Amnisiades

Callimachus

The nymphs of the Amnisos are mentioned thrice in Callimachus's Hymn to Artemis. Near the beginning of the Hymn, the goddess asks her father Zeus for twenty of the Amnisiades to be part of her retinue, alongside sixty of the Oceanids, saying that the former group would:

She then travels to Crete to pick up the Amnisiades. Later in the Hymn, they are described as tending for Artemis's deer.

Association with Artemis

Along the Amnisos river, there exists a cave which was dedicated to the goddess Eileithyia, with her having been venerated there as early as the Mycenaean era. According to Ivana Petrovic, is it highly likely Artemis and Eileilthyia were assimilated at this cave, or that at some point the worship of Eileithyia there was superseded by that of Artemis. In Jennifer Larson's view, an identification of the two goddesses here is likely the reason for Artemis being connected with the nymphs of this river.

Later references

Apollonius of Rhodes, following Callimachus, relates that among the companions of Artemis are nymphs who have come "from the very source of the Amnisus". Stephanus of Byzantium also mentions the Amnisiades, calling them Naiads.

Notes

References

• Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, edited and translated by William H. Race, Loeb Classical Library No. 1, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2009. . Harvard University Press.
• Larson, Jennifer, Greek Nymphs: Myth, Cult, Lore, Oxford University Press, 2001. .
• Petrovic, Ivana, Von den Toren des Hades zu den Hallen des Olymp. Artemiskult bei Theokrit und Kallimachos, Leiden, Brill, 2007. . .
• Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, Band I, Halbband 2, Stuttgart, J. B. Metzler, 1894. Wikisource.
• Stephanus of Byzantium, Stephani Byzantii Ethnica: Volumen I Alpha - Gamma, edited by Margarethe Billerbeck, in collaboration with Jan Felix Gaertner, Beatrice Wyss and Christian Zubler, De Gruyter, 2006. . De Gruyter. Google Books.
• Stephens, Susan A., Callimachus: The Hymns, Oxford University Press, 2015. .
• Vian, Francis, and Émile Delage, Apollonios de Rhodes: Argonautiques. Tome II: Chant III, Paris, Les Belles Lettres, 1980. .

References

1. ''RE'', s.v. Amnisiades.
2. Petrovic, p. 249.
3. [[Callimachus]], ''Hymn to Artemis'' 13–17 (Stephens, pp. 109, 117).
4. Petrovic, p. 249.
5. Petrovic, p. 249; [[Callimachus]], ''Hymn to Artemis'' 162–167 (Stephens, pp. 113, 120).
6. Vian and Delage, p. 138.
7. Petrovic, p. 252.
8. Larson, pp. 187–188; cf. Stephens, p. 125.
9. ''RE'', s.v. Amnisiades.
10. [[Apollonius of Rhodes]], [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/apollonius_rhodes-argonautica/2009/pb_LCL001.285.xml 3.876–882 (pp. 282–285)].
11. [[Stephanus of Byzantium]], ''Ethnica'' [https://archive.org/details/STEPHANUSBYZANTIUSETHNICAvol.AALPHAGAMMA2006ByMargaretheBillerbeck/page/182/mode/2up s.v. Ἀμνισός].