Nysiads

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The Nysiads or Nysiades (Νυσιάδες) were the nymphs of Mount Nysa who cared for and taught the infant Dionysus[1][2][3].

Their names include[4]:

  • Ambrosia
  • Arsinoe
  • Bromia or Bromis
  • Cisseis
  • Coronis
  • Erato
  • Eriphia
  • Nysa[5][6]
  • Pedile
  • Polymno or Polyhymno

Also mentioned are Callichore and Calyce[7] (after whom two moons of Jupiter, Kallichore and Kalyke, are named).

In later tellings of Dionysus's infancy, the Nysiades appear to be identified with the Hyades[8]. The term might have been used for the Pleiades and the Hyades as Dionysus's tutors altogether.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Homeric Hymn 26 to Dionysus 2 ff
  2. ^ Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 4. 2. 3
  3. ^ Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, 3. 4. 3
  4. ^ Hyginus, Fabulae, 182
  5. ^ Also occurs in Terpander, Fragment 9
  6. ^ In Diodorus Siculus' Library of History, 3. 69, she is called daughter of Aristaeus
  7. ^ Nonnus, Dionysiaca, 14. 219 ff
  8. ^ In Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, 3. 4. 3, the identification is explicit: "...the Nymphai of Asian Nysa, whom Zeus in later times placed among the stars and named the Hyades."

[edit] External links


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