Oceanus and Pompholyge, see Fowler 2013, p. 13; Bouzek and Graninger, p. 12. Fowler 2013, p. 15, calls the name Pompholyge, an ad hoc invention.
  63. ^ Ioannes Lydus, De Mensibus 4.67
  64. ^ Cicero, De Natura Deorum 3.42
  65. ^ Pindar, fr. 52k 43; Pausanias, 9.10.5
  66. ^ Apollodorus, 3.8.1
  67. ^ Hesiod, Theogony 247; Homer, Iliad 18.42; Apollodorus, 1.2.7
  68. ^ Hyginus, Fabulae 154
  69. ^ Also Apollodorus, 1.2.1
  70. ^ According to Suda, s.v. Εὐφορίων, Attica was previously called "Mopsopia"after a daughter of Oceanus.
  71. ^ Hesychius of Alexandria s. v. Νέαιρα
  72. ^ Pausanias, 1.33.3
  73. ^ Hesiod, Theogony 223; Hyginus, Fabulae Th. 1
  74. ^ Pherecydes, fr. 66 Fowler
  75. ^ Nonnus, Dionysiaca 48.248
  76. ^ Also Hesiod, Theogony 956
  77. ^ Hyginus, Fabulae 156; here, spelled "Persis", spelled "Perse" at Hyginus, Fabulae Th. 36.
  78. ^ Homer, Odyssey 10.139; Hecataeus of Miletus, fr. 35A Fowler; Cicero, De Natura Deorum 3.48; Tzetzes, Chiliades 4.19.358
  79. ^ Hyginus, Fabulae 138
  80. ^ Eumelus fr. 12 West = Scholia on Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 1.554 (see also Evelyn-White, pp. 482, 483); Pherecydes, fr. 50 Fowler = Scholia on Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 2.1231–41a; cf. Callimachus, Hymn 1—To Zeus 33–36
  81. ^ Apollodorus, 3.10.1
  82. ^ cf. Hyginus, Fabulae 192
  83. ^ Ovid, Fasti 5.81–84
  84. ^ Suda, s.v. Ἱππεία Ἀθηνᾶ
  85. ^ Epimenides, fr. 11 Fowler
  86. ^ Apollodorus, 1.4.5; Herodorus, fr. 62 Fowler; Diodorus Siculus, 5.55
  87. ^ Epimenides, fr. 8 Fowler
  88. ^ Apollodorus, 1.3.4, 1.7.10, E.7.18; Hyginus, Fabulae 125.13, 141.1; Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 4.896
  89. ^ Fowler 2013, pp. 30–31
  90. ^ Epimenides, fr. 7 Fowler
  91. ^ Hyginus, Fabulae Th. 1.
  92. ^ Fowler, p. 323
  93. ^ According to Andron of Halicarnassus fr. 7 Fowler = FGrHist 10 F 7, Thraike was the daughter of Oceanus and Parthenope, see Fowler 2013, p. 13; Bouzek and Graninger, p. 12. Fowler 2013, p. 15, calls the name Parthenope, "elsewhere variously a Siren, a daughter of Ankaios, and a paramour of Herakles" an ad hoc invention.
  94. ^ Possibly the same as the Xantho, at Virgil, Georgics 4.336.

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