In Greek mythology, Sinoessa (), later called Arne (; ), is a nymph and a nurse of the god Poseidon during his infancy. In a lesser-known variation of the myth, Sinoessa hid the young Poseidon from his father Cronus. The myth is preserved in medieval Greek sources both of which attribute it to a lost Corinthiaca by Theseus.
Mythology Sinoessa was a nymph who was entrusted with the care of the infant Poseidon by his mother, the Titaness Rhea.Etymologicum Magnum s.v. Ἄρνη When the boy's father Cronus came looking for him (Cronus swallowed his children out of fear that they would dethrone him once they got older), Sinoessa protected the young god by denying ( in ancient Greek, apernḗsato) that she had him at all in the first place.Tzetzes ad Lycophronem 644, attributing the tale to the third book of Theseus' Corinthiaca. For that reason she was called Arne afterwards. This was also the reason why the city of Arne in Boeotia was renamed from its previous name, Sinoessa.
Analysis According to Noel Robertson, judging from a similar epithet of the god Pan and a related Arcadian myth (in which Rhea set the newborn Poseidon down among a flock of sheep— in Greek, arnós—near the spring Arne), Tzetzes plundered in ascribing the myth to the Boeotian Arne, as evidence points to it actually being Arcadian in origin. Classical philologist Karl Kerenyi describes the Sinoessa variation (which links the name to the word for 'deny', rather than the one for sheep) as 'certainly late and incorrect.'
See also
Other nurses of gods in Greek mythology:
Neda, nurse of Zeus Cyllene, nurse of Hermes Macris, nurse of Hera
References
Bibliography Anonymous, Etymologicum Magnum, edited by Friedrich Sylburg. 1816. Available on the Internet Archive.
Tzetzes, John, Lycophronis Alexandra. Vol. II: Scholia Continens, edited by Eduard Scheer, Berlin, Weidmann, 1881. Available on the Internet Archive.