The Greek Gods
The Titans and their kin
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An Oceanid; mother of Atlas, Prometheus and their brothers

Clymene

Κλυμένη

Clymene, an Oceanid, is the wife of Iapetus and the mother of Atlas, Menoetius, Prometheus and Epimetheus.

Hesiod lists Clymene among the Oceanids, the daughters of Oceanus and Tethys. Later, in his account of the Titans' children, he calls her the fair-ankled wife of Iapetus and says she bore him four sons: the proud Menoetius, the clever Prometheus, the foolish Epimetheus and Atlas, who holds up the sky.

Other writers disagree about the mother. Apollodorus gives her name as Asia, who is also an Oceanid, and in Aeschylus's Prometheus Bound the mother of Prometheus is Themis, who is also called Gaia. The sons are the constant, and Clymene is Hesiod's version.

A different Clymene, also an Oceanid, appears in Ovid's Metamorphoses as the mother of Phaethon, the boy who tried to drive the chariot of the sun. Greek names were often reused, so check which Clymene an author means.

The ancient evidence for Clymene is limited, so this page is short on purpose.

Ancient sources

  • Hesiod, Theogony 351, 507-511
  • Apollodorus, Library 1.2.3
  • Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound 209-210
  • Ovid, Metamorphoses 1.750-2.400

The family of Clymene

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