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Things Not Generally Known: Oceanides

Oceanides and Oceanitides. Sea nymphs, daughters of Oceanus, from whom they received their name. According to Apollodorus they were 3000 in number. Oceanus. A powerful deity of the sea, son of Cœlus and Terra. He married Tethys, the Oceanides being their children.

Ops. A daughter of Cœlus and Terra, the same as the Rhea of the Greeks, who married Saturn and became mother of Jupiter.

Orpheus. A son of Eger and the Muse Calliope. He received a lyre from Apollo, or, according to some, from Mercury, on which he played in so masterly a manner that the melodious sounds caused rivers to cease to flow, and savage beasts to forget their wildness.

Osiris. A great deity of the Egyptians, husband of Isis. The ancients differ in opinion concerning this celebrated god, but they all agree that as ruler of Egypt he took care to civilize his subjects, to improve their morals, to give them good and salutary laws, and to teach them agriculture.

Pean. A surname of Apollo derived from the word Paan, a hymn which was sung in his honor for killing the serpent Python.

Pallas. A name of Minerva. She is said to have received the name because she killed a noted giant bearing that name.

Pan. The god of shepherds, huntsmen, and the inhabitants of the country. He was in appearance a monster; he had two small horns on his head, and his legs, thighs, tail, and feet were like those of the goat.

Pandora. A celebrated woman; the first mortal female that ever lived, according to Hesiod.

Pasiphae. A daughter of the Sun and of Perseis, who married Minos, king of Crete. She became the mother of the Minotaur which was killed by Theseus. Penates. Certain inferior deities among the Romans, who presided over the domestic affairs of families. Phaon. A boatman of Mitylene, in Lesbos. He received a box of ointment from Venus, who presented herself to him in the form of an old woman. When he had rubbed himself with the unguent he became beautiful, and Sappho, the celebrated poetess, became enamored with him. For a short time he devoted himself to her, but soon treated her with coldness, upon which she threw herself into the sea and was drowned.

Philoctetes was one of the Argonauts He received from Hercules the arrows which had been dipped in the gall of the Hydra.

Parcæ. The Fates, powerful goddesses who presided over the birth and life of mankind. Pegasus. A winged horse sprung from the blood of Medusa. According to Ovid he fixed his abode on Mount Helicon, where by striking the earth with his foot, he raised a fountain which has been called Hippocrene. Phlegethon. A river in the infernal regions, between the banks of which flames of fire flowed instead of water.