Oceanid

In Greek mythology and, later, Roman mythology, the Oceanids (/oʊˈsiːənɪdz, ˈoʊʃᵊnɪdz/; Ancient Greek: Ὠκεανίδες, pl. of Ὠκεανίς) are sea nymphs who were the three thousand daughters of the Titans Oceanus and Tethys. Each was the patroness of a particular spring, river, sea, lake, pond, pasture, flower or cloud.^[1] Some of them, such as Clymene, Asia, and Electra, were closely associated with the Titan gods or personified abstract concepts (Tyche, Peitho).

One of these many daughters was also said to have been the consort of the god Poseidon, typically named as Amphitrite.^[2] More often, however, she is called a Nereid.^[3]

Oceanus and Tethys also had 3,000 sons, the river-gods Potamoi (Ποταμοί, "rivers").^[4] Jean Sibelius wrote an orchestral tone poem called Aallottaret (The Oceanides) in 1914.

Notable Oceanids include:

• Metis, Zeus' first wife, whom Zeus impregnated with Athena and then swallowed.^[5]
• Eurynome, Zeus' third wife, and mother of the Charites.^[6]
• Doris, the wife of Nereus and mother of the Nereids.^[7]
• Callirhoe, the wife of Chrysaor and mother of Geryon.^[8]
• Clymene, the wife of Iapetus, and mother of Atlas, Menoetius, Prometheus, and Epimetheus.^[9]
• Electra, wife of Thaumas and mother of Iris and the Harpies
• Perseis, wife of Helios and mother of Circe, Aeetes.,^[10] Perses (brother of Aeetes) and Pasiphae.
• Idyia, wife of Aeetes and mother of Medea.^[11]
• Styx, goddess of the river Styx, and the wife of Pallas and mother of Zelus, Nike, Kratos, and Bia.^[12]

See also

• List of Oceanids
• Nereid
• Siren (mythology)

References

1. Hesiod, Theogony, 346 ff
2. Bibliotheca 1.8
3. Hesiod Theogony 243; Bibliotheca 1.11
4. Hesiod Theogony 337
5. Hesiod, Theogony 886–900; Apollodorus, 1.3.6.
6. Hesiod, Theogony 907–909; Apollodorus, 1.3.1. Other sources give the Charites other parents, see Smith, "Charis".
7. Hesiod, Theogony 240–264; Apollodorus, 1.2.7.
8. Hesiod, Theogony 286–288; Apollodorus, 2.5.10.
9. Hesiod, Theogony 351, however according to Apollodorus, 1.2.3, another Oceanid, Asia was their mother by Iapetus.
10. Hesiod Theogony 956–957; Apollodorus, 1.9.1.
11. Hesiod, Theogony 958–962; Apollodorus, 1.9.23.
12. Hesiod, Theogony 383–385; Apollodorus, 1.2.4.

External links

• Theoi Project – Oceanides