Clymene

Clymene was an Oceanid, one of the daughters of Oceanus and Tethys, and in Hesiod the wife of the Titan Iapetus and mother of Atlas, Menoetius, Prometheus and Epimetheus. The name was borne by several other women in Greek myth, among them the mother of Phaethon, a servant of Helen and a daughter of Catreus.

Parents and Family

Hesiod lists Clymene among the Oceanids, the daughters of Oceanus and Tethys, who with Apollo and the river gods look after young men (Hesiod, Theogony 346–352). He calls her a “neat-ankled” daughter of Ocean, whom Iapetus took as his wife (Theogony 507–508).

Children

By Iapetus, Hesiod says, Clymene bore four sons: the stout-hearted Atlas, the very proud Menoetius, the crafty Prometheus and the slow-witted Epimetheus (Hesiod, Theogony 509–511). Apollodorus gives the same four sons but names their mother as Asia, not Clymene (Apollodorus, Library 1.2.3).

Clymene and Phaethon

A Clymene is also named as the mother of Phaethon by the sun god. In Ovid she is the wife of Merops; she swears by the Sun that Phaethon is his son and sends him to ask his father for proof (Ovid, Metamorphoses 1.756–775). After the youth is struck by Zeus’ thunderbolt and falls into the river Eridanus, Clymene wanders over the world looking for his bones, finds them on a foreign bank, and weeps over his tomb (Ovid, Metamorphoses 2.333–339). She is also the mother of the Heliades, who mourn Phaethon and are turned into poplar trees (Ovid, Metamorphoses 2.340–366). Ovid calls the sea goddess Tethys the grandmother of Phaethon (Metamorphoses 2.156), which makes his mother Clymene a daughter of Tethys, like the Oceanid of Hesiod; no ancient source makes her the wife of Iapetus as well. The page on Phaethon tells this myth in full.

Other Women Named Clymene

In the Iliad, Helen goes to the walls of Troy with two handmaids, Aethra, daughter of Pittheus, and ox-eyed Clymene (Iliad 3.143–144). Homer gives this Clymene no parents.

Odysseus sees a Clymene among the heroines in the underworld, along with Maera and Eriphyle (Odyssey 11.326).

Catreus, son of Minos, had three daughters, Aerope, Clymene and Apemosyne, and a son, Althaemenes. Catreus gave Aerope and Clymene to Nauplius to be sold abroad, and Clymene became Nauplius’ wife and the mother of Oeax and Palamedes (Apollodorus, Library 3.2.1–2). Apollodorus also names Nausimedon among their sons and says that, according to the tragic poets, Nauplius’ wife was Clymene, daughter of Catreus, while the author of the Nostoi named her Philyra (Apollodorus, Library 2.1.5).

Clymene Sources

Hesiod, Theogony 346–352 and 507–511. Homer, Iliad 3.144 and Odyssey 11.326. Apollodorus, Library 1.2.3, 2.1.5 and 3.2.1–2. Ovid, Metamorphoses 1.750–779, 2.156 and 2.333–366.

See Also: Oceanus, Tethys, Iapetus, Atlas, Epimetheus, Prometheus, Menoetius, Helios, Phaethon, Helen, Aethra