Eurynome
(Εὐρυνόμη) was a deity of ancient Greek religion worshipped at a sanctuary near the confluence of rivers called the Neda and the Lymax in classical Peloponnesus. She was represented by a statue of what we would call a mermaid. Tradition, as reported by the Greek traveller, Pausanias, identified her with the Oceanid, or "daughter of Ocean", of Greek poetry. Her son Asopus was the god of a nearby stream in the adjacent region of Sikyonia. The fish-tailed goddess, Eurynome, worshipped in Arcadia, may have been Eurynome wife of Ophion, Tethys the wife of Oceanus, Eurynome mother of the Charites, the goddess of the river Neda, or a watery Artemis.
Homer's account
"The earliest known reference to the Oceanid is a passage in the Iliad relating what happened to Hephaestus after his mother, Hera, threw him from Olympos. Thetis and Eurynome, the daughter of Oceanus, offered him refuge. He stayed with them for nine years in their cave at the edge of the ocean making splendiferous artifacts."
Hesiod's account
"Eurynome is among the daughters of Ocean and Tethys."
"Eurynome bore the Graces to Zeus."
Homer and Hesiod establish that a belief in the Oceanid existed in the earliest literary times. The most likely circumstance, based on the testimony of Pausanias, is that both authors took their themes from a religion known to and believed in by all the Hellenes; thus, it is probably best to assume that Eurynome the Oceanid is the same Oceanid of ancient Greek belief mentioned in all the classical sources.
Pausanias' account
"Eurynome is believed by the people of Phigalia to be a surname of Artemis. Those of them, however, to whom have descended ancient traditions, declare that Eurynome was a daughter of Ocean, whom Homer mentions in the Iliad, saying that along with Thetis she received Hephaestus. On the same day in each year they open the sanctuary of Eurynome, but at any other time it is a transgression for them to open it.
On this occasion sacrifices also are offered by the state and by individuals. I did not arrive at the season of the festival, and I did not see the image of Eurynome; but the Phigalians told me that golden chains bind the wooden image, which represents a woman as far as the hips, but below this a fish. If she is a daughter of Ocean, and lives with Thetis in the depth of the sea, the fish may be regarded as a kind of emblem of her. But there could be no probable connection between such a shape and Artemis."
Hesiod repeats that the Graces are the offspring of Zeus and Eurynome.
Apollodorus's account
"The Oceanids, including Eurynome, were the daughters of Ocean and Tethys."
"The Graces are the daughters of Zeus and Eurynome."[14]
"Some say the river Asopus is the son of Zeus and Eurynome."
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Eurynomê (Εὐρυνόμη, from εὐρύς, eurys, "broad" and νομός, nomos, "pasture" or νόμος "law") is a name that refers to the following characters in Greek mythology:
- Eurynome, pre-Olympian queen and wife of Ophion
- Eurynome (Oceanid), mother of the Charites
- Eurynome, one of the Cadmiades, the six daughters of Cadmus and Harmonia in a rare version of the myth. Her sisters were Ino, Agaue, Semele, Kleantho and Eurydike.
- Eurynome or Eurymede, daughter of King Nisus of Megara and mother of Bellerophon by Poseidon or Glaucus.
- Eurynome, mother by the Persian Orchamus of Leucothoe whom Helios loved.
- Eurynome, wife of Lycurgus of Arcadia and mother of Amphidamas, Epochus, Ancaeus, and Iasus. Elsewhere is also called Cleophyle or Antinoe.
- Eurynome, daughter of Iphitus and mother of Adrastus of Argos by Talaus. In some accounts, she was called the daughter of Apollo.
- Eurynome, waiting woman of Penelope in the Odyssey.
- Eurynome, a handmaiden of Harmonia.
- Eurynome, a Lemnian woman. The goddess Pheme paid a visit to her in the guise of her friend Neaera to inform her that Eurynome's husband Codrus was being unfaithful to her with a Thracian woman.
- Eurynome, an alternate name for Eidothea, the daughter of Proteus.
- Eurynome, a daughter of Asopus and mother of Ogygias by Zeus, according to a late source.