The Titans in Greek Mythology were known as primordial beings, powerful and ancient,
who essentially shaped the very fabric of the universe. Many are familiar with the
likes of Cronus, Atlas and Prometheus - deities whose exploits and shenanigans echo even today.
But after the rise of the Olympians and the complete takeover of Zeus, many Titans who
weren’t cast down into Tartarus fell by the wayside and became mured into the periphery
of both ancient belief and modern mythology. Amongst these Titans, Euronyme emerges as a
figure of unique significance, despite being overshadowed by her more renowned siblings.
Eurynome, the Titan goddess of water meadows and pasturelands was believed to be a deity
who oversaw the waters - specifically, the river lymax in the ancient city of Philagia.
Greek geographer and explorer Pausanias explained in his ‘Description of Greece’,
that there was once a sanctuary dedicated to Euronyme where the streams met between Philagia
and the wilderness of Arcadia. This, Pausanias tells us, was a difficult sanctuary to reach
because of how terrible the condition of the ground was during his visit. Of this sanctuary,
we learn that there were many cypress trees and that there was only one day each year where the
sanctuary was ever opened. Other than that, it remained closed and it was forbidden for
anyone to open it. During the season of festival, Pausanias claimed that whilst he never went inside
the sanctuary, he did hear it said by locals that there were golden chains that bound a wooden image
of Eurynome, whose upper body was like that of a woman, but the whose lower body was like that of
a fish. On the day when the sanctuary was opened, the local villagers would bring sacrifices before
the altar and offer them to the wooden sculpture in hopes of receiving Euronyme’s blessing.
In this account by Pausanias, we also learn that there was no unanimous agreement as to who or what
Euronyme was. Of the locals that Pausanias spoke with, some believed that ‘Euronyme’ was merely
the surname of the more popular Artemis, whilst those who had descended from ancient traditions
declared that Eurynome was daughter of the Titan Oceanus, thus making her an Oceanid.
The Oceanids, (often known as nymphs) can’t necessarily be lumped into the same group,
nor can they be defined by any one specific function. Whilst traditionally they are associated
with lakes and streams, not all nymphs were idle bystanders of the water. Some were considered to
be minor deities, others were more significant in nature such as Metis, Europa or Asia. Some
were responsible for child care, worked as servants or were possibly even just scandalous
love affairs for gods and mortal men alike. Euronyme was no exception, being known as
the third bride as none other than Zeus himself, whom she bore the Charites with,
three goddesses of beauty and grace seen to be attendants of the Olympians. In the Bibliotheca
by Pseudo-Apollodorus, we are told of this union ‘And by Oceanus daughter Eurynome he [Zeus] had
the Charites, named Aglaia, Euphrosyne and Thaleia.’
The major mythological role of the Charites was to attend the Olympians,
usually during various dances and feasts, but also in pretty much whatever the Olympians
wanted. We see them in Homer’s Iliad assisting Aphrodite by bathing and anointing after she had
left Olympus when her affair with Ares was discovered. In the Works and Days,
Greek poet Hesiod tells us that it was the Charites who adorned Pandora with necklaces
so that she would be more enticing for Epimetheus. In the Theogony meanwhile,
Hesiod refers to the Charites as dancing and singing with Apollo and the muses.
One might think of the Charites as royal servants or royal attendants of the Olympians
and that would be a pretty fair estimation. It’s interesting then that considering how
vital these Charites were to the everyday affairs of the Olympians that their creator,
Euronyme, receives very little credit or even recognition. Then again, it also does
make sense considering that the Olympians, like mortals, probably took the hired help
for granted and didn’t think that deeply about their servants, much less about who had bore them.
A few poets from history mention Euronyme becoming the nurse of Hephaestus, after Hephaestus had been
expelled from Olympus and cast to the bottom of the ocean. In some versions, Eurynome took
the banished Hephaestus to a cave where she essentially raised him. In fact, according
to the Iliad, one the Charites - Euronyme’s daughter - marries Hepahetus when he’s older.
The Iliad makes note of Euronyme nursing Hephaestus, ‘Hephaestus was cast from
Olympus by Hera who was disgusted at having borne a crippled child. Then Hephaestus’
soul would have taken much suffering had not Eurynome and Thetis caught [him]. Eurynome,
daughter of Oceanus, whose stream bends back in a circle. With them,
[Hephaestus] worked nine years as a smith… working there in the hollow of the cave, and the stream of
Oceanus around [them] went on forever with its foam and its murmur. No other among the gods or
among mortal men knew about him except Eurynome and Thetis. They knew, since they saved [him].’
According to ancient Greek writer Apollonius of Rhodes, another version of Euronyme exists
that hints at a more conflicting origin story. Here, Here Apollonius tells us that Eurynome had
been married to the Titan Ophion and that together, they ruled in Olympus over the
other Titans in a time before Chronus and Rhea. After Chronus came of age however,
we are told that he (as he did traditionally with his father Ouranus), dethroned Ophion and
conquered Euronyme before casting her down into the ocean. Modern historians seem to disagree as
to whether this Euronyme is the same Euronyme who would marry Zeus and give birth to the Charites,
but it is possible that there was an ancient version of the narrative that conflated the two.
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