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Oceanid

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In Greek mythology, the Oceanids (Ancient Greek: Ὠκεανίδες) are the three thousand (a number interpreted as meaning "innumerable") nymphs that were the children of Oceanus and Tethys. They are goddesses of freshwater. Some Oceanids became goddesses of different aspects.

Since they are sea nymphs by nature they are considered to be Haliae as well.

Description and Function[]

The Oceanids' father Oceanus was the great primordial world-encircling river, their mother Tethys was a sea goddess, and their brothers the river gods (also three thousand in number) were the personifications of the great rivers of the world. Like the rest of their family, the Oceanid nymphs were associated with water, as the personification of springs. Hesiod says they are "dispersed far and wide" and everywhere "serve the earth and the deep waters", while in Apollonius of Rhodes' Argonautica, the Argonauts, stranded in the desert of Libya, beg the "nymphs, sacred of the race of Oceanus" to show them "some spring of water from the rock or some sacred flow gushing from the earth".

The Oceanids are not easily categorized, nor confined to any single function, not even necessarily associated with water. Though most nymphs were considered to be minor deities, many Oceanids were significant figures. Metis, the personification of intelligence, was Zeus' first wife, whom Zeus impregnated with Athena and then swallowed. The Oceanid Doris, like her mother Tethys, was an important sea-goddess. While their brothers, the river gods, were the usual personifications of major rivers, Styx (according to Hesiod the eldest and most important Oceanid) was also the personification of a major river, the underworld's river Styx. And some, like Europa, and Asia, seem associated with areas of land rather than water.

The Oceanids were also responsible for keeping watch over the young. According to Hesiod, who described them as "neat-ankled daughters of Ocean ... children who are glorious among goddesses", they are "a holy company of daughters who with the lord Apollo and the Rivers have youths in their keeping—to this charge Zeus appointed them".

Like Metis, the Oceanids also functioned as the wives (or lovers) of many gods, and the mothers, by these gods, of many other gods and goddesses. Doris was the wife of the sea-god Nereus, and the mother of the fifty sea nymphs, the Nereids. Styx was the wife of Pallas, and the mother of Zelus, Nike, Kratos, and Bia. Eurynome, Zeus' third wife, was the mother of the Charites. Clymene was the wife of the Titan Iapetus, and mother of Atlas, Menoetius, Prometheus, and Epimetheus. Electra was the wife of the sea god Thaumas and the mother of Iris and the Harpies. Other notable Oceanids include: Perseis, wife of the Titan sun god Helios and mother of Circe, and Aeetes the king of Colchis; Idyia, wife of Aeetes and mother of Medea; and Callirhoe, the wife of Chrysaor and mother of Geryon.

Sailors routinely honored and entreated the Oceanids, dedicating prayers, libations, and sacrifices to them. Appeals to them were made to protect seafarers from storms and other nautical hazards. Before they began their legendary voyage to Colchis in search of the Golden Fleece, the Argonauts made an offering of flour, honey, and sea to the ocean deities, sacrificed bulls to them, and entreated their protection from the dangers of their journey. They were also recorded as the companions of Persephone when she was abducted by Hades.

The goddess Artemis requested that sixty Oceanids of nine years be made her personal choir, to serve her as her personal handmaids and remain virgins.

List of Oceanids[]

Hesiod gives the name of 41 Oceanids, with other ancient sources providing many more. While some were important figures, most were not. Some were perhaps the names of actual springs, others merely poetic inventions. Some names, consistent with the Oceanids' charge of having "youths in their keeping", represent things which parents might hope to be bestowed upon their children: Plouto ("Wealth"), Tyche ("Good Fortune"), Idyia ("Knowing"), and Metis ("Wisdom"). Others appear to be geographical eponyms, such as Europa, Asia, Ephyra (Corinth), and Rhodos (Rhodes).

Several of the names of Oceanids were also among the names given to the Nereids.

Named Oceanids
Name Sources Notes
Hes.[1] Hom. Hymn[2] Ap.[3] Hyg.[4] Other
Acaste ✓ ✓ Only mentioned by name in a single myth
Admete ✓ ✓ ✓
Adrasteia ✓[5] Apollodorus, 1.1.6 makes the nymphs Adrasteia and Ida, the nurses of Zeus, daughters of Melisseus, leader of the Kuretes of Crete
Aethra ✓[6] [7]
Aetna [8]
Amalthea ✓[9] [10] Nurse of Zeus, but not always an Oceanid[11]
Amphirho ✓
Amphitrite ✓+[12] The name of a Nereid[13]
Argia ✓+[14] Mother of Phoroneus, by Inachus, according to Hyginus[15] however according to Apollodorus, the mother of Phoroneus was an Oceanid named Melia.[16]
Asia ✓ ✓ [17] The name of a Nereid[18]
Asterodia [19]
Asterope [20]
Beroe [21] The name of a Nereid[18]
Callirhoe ✓ ✓ ✓[22]
Calypso ✓ ✓ The name of a Nereid;[23] "probably not" the same as the Calypso who was the lover of Odysseus[24]
Camarina [25]
Capheira [26]
Cerceis ✓
Ceto [27] Mother of Astris by Helios, also the name of a Nereid[23]
Chryseis ✓ ✓
Clio [28] The name of a Nereid[18] and a muse
Clitemneste ✓
Clymene ✓ ✓[29] [30] The name of a Nereid[18] also the name of another Oceanid given as the mother of Phaethon besides this authors nevertheless distinguished from her same named sister
Clymene (mother of Phaethon) ✓ [31] The name of a Nereid[18] also the name of another Oceanid given as the wife of Iapetus besides this authors nevertheless distinguished from her same named sister
Clytie ✓ ✓
Coryphe [32]
Daeira [33]
Dione ✓ The name of a Nereid[23]
Dodone [34]
Doris ✓ ✓ The name of a Nereid[18]
Electra ✓ ✓ ✓
Ephyra ✓[35] [36] The name of a Nereid[18]
Euagoreis ✓
Eudora ✓ The name of a Nereid[37] and one of the Hyades[38]
Europa ✓ [39]
Eurynome ✓ ✓+[40] ✓ [41] Also the name of another Oceanid given as the wife of Ophion besides this authors nevertheless distinguished from her same named sister
Eurynome (wife of Ophion) [42] Also the name of another Oceanid given as the mother of the Horae besides this authors nevertheless distinguished from her same named sister
Galaxaura ✓ ✓
Hesione [43]
Hestyaea ✓
Hippo ✓
Iache ✓
Ianeira ✓ ✓ The name of a Nereid[44]
Ianthe ✓ ✓ ✓
Ida ✓[45] 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 ✓ ✓[46] [47]
Leucippe ✓
Libya [48]
Lyris ✓
Lysithoe [49] Mother of Hercules by Jupiter according to Cicero.[50]
Melia (consort of Apollo) [51] See also (below) the Argive Oceanid Melia who was the consort of Inachus
Melia ✓[16] Mother of Phoroneus by Inachus, according to Apollodorus,[16] however, according to Hyginus, the mother of Phoroneus was Argia.[15] See also (above) the Theban Oceanid Melia who was the consort of Apollo
Meliboea ✓[52] The mother of Lycaon
Melite ✓ ✓[18] The name of a Nereid[53]
Melobosis ✓ ✓
Menestho ✓
Menippe ✓
Mentis ✓
Merope ✓[54]
Metis ✓ ✓[55]
Mopsopia [56]
Neaera [57]
Nemesis [58] A daughter of Nyx according to Hesiod and daughter of Nox by Hyginus (as Nemesis is equated to Discordia in Roman myth)[59] only occurs as an Oceanid by Pausanias
Ocyrhoe ✓ ✓
Pasiphae ✓
Pasithoe ✓
Peitho ✓ [60]
Periboea [61]
Perse or Perseis ✓+[62] ✓[63] [64]
Petraea ✓
Phaeno ✓
Philyra ✓[65] [66]
Pleione ✓[67] ✓[68] [69]
Plexaura ✓ The name of a Nereid[23]
Plouto or Pluto ✓ ✓
Polydora ✓
Polyphe [70]
Polyxo ✓
Prymno ✓
Rhodea, Rhodeia, or Rhodia ✓ ✓
Rhodope ✓ ✓
Rhodos or Rhode [71] Only occurs as an Oceanid by Epimenides, otherwise she's a daughter of Poseidon[72]
The Sirens [73] Usually the daughters of Achelous and Melpomene[74][75]
Stilbo ✓
Styx ✓ ✓ ✓ [76] According to Hyginus a daughter of Nox[77]
Telesto ✓
Theia [78] Mother of the Cercopes
Thoe ✓ The name of a Nereid[18]
Thraike [79]
Tyche ✓ ✓
Urania ✓ ✓
Xanthe ✓ [80] The name of a Nereid[18]
Zeuxo ✓

References[]

  1. ↑ Hesiod, Theogony 349–361.
  2. ↑ Homeric Hymn to Demeter, 418–423.
  3. ↑ Apollodorus, 1.2.2, except where otherwise indicated.
  4. ↑ Hyginus, Fabulae Th. 6 (Smith and Trzaskoma, p. 95), except where otherwise indicated.
  5. ↑ Hyginus, Fabulae 182
  6. ↑ Hyginus, Astronomica 2.21
  7. ↑ Pherecydes, fr. 90c Fowler; Ovid, Fasti 5.171
  8. ↑ Stephanus of Byzantium, s.v. Παλιχη
  9. ↑ 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.
  10. ↑ Scholia ad Homer, IIiad 21.194
  11. ↑ According to Apollodorus, 2.7.5, she was the daughter of Haemonius, according to others she was a goat, see Frazer's note 3.
  12. ↑ Also Apollodorus, 1.4.5
  13. ↑ Hesiod, Theogony, 243, 254, and Apollodorus, 1.2.7
  14. ↑ Also Hyginus, Fabulae 143
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Hyginus, Fabulae 143
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 Apollodorus, 2.1.1
  17. ↑ 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.
  18. ↑ 18.00 18.01 18.02 18.03 18.04 18.05 18.06 18.07 18.08 18.09 Hyginus, Fabulae Th. 8
  19. ↑ Scholia on Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 3.242 (Parisian, Florentine).
  20. ↑ Stephanus of Byzantium, s.v. Akragantes
  21. ↑ Virgil, Georgics 4.341 calls Clio and Beroe "sisters, ocean-children both", possibly meaning they were Oceanids; cf. Nonnus, Dionysiaca 41.153
  22. ↑ Apollodorus, 2.5.10
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 23.2 23.3 Apollodorus, 1.2.7
  24. ↑ 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.
  25. ↑ Pindar, Olympian Odes 5.1–4
  26. ↑ Diodorus Siculus, 5.55
  27. ↑ Nonnus, Dionysiaca 26.355
  28. ↑ Virgil, Georgics 4.341 calls Clio and Beroe "sisters, ocean-children both", possibly meaning they were Oceanids.
  29. ↑ Hyginus, Fabulae 156
  30. ↑ Tzetzes, Chiliades 4.19.359; possibly the same as the Clymene at Virgil, Georgics 4.345
  31. ↑ Euripides, Phaethon; Ovid, Metamorphoses 1.747-764; Nonnus, Dionysiaca 38.110-141
  32. ↑ Cicero, De Natura Deorum 3.59
  33. ↑ 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.
  34. ↑ Epaphroditus, fr. 57 Braswell–Billerbeck, see Braswell, pp. 240, 242; Harder, vol. 1 p. 196, vol. 2 p. 383.
  35. ↑ Hyginus, Fabulae 275.6
  36. ↑ Eumelus fr. 1 Fowler (apud Pausanias, 2.1.1)
  37. ↑ Hesiod, Theogony 244; Apollodorus, 1.2.7
  38. ↑ Hyginus, Astronomica 2.21.1, Fabulae 192
  39. ↑ 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.
  40. ↑ Also Apollodorus, 1.3.1
  41. ↑ Homer, Iliad 18.399, Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 1.503–504
  42. ↑ Pherecydes of Syros, Heptamychia; Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica; Lycrophon; Nonnus, Dionysiaca;
  43. ↑ Acusilaus, fr. 34 Fowler; Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound 560.
  44. ↑ Homer, Iliad 18.47; Apollodorus, 1.2.7; Hyginus, Fabulae Th. 8
  45. ↑ 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.
  46. ↑ Apollodorus, 1.9.23
  47. ↑ Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica, 3.243–244
  48. ↑ 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.
  49. ↑ Ioannes Lydus, De Mensibus 4.67
  50. ↑ Cicero, De Natura Deorum 3.42
  51. ↑ Pindar, fr. 52k 43; Pausanias, 9.10.5
  52. ↑ Apollodorus, 3.8.1
  53. ↑ Hesiod, Theogony 247; Homer, Iliad 18.42; Apollodorus, 1.2.7
  54. ↑ Hyginus, Fabulae 154
  55. ↑ Also Apollodorus, 1.2.1
  56. ↑ According to Suda, s.v. Εὐφορίων, Attica was previously called "Mopsopia"after a daughter of Oceanus.
  57. ↑ Hesychius of Alexandria s. v. Νέαιρα
  58. ↑ Pausanias, 1.33.3
  59. ↑ Hesiod, Theogony 223; Hyginus, Fabulae Th. 1
  60. ↑ Pherecydes, fr. 66 Fowler
  61. ↑ Nonnus, Dionysiaca 48.248
  62. ↑ Also Hesiod, Theogony 956
  63. ↑ Hyginus, Fabulae 156; here, spelled "Persis", spelled "Perse" at Hyginus, Fabulae Th. 36.
  64. ↑ Homer, Odyssey 10.139; Hecataeus of Miletus, fr. 35A Fowler; Cicero, De Natura Deorum 3.48; Tzetzes, Chiliades 4.19.358
  65. ↑ Hyginus, Fabulae 138
  66. ↑ 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
  67. ↑ Apollodorus, 3.10.1
  68. ↑ cf. Hyginus, Fabulae 192
  69. ↑ Ovid, Fasti 5.81–84
  70. ↑ Suda, s.v. Ἱππεία Ἀθηνᾶ
  71. ↑ Epimenides, fr. 11 Fowler
  72. ↑ Apollodorus, 1.4.5; Herodorus, fr. 62 Fowler; Diodorus Siculus, 5.55
  73. ↑ Epimenides, fr. 8 Fowler
  74. ↑ Apollodorus, 1.3.4, 1.7.10, E.7.18; Hyginus, Fabulae 125.13, 141.1; Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 4.896
  75. ↑ Fowler 2013, pp. 30–31
  76. ↑ Epimenides, fr. 7 Fowler
  77. ↑ Hyginus, Fabulae Th. 1.
  78. ↑ Fowler, p. 323
  79. ↑ 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.
  80. ↑ Possibly the same as the Xantho, at Virgil, Georgics 4.336.
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