In Greek mythology, Chione (; ) is a mortal woman, the daughter of Boreas, the god of the north wind, and the princess Orithyia, a daughter of Erechtheus, the king of Athens. In the only myth concerning her, Chione sleeps with the sea-god Poseidon and bears him a son, Eumolpus, but in fear of her father's wrath she casts the infant into the sea.
Etymology The girl's name is derived from the ancient Greek word for snow, (khiṓn), a 'fitting' name for the daughter of the cold, northern wind.Liddell and Scott 1940, s.v. χιών The word is derived from the Indo-European root *ǵʰéyōm, translating to 'snow,' and is cognate with the words (kheîma, meaning snow) and (kheimṓn, meaning winter).
Family Chione was born to Boreas, the god of the north wind, and the Athenian princess Orithyia. She was thus the sister of Cleopatra (wife of Phineus, king of Thrace) and the Argonauts Calaïs and Zetes (collectively known as the Boreads).Tripp, s.v. Chione (2), p. 161, s.v. Eumolpus, p. 237; Grimal, s.v. Chione, p. 101; Smith, s.v. Chione 1.Apollodorus, 3.15.2, 1.9.21; Pausanias, 1.38.2; Hyginus, Fabulae 157.
Mythology Chione's only myth relates how she became the mother of Poseidon's son Eumolpus whom she then threw into the ocean for fear of her father's reaction; however, Eumolpus is rescued and raised by Poseidon.Tripp, s.v. Chione, p. 161; Grimal, s.v. Eumolpus, p. 155; Smith, s.v. EumolpusApollodorus, 3.15.4; Pausanias, 1.38.2. For other traditions regarding Eumolpus' parentage see Frazer's note 1 to Apollodorus 3.15.4.
Interpretation Eumolpus was seen as the first hierophant and ancestor of the Eleusinian clan; in that case, the myth of Chione casting him into the sea might be an allegory of hieronymy, a ritual in which the hierophant consigned their previous name to the sea.
Although generally distinct, Renaud Gagné has proposed that this Chione is meant to be the same as Chione, the mother of Boreas' three Hyperborean sons, otherwise the daughter of Arcturus.
See also
Other princesses who abandoned their infants in Greek myth:
Tyro, Thessalian princess Alope, Eleusinian princess Antiope, Theban princess
Notes
References
Apollodorus, The Library with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. ISBN 0-674-99135-4. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website.
Grimal, Pierre, The Dictionary of Classical Mythology, Wiley-Blackwell, 1996, . Hyginus, Gaius Julius, Fabulae in Apollodorus' Library and Hyginus' Fabulae: Two Handbooks of Greek Mythology, Translated, with Introductions by R. Scott Smith and Stephen M. Trzaskoma, Hackett Publishing Company, 2007. .
Liddell, Henry George, Robert Scott. A Greek-English Lexicon. Revised and augmented throughout by Sir Henry Stuart Jones with the assistance of. Roderick McKenzie. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1940. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library Internet Archive. Pausanias, Pausanias Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Smith, William; Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London (1873). Online version at the Perseus Digital Library Tripp, Edward, Crowell's Handbook of Classical Mythology, Thomas Y. Crowell Co; First edition (June 1970). .