Eurynome

Eurynome was an Oceanid in Greek mythology, a daughter of the Titans Oceanus and Tethys. In Hesiod she is the third wife of Zeus and the mother of the three Charites (Graces); in Homer she and Thetis rescued the infant Hephaestus when he was thrown from Olympus. In a song of Apollonius’ Argonautica, Eurynome, daughter of Ocean, ruled Olympus with Ophion before Cronus and Rhea.

Family

Hesiod names Eurynome among the daughters of Oceanus and Tethys, the Oceanids (Theogony 358). Apollodorus likewise lists her among the Oceanids (Library 1.2.2).

Eurynome and Zeus

Hesiod says that after Zeus had taken Metis, his first wife, and Themis, his second, he took Eurynome, the daughter of Oceanus, who bore him three fair-cheeked Charites: Aglaea, Euphrosyne and lovely Thaleia (Theogony 886–911). Their glances, Hesiod adds, make limbs weak with love (Theogony 910–911). Pausanias says that Hesiod calls the Graces daughters of Zeus and Eurynome (Description of Greece 9.35.5), and Apollodorus names the same three (Library 1.3.1). In a variant that Apollodorus records, the river Asopus was a son of Zeus and Eurynome (Library 3.12.6).

The Rescue of Hephaestus

In the Iliad, Hephaestus tells Thetis that he would have suffered great pain when he fell, because of his mother who wanted to hide him since he was lame, if Eurynome, daughter of Oceanus, and Thetis had not received him in their arms. He lived with them for nine years in a hollow cave surrounded by the stream of Ocean, making many ornaments, brooches, spiral bracelets, rosettes and necklaces. No one else, god or man, knew of it, only Thetis and Eurynome (Iliad 18.395–405).

The Eurynome of Phigalia

At Phigalia in Arcadia, Pausanias saw a very old sanctuary of Eurynome at the meeting point of the rivers Lymax and Neda, among cypress trees. The Phigalians, he says, believed Eurynome to be a surname of Artemis, but those who kept the old traditions said that she was the daughter of Oceanus, the one Homer mentions as having received Hephaestus. The sanctuary was opened only once a year, on the same day each year, when the state and individuals offered sacrifices. Pausanias was told that the wooden image was bound with golden chains, and represented a woman down to the hips and a fish below (Description of Greece 8.41.4–6). He did not see the image himself.

Eurynome and Ophion

Eurynome appears again in the song that Orpheus sings in Apollonius’ Argonautica. He sang how Ophion and Eurynome, the daughter of Ocean, first held the rule of snowy Olympus, and how Ophion yielded his place by force of arms to Cronus and Eurynome hers to Rhea, and they fell into the waves of Ocean (Argonautica 1.503–506). Apollonius calls her an Oceanid, as Hesiod does, but does not connect her with the wife of Zeus.

Other Eurynomes

The name is also borne by mortal women. Penelope’s housekeeper in the Odyssey is called Eurynome (Odyssey 17–20 and 23).

Eurynome Sources

Homer, Iliad 18.395–405; Homer, Odyssey 17–20, 23; Hesiod, Theogony 358, 886–911; Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 1.503–506; Apollodorus, Library 1.2.2, 1.3.1, 3.12.6; Pausanias 8.41.4–6, 9.35.5.

See Also: Oceanus, Tethys, Zeus, Charites, Hephaestus, Thetis, Ophion, Cronus, Rhea