Jump to content

Cymothoe (mythology)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In Greek mythology, Cymothoë (Ancient Greek: Κυμοθόη Kymothoê means 'wave-swift'[1]) was the "cerulean" Nereid[2] of gentle and quiet waves.[3] She was a marine-nymph daughter of the "Old Man of the Sea" Nereus and the Oceanid Doris.[4]

Mythology

[edit]

Cymothoe and the sea-god Glaucus rescued Helle when she fell from the golden ram.[5]

She also appeared in the account of Quintus Smyrnaeus' Posthomerica[6]:

"Against the wise Prometheus bitter-wroth the Sea-maids were, remembering how that Zeus, moved by his prophecies, unto Peleus gave Thetis to wife, a most unwilling bride. Then cried in wrath to these Cymothoe: "O that the pestilent prophet had endured all pangs he merited, when, deep-burrowing, the eagle tare his liver aye renewed!"

Later on, Cymothoe and her other sisters appeared to Thetis when she cries out in sympathy for the grief of Achilles for his slain friend Patroclus.[7]

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ Kerényi, Carl (1951). The Gods of the Greeks. London: Thames and Hudson. p. 55.
  2. ^ Propertius, Elegies 2.26a.16
  3. ^ Bane, Theresa (2013). Encyclopedia of Fairies in World Folklore and Mythology. McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers. p. 94. ISBN 9780786471119.
  4. ^ Homer, Iliad 18.41; Hesiod, Theogony 245; Apollodorus, 1.2.7; Hyginus, Fabulae Preface
  5. ^ Valerius Flaccus, Argonautica 2.605
  6. ^ Quintus Smyrnaeus, Posthomerica 5.394 ff.
  7. ^ Homer, Iliad 18.39-51

References

[edit]