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.

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."

External links

• Theoi Project - Nysiades