Nephele was the cloud goddess, because in Ancient
Greek literature, she is the only goddess referred to as a cloud and the only
cloud to be given a name. In fact she
was a nymph; an Oceanide, one of the three thousand daughters of the Titan
Oceanus. (Aristophanes,
Clouds 264)
If the Ocean is
her father you might think that Nephele was a goddess of the briny deep, best
represented by the deep swell and breaking wave. But, to our surprise the ancients thought of
Father Oceanus as the great freshwater river surrounding the land masses. He was the source of all the springs that
pushed from the bountiful earth and all the sweet rain that fell from heaven.
Many
of Nephele’s
sisters proudly bore names reminiscent of the clouds
at sunset like Ianthe; violet, Electra; amber, Rhode; rose and Chryseis;
golden. (ref. http://www.theoi.com/Nymphe/Okeanides.html)
Among her sisters were Metis; the goddess
of wisdom and Styx by whom the gods swore their greatest oaths. They famously visited their cousin Prometheus
during this imprisonment.
(Aeschylus
Prometheus Bound) Many oceanides were the eponymous nymphs of the countryside
about their sacred spring and married the founding father of local myth. Hence, Nephele ended up
wedding Athamas, King in Boeotia.
Add The Oceanides visiting Prometheus by Sir Joseph Noëlcaption |
Many goddesses
had no interest in raising mortal children, so like Aphrodite (Homeric Hymn to
Aphrodite) and the Nereid Thetis (Iliad) she left her children behind. Unfortunately, she left them in care of Athamas' next wife who wished to get rid of them.
Nephele, found out, sent a monster to rescue them; a winged ram with
golden fleece which carried them away.
Another story
about Nephele involves a mortal king named Ixion. Ixion slew his father-in-law,
left his wife and young son Pirithous and fled to Olympus for purification by
Zeus. In those days, such fugitives
stayed with the king who purified him and became one of his warriors.
It escaped no one’s
notice that hot-blooded Ixion developed a fancy for Zeus’ wife Hera. To test out the theory Zeus disguised Nephele
as wife and provided an opportunity of Ixion to betray his lust. Ixion immediately raped Nephele and just as
immediately was tossed into Hades for endless punishment. As Deborah Lyons
points out in Gender
and Immortality, “The beds of the gods are always fruitful. “ So, Nephele gave birth again, this time to
Centaurus, who was either a centaur or the father of the centaurs. In either case the centaurs became bitter
foes with their brother Pirithous.
There
is one more adventure Nephele might have taken part in. The lyric poet Stesichorus of Sicily wrote an
insulting poem about Helen of Troy around 600 BC. As a result Helen blinded him and sent a seer
to explain the truth about her life and the Trojan war. He regained his sight when he rewrote the poem,
explaining that Helen never actually visited Troy. Instead the gods fashioned a phantom to stand
in for Helen while she slumbered away the ten years in Egypt awaiting her
husband. Robert Graves in The
Greek Myths, says the phantom was fashioned from a cloud.
Could it be that the Achaeans and Trojans fought
and died for Nephele?
Image thanks to NYPL Digital Gallery
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