Nysiads

In Greek Mythology, the Nysiads or Nysiades (Νυσιάδες) were Okeanid nymphs of mythical Mount Nysa. Zeus entrusted the infant god Dionysus[1] to their care, and the Nysiads raised him with the assistance of the old satyr-god Seilenos. When Dionysus was grown the Nysiads joined his company as the first of the Bakkhantes.

Names

The names of the nymphs include:[2]

  • Ambrosia
  • Arsinoe
  • Bromia or Bromis
  • Cisseis
  • Coronis
  • Erato
  • Eriphia
  • Nysa[3][4]
  • Pedile
  • Polymno or Polyhymno

Also mentioned are Callichore and Calyce[5] (after whom two moons of Jupiter, Kallichore and Kalyke, are named).

In later tellings of Dionysus's infancy, the Nysiades appear to be identified with the Hyades.[6] The term might have been used for the Pleiades and the Hyades as Dionysus's tutors altogether.

References
  1. Homeric Hymn 26 to Dionysus 2 ff
  2. Hyginus, Fabulae, 182
  3. Also occurs in Terpander, Fragment 9
  4. In Diodorus Siculus' Library of History, 3. 69, she is called daughter of Aristaeus
  5. Nonnus, Dionysiaca, 14. 219 ff
  6. In Bibliotheca 3. 4. 3, the identification is explicit: "...the Nymphai of Asian Nysa, whom Zeus in later times placed among the stars and named the Hyades."
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