Page:Greek and Roman Mythology.djvu/68

 54 GREEK AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY Babylonian prototypes of this sort of sea gods, prototypes which had reached Greece through the Phoenicians and lonians, were, at a later period, still regularly represented as heterogeneous monstrosities in which a fish's belly was joined to the upper part of a human body, a shape that developed itself in the same way as the forms of the river gods, Centaurs, and Satyrs. 70. By the side of these lower sea divinities stand the Nereides, i.e. daughters of Nereus, as representatives of the friendly forces operating in the sea, or, conceived of from the standpoint of the senses, as embodiments of the playful, bewitching waves. They were represented in the form of beautiful maidens, among whom Amphi- trite (' the one streaming all around 7 ), wife of Poseidon, Thetis, the mother of Achilles, and Galatea ('the milk- white one 7 ), the shy maiden loved by the Cyclops Polyphemus, are especially prominent. Akin to them is Ino-Leucothea, whose aid was invoked in perils on the sea; for the Nereids themselves are called also Leuco- theae ( ( white goddesses 7 ). In another aspect she became a secondary form of Aphrodite-Astarte, who is powerful on the sea, just as her son Melicertes was developed from the sun god and city god Melkart, of Tyre. Like Melkart, Melicertes was worshiped as a protector of sailors. Yet he was represented as a child in the arms of his mother, who, it was said, in a fit of madness had cast herself with him into the sea ; sometimes, however, he appears standing upon a dolphin. His other name, Palaemon (< wrestler 7 ), refers to his taking part in the celebration of the Isthmian games. He had a sanctuary in the neighborhood of Corinth, a city which had been an old Phoenician mart.