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
- ^ Homeric Hymn 26 to Dionysus 2 ff
- ^ Hyginus, Fabulae, 182
- ^ Also occurs in Terpander, Fragment 9
- ^ In Diodorus Siculus' Library of History, 3. 69, she is called daughter of Aristaeus
- ^ Nonnus, Dionysiaca, 14. 219 ff
- ^ 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."