Works of Hesiod, Callimachus, and Theogonis, p. 20
Caldwell?
Hard?
Paul Weizsäcker: Okeaniden. In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Ausführliches Lexikon der griechischen und römischen Mythologie. Band 3,1, Leipzig 1902, Sp. 805–809 (Digitalisat).
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
[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
While Jason puzzled how he could yoke the bulls, Medea conceived a passion for him; now she was a witch, daughter of Aeetes and Idyia, daughter of Ocean.
For Ap. [Apollonius of Rhodes] the mother [of Apsyrtus] was a local Orestiad, a Caucasian nymph by the name of Asterodeia, rather than a 'Nereid' (Soph. fr. 546), an apt mate for an individual boasting an Oceanid mother (343n.). ...
[calls her an Oceanid, citing Bell p. 38; Larson, p. 96; Smith, p. 12]
Bell, p. 38, lists 4 Anchiroe, none of which does he say are Oceanids
Larson, p. 96 [No mention of Anchiroe on p. 96. Nurse of Zeus (ap Paus.) at Megalopolis, but not called an Oceanid at p. 153. An Anchiroe, mentioned on p. 308 n. 96 mentioned as one of the daughters of the Erasinos River (Ant. Lib. Met. 30), and an Anchiroe is metioned on p. 313 n. 167 as the daughter of the river Nile]
(Ἀχιρόη), or according to Apollodorus (2.1.4) Anchinoe, which is perhaps a mistake for Anchiroe, was a daughter of Nilus, and the wife of Belus, by whom she became the mother of Aegyptus and Danaus. According to the scholiast on Lycophron (583 and 1161), Ares begot by her a son, Sithon, and according to Hegesippus (apud Steph. Byz. s. v. Παλλήνη), also two daughters, Pallenaea and Rhoetea, from whom two towns derived their names.
Nymphs too are carved on the table: Neda carrying an infant Zeus, Anthracia, another Arcadian nymph, holding a torch, and Hagno with a water-pot in one hand and a bowl in the other. Anchirhoe and Myrtoessa carry water-pots, with what is meant to be water coming down from them.
According to the poets, [there have been] five Dionysi:52 First, the son of Zeus and Lysithea; second, the son of Nilus, who ruled over Libya and Ethiopia and Arabia; third, the child of Cabirus, who ruled over Asia, from whom come the Cabirian initiation; fourth, the child of Zeus and Semele, for whom the mysteries of Orpheus were performed, and by whom wine was mingled; fifth, the son of Nisus and Thyone, who introduced the "Triennial Festival.
Parada, p. 124: "Neda. Nurse of Zeus, according to the Messenian account, and from whom the river takes his name. The eldest of the NYMPHS. Reared Zeus secretly. Pau.4.33.1., Pau.8.31.4., Pau.8.38.3., Cal.Ze.33.
Grimal, p. 304: "Neda ... Rhea gave [the stream] the name of Neda in honour of the Nymph, the oldest of the daughters of Ocean after Styx and Philyra"
Nisetich, p. 26 n. 45: "The Diegesis concludes with Rhea handing the newly born Zeus 'to Neda, one of the Oceanids, for carrying to Crete, that he might be reared in secret there' (Pf. ii, p. 41).
Oinoe
Bane, p. 259, called an Ocheanid: ? [or Oenoe, Oeroe?]
Parada, p. 130: "Oenoe 1. A Naiad. ... Arg. 1.623 ... Pau.8.47.3"
Phrixa
Bane p. 274called an Ocheanid: Larson 153, Pausanias, ... [?]
The mother who bore him to the Sun is usually called Clymene (so Lucian, Tzetzes, Eustathius, Ovid, Hyginus, Lactantius Placidus, the Vatican mythographers, and Servius); but the Scholiast on Hom. Od. xvii.208 calls her Rhode, daughter of Asopus. Clymene herself, the mother of Phaethon, is said to have been a daughter of Ocean and Tethys (Tzetzes, Chiliades iv.359; Ov. Met. 2.156) or of Iphys or Minyas (Eustathius).
The most notable of the illegitimate children of Helios was PHAETHON ('the Radiant'), who was born to him bt Klymene, the wife of Merops, king of the Ethiopians; this Kymene is said to have been a daughter of Okeanos like the wife of Helios (although she must obviously be distinguished from the Okeanid of that name who is the wife of Iapetos in the Theogony).130 Although ...
On the ascent to the summit of Ithome, which is the Messenian acropolis, is a spring Clepsydra. It is a hopeless task, however zealously undertaken, to enumerate all the peoples who claim that Zeus was born and brought up among them. The Messenians have their share in the story for they too say that the god was brought up among them and that his nurses were Ithome and Neda, the river having received its name from the latter, while the former, Ithome, gave her name to the mountain. These nymphs are said to have bathed Zeus here, after he was stolen by the Curetes owing to the danger that threatened from his father, and it is said that it has its name from the Curetes' theft. Water is carried every day from the spring to the sanctuary of Zeus of Ithome.
Nymphs too are carved on the table: Neda carrying an infant Zeus, Anthracia, another Arcadian nymph, holding a torch, and Hagno with a water-pot in one hand and a bowl in the other. Anchirhoe and Myrtoessa carry water-pots, with what is meant to be water coming down from them.
[2] On the left of the sanctuary of the Mistress is Mount Lycaeus. Some Arcadians call it Olympus, and others Sacred Peak. On it, they say, Zeus was reared. There is a place on Mount Lycaeus called Cretea, on the left of the grove of Apollo surnamed Parrhasian. The Arcadians claim that the Crete, where the Cretan story has it that Zeus was reared, was this place and not the island.
[3] The nymphs, by whom they say that Zeus was reared, they call Theisoa, Neda and Hagno.
Represented on the altar are Rhea and the nymph Oenoe holding the baby Zeus. On either side are four figures: on one, Glauce, Neda, Theisoa and Anthracia; on the other Ide [Ἴδη], Hagno, Alcinoe and Phrixa.
Nedaa 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 Styxb and Philyra.c
224. Amaltheia as a nymph or naiad: Ov. Fast 5.111=28; Hyg. Poet. astr. 2.13. As a Goat: Callim. Hymn 1.45-53; Apollod. Bibl. 1.16=7; ... Daughters of Melisseus: ...
137. Pherecydes 3 F 90. Hyg. Fab. 182 calls the nurses daughters of Okeanos or of Melisseus, and names them Idyia, Althaia, and Adrasta (with apparent influence from the Kretan versions). He further notes that these nymphs were called Dodonides and seems later to identify them with the Hyades; thus Hyg. Poet. astr. 2.21 says that the stars known as Hyades were formerly called Dodonites.
Anthracia
Bane, "Anthracia" p. 31: [Does not say she is Ocheanid; cites Pausanias and Larson, p. 153]
Parada, p. 21: describes the Anthracia in Paus. 8.31.4 as "An Arcadian Nymph"
Glauke
Bane, "Glauke" p. 162: [does not say she is an Oceanid]
Parada, p. 81: "Glauce 5. One of the nurses of Zeus ... Pau. 8.47.3"
Hagno
Bane, "Hagno" p. 172: "Hagno was a NYMPH and one of the OCEANID;" [cites Larson, p. 153; Pausanias]
Larson, p. 361: "Hagno, spring nymph, Arkadia, 153-154"
Parada, p. 83: "Hagno. An Arcadian Nymph, nurse of Zeus."
Bane, "Neda" p. 31: [does not say she is an Oceanid]
Parada, p. 124: "Neda. Nurse of Zeus, according to the Messenian account, and from whom the river takes his name. The eldest of the NYMPHS. Reared Zeus secretly. Pau.4.33.1., Pau.8.31.4., Pau.8.38.3., Cal.Ze.33.
Grimal, p. 304: "Neda ... Rhea gave [the stream] the name of Neda in honour of the Nymph, the oldest of the daughters of Ocean after Styx and Philyra"
Nisetich, p. 26 n. 45: "The Diegesis concludes with Rhea handing the newly born Zeus 'to Neda, one of the Oceanids, for carrying to Crete, that he might be reared in secret there' (Pf. ii, p. 41).
Circe, a dread goddess of human speech, own sister to Aeetes of baneful mind; and both are sprung from Helius, who gives light to mortals, and from Perse [Πέρσης], their mother, whom Oceanus begot. [140]
Thereat she uttered a shrill cry, and the goddesses thronged about her, even all the daughters of Nereus that were in the deep of the sea. There were Glauce and Thaleia and Cymodoce, [40] Nesaea and Speio and Thoë and ox-eyed Halië, and Cymothoë and Actaeä and Limnoreia, and Melite and Iaera and Amphithoe and Agave, Doto and Proto and Pherousa and Dynamene, and Dexamene and Amphinone and Callianeira, [45] Doris and Pynope and glorious Galatea, Nemertes and Apseudes and Callianassa, [47] and there were Clymene and Ianeira and ...
There was no river that came not, save only Oceanus, nor any nymph, of all that haunt the fair copses, the springs that feed the rivers, and the grassy meadows.
But afterwards she [Gaia] lay with Heaven and bore deep-swirling Oceanus, Coeus and Crius and Hyperion and Iapetus, [135] Theia and Rhea, Themis and Mnemosyne and gold-crowned Phoebe and lovely Tethys. After them was born Cronos the wily, youngest and most terrible of her children, and he hated his lusty sire.
And Tethys bore to Ocean eddying rivers, Nilus, and Alpheus, and deep-swirling Eridanus, Strymon, and Meander, and the fair stream of Ister, [340] and Phasis, and Rhesus, and the silver eddies of Achelous, Nessus, and Rhodius, Haliacmon, and Heptaporus, Granicus, and Aesepus, and holy Simois, and Peneus, and Hermus, and Caicus' fair stream, and great Sangarius, Ladon, Parthenius, [345] Euenus, Ardescus, and divine Scamander. 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.”
And Perseis, the daughter of Ocean, bore to unwearying Helios Circe and Aeetes the king. And Aeetes, the son of Helios who shows light to men, [960] took to wife fair-cheeked Idyia, daughter of Ocean the perfect stream, by the will of the gods: and she was subject to him in love through golden Aphrodite and bore him neat-ankled Medea.
[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
Eumelus, the son of Amphilytus,1 of the family called Bacchidae, who is said to have composed the epic poem, says in his Corinthian History (if indeed the history be his) that Ephyra, the daughter of Oceanus, dwelt first in this land;
Daughter of Ocean, with a smiling heart receive the sweet bloom of lofty excellence and Olympian garlands, the gifts of Psaumis and of his mule car team with untiring feet. Psaumis who, exalting your city, Camarina, ...
67[Chorus of Oceanids:] The wife of Prometheus (and mother of Deucalion, the Flood hero) is variously identified in various sources; the fifth-century mythographer Acusilaus of Argos (FGrH 2 F 34) names her as Hesione the Oceanid, as here. Hesione is not mentioned in Hesiod’s list of forty-one daughters of Oceanus.
The two mothers are ad hoc inventions: Pompholyge, a hapax, is a good watery word (cf. ...), and Parthenope, a good maidenly one (elsewhere variously a Siren, a daughter of Ankaios, and a paramour of Herakles).
Ocean married two women, Pompholyge and Parthenope, with whom he fathered four daughters, Asia and Libya with the one [Pompholyge], and Europe and Thraike with the other [Parthenope], after whom he says that the continents are named" (FGrHist 10 F 7).
Nedaa 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 Styxb and Philyra.c
55 1 The island which is called Rhodes was first inhabited by the people who were known as Telchines; these were children of Thalatta,13 as the mythical tradition tells us, and the myth relates that they, together with Capheira, the daughter of Oceanus, nurtured Poseidon, whom Rhea had committed as a babe to their care.
[48] Quid deinde, Ino dea ducetur et Leukothea a Graecis, a nobis Matuta dicetur, cum sit Cadmi filia, Circe autem er Pasiphae et Aeeta e Perseide Oceani filia natae patre Sole in deorum numero non habebuntur?
What next? If Ino is to be deemed divine, under the title of Leucothea in Greece and Matura at Rome, because she is the daughter of Cadmus, are Circe and Pasiphaë and Aeetes, the children of Perseis the daughter of Oceanus by the Sun, to be not counted in the list of gods?
"Tethys, the Titaness, was wedded of old by Ocean, who encompasses the earth, far as it stretches, with his flowing waters. Their daughter Pleione, as report has it, was united to Atlas, who upholds the sky, and she gave birth to the Pleiades.a
Enraged at this, Rhea repaired to Crete, when she was big with Zeus, and brought him forth in a cave of Dicte. She gave him to the Curetes and to the nymphs Adrastia and Ida, daughters of Melisseus, to nurse.
While Jason puzzled how he could yoke the bulls, Medea conceived a passion for him; now she was a witch, daughter of Aeetes and Idyia, daughter of Ocean.
Ocean and Tethys had a son Inachus, after whom a river in Argos is called Inachus.1 He and Melia, daughter of Ocean, had sons, Phoroneus, and Aegialeus.
Now Amalthea was a daughter of Haemonius, and she had a bull's horn, which, according to Pherecydes, had the power of supplying meat or drink in abundance, whatever one might wish.3
Atlas and Pleione, daughter of Ocean, had seven daughters called the Pleiades, born to them at Cyllene in Arcadia, to wit: Alcyone, Merope, Celaeno, Electra, Sterope, Taygete, and Maia.
But Parmeniscus say that a certain Melisseus was king in Crete, and to his daughters Jove was brought to nurse. Since they did not have milk, they furnished him a she-goat, Amalthea by name, who is said to have reared him. She often bore twin kids, and at the very time that Jove was brought to her to nurse, had borne a pair. And so because of the kindness of the mother, the kids, too were placed among the constellations. Cleostratus of Tenedos is said to have first pointed out these kids among the stars.
But Musaeus says Jove was nursed by Themis and the nymph Amalthea, to whom he was given by Ops, his mother. Now Amalthea had as a pet a certain goat which is said to have nursed Jove.
As Saturn was combing the earth looking for Jupiter, he came to Trace, turned himself into a horse, and slept with Philyra daughter of Ocean. She gave birth to the Centaur Chiron, who is said to have been the first to discover the art of medicine. When she realized that she had given birth to a species never before seen, Philyra asked Jupiter to change her into some other form. She was changed into the philyra tree, that is, a linden tree.
When Saturn was hunting Jove throughout the earth, assuming the form of a steed he lay with Philyra, daughter of Ocean. By him she bore Chiron the Centaur, who is said to have been the first to invent the art of healing. After Philyra saw that she had borne a strange species, she asked Jove to change her into another form, and she was transformed into the tree which is called the linden.
139 (Smith and Trzaskoma, p. 146)
Juno, meanwhile, brought Jupiter down to the island of Crete. Amalthea, the child's nurse,
Phaethon, son of Clymenus, son of Sol, and the nymph Merope, who, as we have heard was an Oceanid,
156 (Smith and Trzaskoma, p. 150)
<The Sun's Children>
Circe, Pasiphae, <Aeetes, and Perses>* by Persis daughter of Ocean. By Clymene daughter of Ocean: Phaethon, Lampetia, Aegle, Phoebe, <Merope, Helia, Aetheria, and Dioxippe>.*
Ida, Amalthea, and Adrastea* were the daughters of Ocean. Others say they were the daughters of Melisseus and were Jupiters's nurses, the ones that are called Dodonian Nymphs (others call them the Naiads). < . . . > whose names are Cisseis, Nysa, Erato, Eriphia, Dromia, Polyhymno. On Mount Nysa their nursling61 bestowed upon them a gift: he asked Medea to take away their old age and turn them into yoiung women. Later they were given an exalted position among thew stars and called them Hyades. Others hand down that they were named Arsinoe, Ambrosia, Bromia, Cisseis, and Coronis.
The daughters of Oceanus are Idothea [= Ida? see Smith and Trzaskoma, and West below], Althaea [= Amalthea? see Smith and Trzaskoma, and West below], and Adrasta, but others say they are daughters of Melisseus, and nurses of Jove. The nymphs which are called Dodonides (others call them Naides) . . . Their names are Cisseis, Nysa, Erato, Eriphia, Bromis, Polyhymno. On Mount Nysa these obtained a boon from their foster-son, who made petition to Medea. Putting off old age, they were changed to young girls, and later, consecrated among the stars, they are called Hyades. Others report that they were called Arsinoe, Ambrosie, Bromie, Cisseis, and Coronis.
Adrastea: We read (suggested by RSS) Ida, Amalthea, Adrastea for Φideo et [F Idothea] Althaea, Adrasta (Marshall prints Idyia, Althaea, Adrasta), combining the two daughters of Melisseus (see Apollodorus 1.5) and Amalthea, who is listed as Jupiter's nurse at Fab. 139.
[3] Of this marble Pheidias made a statue of Nemesis, and on the head of the goddess is a crown with deer and small images of Victory. In her left hand she holds an apple branch, in her right hand a cup on which are wrought Aethiopians. As to the Aethiopians, I could hazard no guess myself, nor could I accept the statement of those who are convinced that the Aethiopians have been carved upon the cup be cause of the river Ocean. For the Aethiopians, they say, dwell near it, and Ocean is the father of Nemesis.
Eumelus, the son of Amphilytus,1 of the family called Bacchidae, who is said to have composed the epic poem, says in his Corinthian History (if indeed the history be his) that Ephyra, the daughter of Oceanus, dwelt first in this land;
Homer is the first whom I know to have mentioned Fortune in his poems. He did so in the Hymn to Demeter, where he enumerates the daughters of Ocean, telling how they played with Kore the daughter of Demeter, and making Fortune one of them. The lines are:“We all in a lovely meadow, Leucippe, Phaeno, Electre and Ianthe, Melobosis and Tyche and Ocyrhoe with face like a flower.
Epimenides of Crete, also, represented Styx as the daughter of Ocean, not, however, as the wife of Pallas, but as bearing Echidna to Peiras, whoever Peiras may be.
Higher up than the Ismenian sanctuary you may see the fountain which they say is sacred to Ares, and they add that a dragon was posted by Ares as a sentry over the spring. By this fountain is the grave of Caanthus. They say that he was brother to Melia and son to Ocean, and that he was commissioned by his father to seek his sister, who had been carried away. Finding that Apollo had Melia, and being unable to get her from him, he dared to set fire to the precinct of Apollo that is now called the Ismenian sanctuary. The god, according to the Thebans, shot him.
Here then is the tomb of Caanthus. They say that Apollo had sons by Melia, to wit, Tenerus and Ismenus. To Tenerus Apollo gave the art of divination, and from Ismenus the river got its name. Not that the river was nameless before, if indeed it was called Ladon before Ismenus was born to Apollo.
They say she is a daughter of Poseidon and Polyphe[1], daughter of Ocean; she was the first to use a chariot and was called "of-Horses" because of this.
Ocean married two women, Pompholyge and Parthenope, with whom he fathered four daughters, Asia and Libya with the one [Pompholyge], and Europe and Thraike with the other [Parthenope], after whom he says that the continents are named" (FGrHist 10 F 7).
Caldwell
p. 48
336 Hesiod now comes to the families of the Titans, beginning with the children of Okeanos and Tethys. The sons are rivers and the daughters are nymphs of springs.
p. 49
359 ... Kalypso is probably not the famous Kalypso of Odyssey 5, who is usually called the daughter of Atlas (Odyssey 1.52).
Some writers, including Epimenides, thought that Absyrtus was older than Medea, and that her mother was actually Asterodia of Caucasus, the daughter of Ocean and Tethys.23
Steph. Byz. s.v. Παλική quotes a writer called Silenus as stating that Palicus' mother was Aetna, a daughter of Oceanus. Placidus on Stat. Theb. xii 156 calls her 'a nymph Aetna.'
Goettling 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.”
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. mTh. 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; ne 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.
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 ...
The two mothers are ad hoc inventions: Pompholyge, a hapax, is a good watery word (cf. ...), and Parthenope, a good maidenly one (elsewhere variously a Siren, a daughter of Ankaios, and a paramour of Herakles).
Epimen. fr. 8, if the supplement in l. 19 is correct,109 made Okeanos and Earth the parents of the Seirens. Neither Homer nor Hesiod in his surviving fragments indicates [cont.]
their parentage. Phorkys is father in Soph. fr. 861; otherwise Acheloos is favoured, either with Sterope daughter of Porthaon,110 a Muse,111 or Earth, from the blood that spilled when Herakles broke off his horn.112
Akousilaus' candidate [for Deukalion's mother] (Akous. fr. 34) is an Ockeanid Hesione, which might be taken as free invention did it not recur in PV (560); if the latter is not dependent on the former, one may speculate that their common source was the Titanomchy, which perhaps mentioned the flood (see below), and which has long been thought to lie behind the PV (->§1.5). Another possibility ...
33. (The mother of Deucalion was Hesione daughter of Ocean, and his father was Prometheus).
Hard
p. 41
Hesiod includes a Kalypso in the list, but it need not be assummed that he had the lover of Odysseus (see p. 497) in mind; although Odysseus' liaison is mentioned in the present texts of the Theogony, the reference comes at the very end of the poem in a section that was added after Hesiod's time.
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.
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.
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.
Preston
Note to Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 3.330 "Asterodea" (p. 168)
Diophanes, in his History of Pontus, book i, says, that Antiope was the mother of Aeetes; and that Absyrtus was the brother to Medea, and the eldest child of Aeetes, by Asterodea, the daughter of Oceanus and Tethys.
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 ...