ASIE
Greek Name
Ασιη Ασια
Transliteration
Asiê, Asia
Latin Spelling
Asia
Translation
Of West Asia (region)
ASIE (Asia) was an Oceanid-nymph of Lydia in Anatolia (West Asia) and the wife of the Titan Prometheus.
The term Asia was first applied by the ancient Greeks to the region of Anatolia (modern Turkey) rather than the entire continental mass. More specifically Asia was used to describe the ancient empire of the Lydians and its royal family (the Asiad clan)--a region often associated with the Titan Prometheus.
Asia was frequently confounded with Klymene-Asie, wife of Iapetos and mother of Prometheus, and was probably the same as Pronoia, an Okeanis also named as the wife of Prometheus.
PARENTS
OKEANOS & TETHYS (Hesiod Theogony 359; Apollodorus 1.8)
OFFSPRING
HELLEN, DEUKALION (by Prometheus) (Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius 2.1086)
CLASSICAL LITERATURE QUOTES
Hesiod, Theogony 346 ff (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C8th or 7th B.C.) :
"Tethys bore to Okeanos (Oceanus) the swirling Potamoi (Rivers) . . . She [Tethys] brought forth also a race apart of daughters [the Okeanides], who with lord Apollon and the Rivers have the young in their keeping all over the earth, since this right from Zeus is given them. They are [amongst a list of fifty] . . . Europa, Metis and Eurynome, Telesto robed in saffron, Khryseis (Chryseis), and Asia, and alluring Kalypso (Calypso) . . .
Now these are the eldest of the daughters who were born to Tethys and Okeanos, but there are many others beside these, for there are three thousand light-stepping daughters of Okeanos scattered far and wide, bright children among the goddesses, and all alike look after the earth and the depths of the standing water."
Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1. 8 (trans. Aldrich) (Greek mythographer C2nd A.D.) :
"The Titanes (Titans) had children. Those of Okeanos (Oceanus) and Tethys were called Okeanides (Oceanids) : Asia, Styx, Elektra, Doris, Eurynome, Amphitrite, and Metis."
Herodotus, Histories 4. 45. 1 (trans. Godley) (Greek historian C5th B.C.) :
"Asia [was named] after the wife of Prometheus; yet the Lydians claim a share in the latter name, saying that Asia was not named after Prometheus' wife Asia, but after Asies, the son of Kotys (Cotys), who was the son of Manes, and that from him the Asiad clan at Sardis also takes its name."
SOURCES
GREEK
- Hesiod, Theogony - Greek Epic C8th - 7th B.C.
- Herodotus, Histories - Greek History C5th B.C.
- Apollodorus, The Library - Greek Mythography C2nd A.D.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
A complete bibliography of the translations quoted on this page.