User:Paul August/Oceanids

Oceanids

New text

The third-century BC poet Callimachus gave Artemis a retinue of sixty Oceanids, nine years old.

See: NYMPHAI ARTEMISIAI

To Do

Look at

• Bane, [1]
• West, pp. 259 ff.
• Works of Hesiod, Callimachus, and Theogonis, p. 20
• Paul Weizsäcker: Okeaniden. In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Ausführliches Lexikon der griechischen und römischen Mythologie. Band 3,1, Leipzig 1902, Sp. 805–809 (Digitalisat).

s.v. Okeaniden p. 413

Get

• LIMC entries, particularly LIMC 3-9 (cited by Fowler, p. 13)

Sources

For possible source text see

User:Paul August/List of Oceanids

old version of this file

Ancient

Aeschylus ?

Prometheus Bound

128–135 [Weir]

Chorus

Do not fear! For our group has come in swift rivalry of wings to this crag [130] as friend to you, having won our father's consent as best we might. The swift-coursing breezes bore me on; for the reverberation of the clang of iron pierced the depths of our caves and drove my grave modesty away in fright; [135] unsandalled I have hastened in a winged car.

128–135 [Somerstein]

Enter the chorus of nymphs, daughters of Oceanus, seated in a winged vehicle or vehicles.¹⁷

CHORUS

Have no fear: this is a friendly company

that has come to this rock

on swift, striving wings, having with difficulty

persuaded our father to consent.

The swift breezes have borne and sped me here;

for the sound of stroke on steel penetrated to the depths

of my cave, and shocked my grave-faced modesty out of

me;

and I hurried here, unshod, in a winged car.

Apollonius of Rhodes

Argonautica

9.1410–4118

"O divine ones, fair and kind, be gracious, O Queens, whether ye be numbered among the heavenly goddesses, or those beneath the earth, or be called Solitary nymphs; come, O nymphs, sacred of the race of Oceanus, appear manifest to our longing eyes and show us some spring of water from the rock or some sacred flow gushing from the earth, goddesses, wherewith we may quench the thirst that burns us unceasingly.

Callimachus

Hymn 1—To Zeus

33–36

Neda^a to carry within Cretan covert, that thou [Zeus] mightst be reared secretly: Neda, eldest of the nymphs who were about her bed, earliest birth after Styx^b and Philyra.^c

46–49

the Dictaean Meliae,^a and Adrasteia^b laid thee [Zeus] to rest in a cradle of gold, and thou didst suck the rich teat of the she-goat Amaltheia,^c

Hymn 3—To Artemis

13–14

[Artemis:] And give me sixty daughters of Oceanus for my choir—all nine years old, all maidens yet ungirdled;

40–45 (Example of Theoi's corruption of the translated text)

"And the maiden [Artemis] fared unto the white moutain of Crete leafy with woods; thence unto Oceanus; and she chose many nymphs all nine years old, all maidens yet ungirdled. And the River Caeratus was glad exceedingly, and glad was Tethys that they were sending their daughters to be handmaidens to the daughter of Leto.

Hesiod

Theogony

337–370

And Tethys bore to Ocean eddying rivers, ... Also she brought forth a holy company of daughters¹ who with the lord Apollo and the Rivers have youths in their keeping—to this charge Zeus appointed them—Peitho, and Admete, and Ianthe, and Electra, [350] and Doris, and Prymno, and Urania divine in form, Hippo, Clymene, Rhodea, and Callirrhoe, Zeuxo and Clytie, and Idyia, and Pasithoe, Plexaura, and Galaxaura, and lovely Dione, Melobosis and Thoe and handsome Polydora, [355] Cerceis lovely of form, and soft eyed Pluto, Perseis, Ianeira, Acaste, Xanthe, Petraea the fair, Menestho, and Europa, Metis, and Eurynome, and Telesto saffron-clad, Chryseis and Asia and charming Calypso, [360] Eudora, and Tyche, Amphirho, and Ocyrrhoe, and Styx who is the chiefest of them all. These are the eldest daughters that sprang from Ocean and Tethys; but there are many besides. For there are three thousand neat-ankled daughters of Ocean who are dispersed far and wide, [365] and in every place alike serve the earth and the deep waters, children who are glorious among goddesses. And as many other rivers are there, babbling as they flow, sons of Ocean, whom queenly Tethys bare, but their names it is hard for a mortal man to tell, [370] but people know those by which they severally dwell.

¹Goettling notes that some of these nymphs derive their names from lands over which they preside, as Europa, Asia, Doris, Ianeira （“Lady of the Ionians”）, but that most are called after some quality which their streams possessed: thus Xanthe is the “Brown” or “Turbid,” Amphirho is the “Surrounding” river, Ianthe is “She who delights,” and Ocyrrhoe is the “Swift-flowing.”

Homeric Hymn

Homeric Hymn to Demeter (2)

2.5

[Persephone] was playing with the deep-bosomed daughters of Oceanus

2.418–423

[Persephone:] All we were playing in a lovely meadow, Leucippe and Phaeno and Electra and Ianthe, Melita also and Iache with Rhodea and Callirhoe [420] and Melobosis and Tyche and Ocyrhoe, fair as a flower, Chryseis, Ianeira, Acaste and Admete and Rhodope and Pluto and charming Calypso; Styx too was there and Urania and lovely Galaxaura

Nonnus

https://archive.org/stream/dionysiaca02nonnuoft#page/1/mode/2up

Dionysiaca

16. 127 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic C5th A.D.) :

"[Dionysos to Nikaia:] ‘I will fetch you myself sixty dancing handmaids, to complete the unnumbered dance that attends you, as many as the servants of the mountain Archeress [Artemis], as many as the daughters of Okeanos; then Artemis hunting will not rival you, even if she be the mistress of the hunt.’"

48. 302 ff

"[Artemis] and maiden Aura mounted the car [Artemis' chariot], took reins and whip and drove the horned team like a tempest. The unveiled daughters of everflowing Okeanos her servants made haste to accompany the Archeress: one moved her swift knees as her queen's forerunner, another tucked up her tunic and ran level not far off, a third laid a hand on the basket of the swiftmoving car and ran alongside. Archeress diffusing radiance from her face stood shining above her attendants . . . The goddess [Artemis] leapt out of her car [of her chariot]; Oupis took the bow from her shoulders, and Hekaerge the quiver; the daughters of Okeanos took off the well-strung hunting nets, and another took charge of the dogs; Loxo loosed the boots from her feet."

Sophocles

Philoctetes

1470–1471

Chorus

Now let us all leave together, [1470] once we have prayed to the nymphs of the sea to come be the guides of our safe return.

Modern

Fowler

p. 13

§1.3.2 CHILDREN OF OKEANOS ...

The children of Okeanos mentioned in our corpus are mostly daughters:³⁸ Hesione, wife of Prometheus and mother of Deukalion (Akous. fr. 34); Europe and Thraike, daughters of Okeanos by Parthenope, and Asia and Libye, daughters by Pomphyolge (Andron fr. 7);Styx (Epimen. fr. 7); Seirenes by Ge (Epimen. fr. 8, suppl.); Rhodos (Epimen. fr. 11); Ephyra wife of Epimetheus (Eumel. fr. 11); Perseis (Hek. fr. 35A); Daeira, sister of Styx (Pher. fr. 45); Philyra, mother of Cheiron (Pher. fr. 50); Peitho, wife of Argos (Pher. fr. 66); Aithra, wife of Atlas (Pher. fr. 90c). ...

In archaic poetry (principally Hes. Th. 337-70 and Hymn. Hom. Dem. 417-23) rivers are sons of Okeanos, springs are daughters. The names of the latter³⁸ therefore often suggest qualities associated with water; however because they are kourotrophoi (Th. 347), their names sometimes connote wealth, bounty, or desirable moral and intellectual qualities: e.g. Plouto, Tyche, Idyia, Metis, Melobosis, Peitho (if not rather an erotic association), Eurynome. Their generally benevolent and sympathetic nature is on display in Prometheus Bound, whose chorus they form, and in vase-painting, where they are companions of Persephone at her unfortunate abduction (LIMC nos. 3-9). 'Europe' and 'Asie' in Hesiod's catalogue do not conform to either of these types, and look,like geographical eponyms. West in his commnetary (on 357) is sceptical; he notes [cont.]

³⁸ Weizsäcker in Roscher, Lex. s.v.; Deichgräber, Die Musen; West on Th. 337-70; Richardson on Hymn. Hom. Dem. 5.417-24; L. Kahil and N. Icard-Gianolio in LIMC s.v.

p. 14

Andron fr. 7, his genealogy of the continents, is also straightforwardly geographical, though his division of the world into four parts is idiosyncratic, adding Thrace to the more usual tripartite division of Europe, Asia and Libya ...

Gantz

p. 28

The children of Okeanos and Tethys are a series of sons, the rivers ... and daughters, Okeanids, who with Apollo and the rivers aid in the bringing up of young men ...

p. 29

Of the sisters, we have seen Elektra married to Thaumas, Doris to Nereus, Klymene to Iapetos, Kallirhoe to Chrysaor, and Styx to Pallas, while Dione and Metis consort with Zeus and Kalypso with Odysseus; Perseis will wed Helios.

p. 30

As a group, the Okeanides come up from their cave beneath the earth to form the chorus of the Prometheus Desmotes, and may or may not share Prometheus' fate of being overwhelmed by at cataclysm as the play ends.³⁸ Whether they were mentioned at all in the Lyomenos (where the chorus was composed of Titans) is not clear.

Grimal

s.v. Oceanus, p. 315

... Oceanids, who were the lovers of a great many gods and some mortals, and gave birth to numerous children. They personify the rivers, and springs. Hesiod names 41 of them The eldest is Styx then came Peitho ...

Hard

p. 40

OKEANOS was the god of the Ocean (Okeanos, a word of non-Greek origin), a great river that was thought to encircle the lands of the earth on every side. The goddess TETHYS was traditionally regarded as his wife; ...

Okeanos and Tehthys produced 3,000 (i.e. innumerable) sons, comprising al the RIVERS of the world (Potamoi, which are masculine in Greek), and 3,000 daughters, Ocean-nymphs of OKEANIDS ... The functions of the latter were by no means confined to water; Hesiod remarks that they are scattered everywhere, haunting the earth and deep waters alike, and observes in particular that they watch over the young.

p. 41

The chorus in the Prometheus Bound is formed from a group of Okeanids.

Larson

BU online version

p. 7

The Okeanids are the daughters of the primordial river Okeanos and are hence an early generation of nymphs. Okeanids appear occasionally in myths (most notably as the companions of Persephone before her abduction), figure rarely in cult, and serve mainly as genealogical starting points.

p. 30

The Okeanids are primordial nymphs, daughters of the first and greatest river. In both myth and cult, nymphs regularly act as kourotrophoi, or protectors of the young. In the case of infants, they are imagined as nurses, while for older children and youths they (often in conjunction with the local river and Apollo) are protective, nurturing powers (3.1.3). In mythology, nymphs are the nurses of numerous divine and heroic infants, most notably Zeus himself, Dionysos, and Aineias. In another Hesiodic fragment (fr. 145.1– 2), Zeus entrusts a son, probably Minos, to the nymphs of Ide.

p. 156

Of the other nymphs of Arkadia, the most famous is Styx, eldest daughter of Okeanos and Tethys. Like the rivers Acheron and Kokytos, Styx has a dual identity as both an underworld and an earthy river. ... This is a fair description of the Arkadian Styx, which boasts a 600-foot waterfall.

Most

p. 31

²¹ Many of the names of the Oceanids reflect their roles as nymphs of fountains and groves and as protectoresses of youths.

Smith

s.v. Nymphae

1. Nymphs of the watery element.

Here we first mention the nymphs of the ocean, Ὠκεανῖναι or Ὠκεανιδες, νύμφαι ἅγιαι, who are regarded as the daughters of Oceanus (Hes. Th. 346, &c., 364; Aeschyl. Prom.; Callim. Hymn. in Dian. 13; Apollon. 4 [sic 9].1414; Soph. Philoct. 1470); and next the nymphs of the Mediterranean or inner sea, who are regarded as the daughters of Nereus, whence they are called Nereides (Νηρεΐδες; Hes. Th. 240, &c.). The rivers were represented by the Potameides (Ποραμηΐδες), who, as local divinities, were named after their rivers, as Acheloides, Anigrides, Ismenides, Amniisiades, Pactolides. (Apollon. 3.1219; Verg. A. 8.70; Paus. 5.5.6, 1.31.2; Callim. Hymn. in Dian. 15; Ov. Met. 6.16; Steph. Byz. s.v. Ἀμνισός.) But the nymphs of fresh water, whether of rivers, lakes, brooks, or wells, are also designated by the general name Naiades, Νηΐδες, though they have in addition their specific names, as Κρηναῖαι, Πηγαῖαι, Ἑγειονίμοι, Λιμνατίδες, or Λιμνάδες. (Hom. Od. 17.240; Apollon. 3.1219; Theocrit. 5.17; Orph. Hymn. 50. 6, Argon. 644.) Even the rivers of the lower regions are described as having their nymphs; hence, Nymphae infernae paludis and Avernales. (Ov. Met. 5.540, Fast. 2.610.) Many of these preconcealed sided over waters or springs which were believed to inspire those that drank of them, and hence the nymphs themselves were thought to be endowed with prophetic or oracular power, and to inspire men with the same, and to confer upon them the gift of poetry. (Paus. 4.27.2, 9.3.5, 34.3; Plut. Aristid. 11; Theocrit. 7.92; comp. MUSAE.) Inspired soothsayers or priests are therethe fore sometimes called νυμφόγηπτοι. (Plat. Phaedr. p. 421e.) Their powers, however, vary with those of the springs over which they preside; some were thus regarded as having the power of restoring sick persons to health (Pind. O. 12.26; Paus. 5.5.6, 6.22.4); and as water is necessary to feed all vegetation as well as all living beings, the water nymphs (ϝ̔δριάδες) were also worshipped along with Dionysus and Demeter as giving life and blessings to all created beings, and this attrixxiv. bute is expressed by a variety of epithets, such as καρποτρόφοι, αἰπογικαί, νόμιαι, κουροτρόφιο, &c. As their influence was thus exercised in all departments of nature, they frequently appear in conneccalled tion with higher divinities, as, for example, with Apollo, the prophetic god and the protector of herds and flocks (Apollon. 4.1218); with Artemis, the huntress and the protectress of game, for she herself was originally an Arcadian nymph (Apollon. 1.1225, 3.881; Paus. 3.10.8); with Hermes, the fructifying god of flocks (Hom. Hymn. in Aphrod. 262); with Dionysus (Orph. Hymn. 52; Hor. Carm. 1.1.31, 2.19. 3); with Pan, the Seileni and Satyrs, whom they join in their Bacchic revels and dances.

Tripp

s.v. Oceanids, p. 401

Oceanids or Oceanides. Daughters of Oceanus and Tethys. The sons of Oceanus, the river that surrounds the earth, were, appropriately enough, river-gods. His three thousand daughters, however, seem not to have been confined to any one function. Some, notably Amphitrite and Doris, lived in the sea, like there mother. Styx, the eldest, was that rare thing a female river-diety. Metis, whose name means wisdom or craft, is said to have changed her shape, as did many sea-deities. To Hesiod, however, she was an allegorical abstraction who married Zeus, gave birth to Athena, a goddess of wisdom and craft, and was swallowed by her husband, who thus incorporated the qualities that she personified. Calypso was an island nymph, Europa and Asia gave their names to areas of land, Urania presumably had heavenly connections. The Oceanids, together with their brothers and Apollo, were guardians of youths.

Yhe Oceanids and their Titan father appear prominently in Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound, Prometheus too, had a Titan father (Iapetus) and his mother was an Oceanid, Clymene or Asia. They and he both belonged to an older order of deities that was displaced with the rise of Zeus and his fellow Olympians. The Oceanids are identified and some are named by Hesiod ... and Apollodorus ...

s.v. nymphs, p. 399

nymph. One of a class of minor female divinities. A nymph was a daimon residing in a particular place, object, or natural phenomenon. The oreads were mountain-nymphs; naïads were nymphs of springs, lakes, and brooks; Nereïds were sea-nymphs. ... The Oceanids, too were nymphs, of whom relatively few had any apparent connection with the sea. Several Oceanids and Nereïds, notably Thetis and Dione, may have been ancient goddesses who had been reduced to a lessor rank.

West

1966

p. 259

337-70. ... The children of Oceanus and Tethys ... The male children are the rivers of the earth, ... the daughters are the nymphs of springs and groves, who are no less important. All rivers flow ultimately from Oceanus (Il. 21. 195-7; cf. Pi. fr. 326 ...), and all rivers are masculine and springs feminine.

p. 260

The catalogue of Oceanids resembles that of the Nereids in its general character, but the names are less persistently aquatic, and less often transparent. A few coincide; cf. on 241. Some recur in the list of Oceanids who picked flowers with Persephone in h. Dem. 418-24 (cf. 5): in this case we may admit direct borrowing, since Hesiodic influence in the hymn to Demeter is marked (cf. C. A. Trypanis, Ἀθηνᾶ, 1938, pp. 199-237).

Their importance as individuals is very unequal. Most of them have none, and may have been invented ad hoc; some may have been the names of actual springs, though we miss those most famous in myth such as Dirce, Arethusa, Artakie. A few as Mazon points out, reflect properties of their father, like a few of the Nereids (cf. on 240-64, 261-2, and 209). Others have no essential connection with water at all, but are names appropriate to fairy godmothers; for the nymphs' only function specified by Hesiod is care of the young. This is why we find dropped apparently at random in the list such significant but not eminently fontane goddesses as Peitho, Metis, Tyche—names which Hesiod can hardly have hit upon by chance, unaware of their meaning for others. He must have worked them in deliberately, but preferred not to interrupt the flow of names by annotations on individuals.

p. 263

346. κουρίξουσι ... The nymphs are κουροτρόφοι, like Hecate in 450 and ...

Art

LIMC Okeanides 5