Chione (daughter of Boreas)

For other uses, see Chione (mythology).

In Greek mythology, Chione (/kaɪˈoʊniː/;[1] Ancient Greek: Χιόνη, romanized: Khiónē, lit. 'snowy') is a mortal woman, the daughter of Boreas, the god of the north wind, and the princess Orithyia, a daughter of Erechtheus, the king of Athens. In the only myth concerning her, Chione sleeps with the sea-god Poseidon and bears him a son, Eumolpus, but in fear of her father's wrath she casts the infant into the sea.

Etymology

The girl's name Χιόνη is derived from the ancient Greek word for snow, χιών (khiṓn), a 'fitting' name for the daughter of the cold, northern wind.[2][3] The word is derived from the Indo-European root *ǵʰéyōm, translating to 'snow,' and is cognate with the words χεῖμα (kheîma, meaning snow) and χειμών (kheimṓn, meaning winter).[4]

Family

Chione was born to Boreas, the god of the north wind, and the Athenian princess Orithyia. She was thus the sister of Cleopatra (wife of Phineus, king of Thrace) and the Argonauts Calaïs and Zetes.[5][6]

Mythology

Chione's only myth relates how she became the mother of Poseidon's son Eumolpus whom she then threw into the ocean for fear of her father's reaction; however, Eumolpus is rescued and raised by Poseidon.[3][7][8]

Interpretation

Eumolpus was seen as the first hierophant and ancestor of the Eleusinian clan; in that case, the myth of Chione casting him into the sea might be an allegory of hieronymy, a ritual in which the hierophant consigned their previous name to the sea.[9]

Although generally distinct, Renaud Gagné has proposed that this Chione is meant to be the same as Chione, the mother of Boreas' three Hyperborean sons, otherwise the daughter of Arcturus.[10]

See also

Other princesses who abandoned their infants in Greek myth:

Notes

  1. ^ Avery 1962, p. 279.
  2. ^ Liddell and Scott 1940, s.v. χιών
  3. ^ a b Kearns 2006, para. 1.
  4. ^ Beekes 2010, s.v. χεῖμα.
  5. ^ Tripp, s.v. Chione (2), p. 161, s.v. Eumolpus, p. 237; Grimal, s.v. Chione, p. 101; Smith, s.v. Chione 1.
  6. ^ Apollodorus, 3.15.2, 1.9.21; Pausanias, 1.38.2; Hyginus, Fabulae 157.
  7. ^ Tripp, s.v. Chione, p. 161; Grimal, s.v. Eumolpus, p. 155; Smith, s.v. Eumolpus
  8. ^ Apollodorus, 3.15.4; Pausanias, 1.38.2. For other traditions regarding Eumolpus' parentage see Frazer's note 1 to Apollodorus 3.15.4.
  9. ^ Parker 2003, s.v. Eumolpus.
  10. ^ Gagné 2021, p. 342.

References

  • Apollodorus, The Library with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. ISBN 0-674-99135-4. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website.
  • Avery, Catherine B., ed. (1962). New Century Classical Handbook. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
  • Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010). Lucien van Beek (ed.). Etymological Dictionary of Greek. Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series. Vol. II. Leiden, the Netherlands: Brill Publications. ISBN 978-90-04-17418-4. ISSN 1574-3586.
  • Gagné, Renaud (April 2021). Cosmography and the Idea of Hyperborea in Ancient Greece: A Philology of Worlds. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-108-83323-3.
  • Grimal, Pierre, The Dictionary of Classical Mythology, Wiley-Blackwell, 1996, ISBN 9780631201021.
  • Hyginus, Gaius Julius, Fabulae in Apollodorus' Library and Hyginus' Fabulae: Two Handbooks of Greek Mythology, Translated, with Introductions by R. Scott Smith and Stephen M. Trzaskoma, Hackett Publishing Company, 2007. ISBN 978-0-87220-821-6.
  • Kearns, Emily (October 1, 2006). "Chione". In Cancik, Hubert; Schneider, Helmuth (eds.). Brill's New Pauly. Translated by Christine F. Salazar. Oxford: Brill Reference Online. doi:10.1163/1574-9347_bnp_e232630. ISSN 1574-9347. Retrieved August 1, 2025.
  • Liddell, Henry George, Robert Scott. A Greek-English Lexicon. Revised and augmented throughout by Sir Henry Stuart Jones with the assistance of. Roderick McKenzie. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1940. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
  • Parker, Robert (2003). Simon Hornblower; Antony Spawforth (eds.). Oxford Classical Dictionary. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198606419. Internet Archive.
  • Pausanias, Pausanias Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
  • Smith, William; Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London (1873). Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
  • Tripp, Edward, Crowell's Handbook of Classical Mythology, Thomas Y. Crowell Co; First edition (June 1970). ISBN 069022608X.
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