Ceto

Ceto (/ˈsiːtoʊ/; Ancient Greek: Κητώ, romanized:  Kētṓ, lit. 'sea

Ceto
monster') is a primordial sea goddess in Greek mythology, the
daughter of Pontus and his mother, Gaia. As a mythological figure, Sea goddess
she is considered to be one of the most ancient deities, and bore a
host of monstrous children fathered by Phorcys, another child of
Gaia and Pontus. The small Solar System body 65489 Ceto was
named after her, and its satellite after Phorcys.

Ceto was also variously called Crataeis (Κράταιις, Krataiis, from

κραταιίς (https://web.archive.org/web/20131005023114/http://archi
medes.fas.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/dict?name=lsj&lang=el&word=krat
u%2Fs&filter=CUTF8) "mighty") and Trienus (Τρίενος, Trienos,
from τρίενος (https://web.archive.org/web/20131005022556/http://
archimedes.fas.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/dict?name=lsj&lang=el&word
=tri%2fenos&filter=CUTF8) "within three years"), and was
occasionally conflated by scholars with the goddess Hecate (for
whom Crataeis and Trienus are also epithets).

This goddess should not be confused with the minor Oceanid also
named Ceto, or with various mythological beings referred to as
ketos (plural kētē or ketea); this is a general term for "sea monster"
in Ancient Greek.[1] The goddess Ceto aiding her father
Pontus in the mythological war
known as the Gigantomachy — c.
166–156 BC — Gigantomachy
Contents Frieze, Pergamon Altar of Zeus
Family Abode Sea
Cult Personal information
Notes Parents Pontus and Gaia
References Siblings Nereus, Thaumas,
Further reading Phorcys and Eurybia
Consort Phorcys
Children The Gorgons, The
Family Graeae, Echidna?,
Ladon
Besides Ceto, Gaia (Earth) and Pontus had four other offspring,
Nereus, Thaumas, Phorcys and Eurybia.[2] Hesiod's Theogony
lists the children of Ceto and Phorcys as the two Graiae: Pemphredo and Enyo, and the three Gorgons:
Sthenno, Euryale, and Medusa,[3] with their last offspring being an unnamed serpent (later called Ladon,
by Apollonius of Rhodes) who guards the golden apples.[4] Also according to Hesiod, the half-woman,
half-snake Echidna was born to a "she" who was probably meant by Hesiod to be Ceto, (with Phorcys the
likely father); however the "she" might instead refer to the Oceanid Callirhoe.[5] The mythographer
Pherecydes of Athens (5th century BC) has Echidna as the daughter of Phorcys, without naming a
mother.[6]
The mythographers Apollodorus and Hyginus, each name a third Graiae, as the offspring of Ceto and
Phorcys, Dino and Persis respectively.[7] Apollodorus and Hyginus also make Ladon the offspring of
Echidna and Typhon, rather than Ceto and Phorcys.[8]

The Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius cites Phorcys and Ceto as the parents of the Hesperides, but this
assertion is not repeated in other ancient sources.

Ceto is possibly the mother of the Nemean lion and the Sphinx by her grandson Orthrus.[9]

Homer refers to Thoosa, the mother of Polyphemus in the Odyssey, as a daughter of Phorcys, but does not
indicate whether Ceto is her mother.

Cult
Pliny the Elder mentions worship of "storied Ceto" at Joppa (now Jaffa), in a single reference, immediately
after his mention of Andromeda, whom Perseus rescued from a sea-monster. S. Safrai and M. Stern suggest
the possibility that someone at Joppa established a cult of the monster under the name Ceto. As an
alternative explanation, they posit that Pliny or his source misread the name cetus—or that of the Syrian
goddess Derceto.[10]

Notes
1. "κῆτος" (https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.005
7%3Aentry%3Dkh%3Dtos) in Liddell, Henry and Robert Scott. 1996. A Greek-English
Lexicon. Revised by H.S. Jones and R. McKenzie. Ninth edition, with revised supplement.
Oxford: Clarendon Press.
2. Hard, p. 50; Hesiod, Theogony 233–339 (Most, pp. 21–23 (https://www-loebclassics-com.wi
kipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/view/hesiod-theogony/2018/pb_LCL057.21.xml)); Apollodorus
1.2.6 (http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg001.perseus-eng1:1.2.6).
3. Theogony 270–276 (Most, pp. 24, 25 (https://www-loebclassics-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.ocl
c.org/view/hesiod-theogony/2018/pb_LCL057.25.xml)).
4. Theogony 333–336 (Most, pp. 28, 29 (https://www-loebclassics-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.ocl
c.org/view/hesiod-theogony/2018/pb_LCL057.29.xml)); Apollonius of Rhodes, 4.1396 (http
s://www-loebclassics-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/view/apollonius_rhodes-argonautic
a/2009/pb_LCL001.441.xml).
5. Hesiod, Theogony 270-300 (https://www-loebclassics-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/vie
w/hesiod-theogony/2018/pb_LCL057.25.xml). Though Herbert Jennings Rose says simply
that it is "not clear which parents [for Echidna] are meant", Athanassakis, p. 44 (https://books.
google.com/books?id=cvSiWE0KQsYC&pg=PA44), says that Ceto and Phorcys are the
"more likely candidates for parents". The problem arises from the ambiguous referent of the
pronoun "she" in Theogony 295 (https://www-loebclassics-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.or
g/view/hesiod-theogony/2018/pb_LCL057.27.xml). While some have read this "she" as
referring to Callirhoe (e.g. Smith s.v. Echidna (https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc
=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0104%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DE%3Aentry+group%3D1%3
Aentry%3Dechidna-bio-1); Morford, p. 162), according to Clay, p. 159 n. 32 (https://books.go
ogle.com/books?id=2etBN0w0NGUC&pg=PA159), "the modern scholarly consensus" reads
Ceto, see for example Most, p. 27 n. 16 (https://www-loebclassics-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.
oclc.org/view/hesiod-theogony/2018/pb_LCL057.27.xml) ("Probably Ceto"); Gantz, p. 22
 ("Phorkys and Keto produce Echidna"); Caldwell, pp. 7, 46 lines 295–303 ("presumably
Keto"); West, p. 249 line 295 ("probably Keto"); Grimal, s.v. Echidna ("Phorcys and Ceto").
6. Pherecydes, fr. 7 Fowler = FGrHist 3 F 7 (Fowler, p. 278 (https://books.google.com/books?id
=j0nRE4C2WBgC&pg=PA278)); Hošek, p. 678.
7. Apollodorus 2.4.2 (http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg001.perseus-e
ng1:2.4.2); Hyginus, Fabulae Preface § p.9 (https://topostext.org/work/206#p.9).
8. Apollodorus 2.5.11 (http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg001.perseus-
eng1:2.5.11); Hyginus, Fabulae Preface § p.35 (https://topostext.org/work/206#p.35), 151 (htt
ps://topostext.org/work/206).
9. Hesiod, Theogony 326–327 (https://www-loebclassics-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/vie
w/hesiod-theogony/2018/pb_LCL057.29.xml). Who is meant as the mother is unclear, the
problem arising from the ambiguous referent of the pronoun "she" in line 326 of the
Theogony, see Clay, p.159, note 34 (https://archive.org/details/hesiodscosmos0000clay/pag
e/159)
10. Colitur illic fabulosa Ceto. Pliny, Book 5, chapter 14, §69; this same paragraph will be
referred to as v.14, v.69, V.xiv.69; and v.13 (one of the chapter divisions is missing in some
MSS). For Ceto as a transferred name, see Rackham's Loeb translation; for emendations,
see The Jewish people in the first century. Historical geography, political history, social,
cultural and religious life and institutions. Ed. by S. Safrai and M. Stern in co-operation with
D. Flusser and W. C. van Unnik, Vol II, p. 1081, and Oldfather's translation of Pliny (Derceto).

References
Athanassakis, Apostolos N, Hesiod: Theogony, Works and days, Shield, JHU Press, 2004.
ISBN 978-0-8018-7984-5.
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. (h
ttp://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0022) Greek text
available from the same website (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:tex
t:1999.01.0021).
Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica, edited and translated by William H. Race, Loeb
Classical Library No. 1, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2009.
ISBN 978-0-674-99630-4. Online version at Harvard University Press (https://www-loebclas
sics-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/view/LCL001/2009/volume.xml).
Caldwell, Richard, Hesiod's Theogony, Focus Publishing/R. Pullins Company (June 1,
1987). ISBN 978-0-941051-00-2.
Clay, Jenny Strauss, Hesiod's Cosmos, Cambridge University Press, 2003. ISBN 978-0-
521-82392-0.
Fowler, R. L., Early Greek Mythography: Volume 1: Text and Introduction, Oxford University
Press, 2000. ISBN 978-0198147404.
Hyginus, Gaius Julius, Fabulae, in The Myths of Hyginus, edited and translated by Mary A.
Grant, Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1960. Online version at ToposText (https://topo
stext.org/work/206).
Gantz, Timothy, Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources, Johns Hopkins
University Press, 1996, Two volumes: ISBN 978-0-8018-5360-9 (Vol. 1), ISBN 978-0-8018-
5362-3 (Vol. 2).
Grimal, Pierre, The Dictionary of Classical Mythology (https://books.google.com/books?id=i
Ox6de8LUNAC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f
=false), Wiley-Blackwell, 1996, ISBN 978-0-631-20102-1.
 Hard, Robin (2004), The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's
"Handbook of Greek Mythology", Psychology Press, 2004, ISBN 9780415186360. Google
Books (https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&printsec=frontcover).
Hesiod, Theogony from The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by
Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, MA.,Harvard University Press; London, William
Heinemann Ltd. 1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. (http://www.perseus.tuft
s.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0130%3Acard%3D1) Greek text
available from the same website (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:tex
t:1999.01.0129).
Homer, The Odyssey with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, PH.D. in two volumes.
Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1919.
ISBN 978-0674995611. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. (http://www.perseus.tuf
ts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0136) Greek text available from the same
website (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0135).
Morford, Mark P. O., Robert J. Lenardon, Classical Mythology, Eighth Edition, Oxford
University Press, 2007. ISBN 978-0-19-530805-1.
Most, G.W., Hesiod, Theogony, Works and Days, Testimonia, Edited and translated by
Glenn W. Most, Loeb Classical Library No. 57, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard
University Press, 2018. ISBN 978-0-674-99720-2. Online version at Harvard University
Press (https://www-loebclassics-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/view/LCL057/2018/volum
e.xml).
Rose, Herbert Jennings, "Echidna" in The Oxford Classical Dictionary, Hammond and
Scullard (editors), Second Edition, Oxford University Press, 1992. ISBN 0-19-869117-3
Smith, William, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London (1873).
West, M. L., Hesiod: Theogony, Oxford University Press.

Further reading
Aken, Dr. A.R.A. van. (1961). Elseviers Mythologische Encyclopedie. Amsterdam: Elsevier.
Bartelink, Dr. G.J.M. (1988). Prisma van de mythologie. Utrecht: Het Spectrum.

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