List of Oceanids explained

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 (?) 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

Name! colspan="5"
SourcesNotes
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]
✓+[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
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
✓ ✓
Clio[44] The name of a Nereid and a muse.
Clitemneste✓
Clymene✓ ✓[45] [46] The name of a Nereid
✓ ✓
Coryphe[47]
Daeira[48]
Dione✓ The name of a Nereid
Dodone[49]
Doris✓ ✓ The name of a Nereid
Electra✓ ✓ ✓
Ephyra✓[50] [51] The name of a Nereid
Euagoreis✓
✓ The name of a Nereid[52] and one of the Hyades[53]
Europa✓ [54]
Eurynome✓ ✓+[55] ✓ [56]
Galaxaura✓ ✓
Hesione[57]
Hestyaea✓
Hippo✓
Iache✓
✓ ✓ 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)✓Mother of Phoroneus by Inachus, according to Apollodorus, however, according to Hyginus, the mother of Phoroneus was Argia. See also (above) the Theban Oceanid Melia who was the consort of Apollo
Meliboea✓[66]
Melite✓ ✓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
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
Thraike[93]
Tyche✓ ✓
Urania✓ ✓
Xanthe✓ [94] The name of a Nereid
Zeuxo✓

See also

References

Notes and References

  1. [Hesiod]
  2. [Hesiod]
  3. Hard, p. 40.
  4. West 1966, p. 260; Hard, p. 41.
  5. [Homeric Hymns|''Homeric Hymn to Demeter'']
  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. [Callirhoe (Oceanid)|Callirrhoe]
  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, , 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]
  18. [Homeric Hymns|''Homeric Hymn to Demeter'']
  19. [Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]
  20. [Hyginus]
  21. [Hyginus]
  22. [Hyginus]
  23. [Pherecydes of Athens|Pherecydes]
  24. [Stephanus of Byzantium]
  25. [Hyginus]
  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]
  30. Also Hyginus, Fabulae 143
  31. [Hyginus]
  32. [Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]
  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. [Hyginus]
  35. Scholia on Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 3.242 (Parisian, Florentine).
  36. [Stephanus of Byzantium]
  37. [Virgil]
  38. [Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]
  39. [Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]
  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]
  42. [Diodorus Siculus]
  43. [Nonnus]
  44. [Virgil]
  45. [Hyginus]
  46. [Tzetzes]
  47. [Cicero]
  48. [Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]
  49. [Marcus Mettius Epaphroditus|Epaphroditus]
  50. [Hyginus]
  51. [Eumelus of Corinth|Eumelus]
  52. [Hesiod]
  53. [Hyginus]
  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]
  57. [Acusilaus]
  58. Homer, Iliad 18.47; Apollodorus, 1.2.7; Hyginus, Fabulae Th. 8
  59. [Hyginus]
  60. [Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]
  61. [Apollonius of Rhodes]
  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. [John the Lydian|Ioannes Lydus]
  64. [Cicero]
  65. [Pindar]
  66. [Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]
  67. [Hesiod]
  68. [Hyginus]
  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]
  72. Pausanias, 1.33.3
  73. [Hesiod]
  74. [Pherecydes of Athens|Pherecydes]
  75. [Nonnus]
  76. Also Hesiod, Theogony 956
  77. [Hyginus]
  78. [Homer]
  79. [Hyginus]
  80. [Eumelus of Corinth|Eumelus]
  81. [Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]
  82. cf. Hyginus, Fabulae 192
  83. [Ovid]
  84. Suda, s.v. Ἱππεία Ἀθηνᾶ
  85. [Epimenides]
  86. [Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]
  87. [Epimenides]
  88. [Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]
  89. Fowler 2013, pp. 30–31
  90. [Epimenides]
  91. [Hyginus]
  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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