Web Theoi
EUPHEME
 

Greek Name:
Transliteration:
Translation:

Eufhmh
Euphêmê
Well-Spoken
(eu, phêmê)

EUPHEME was a Nymph of Mount Helikon in Boiotia (central Greece) who nursed the goddess Mousai. She was loved by the god Pan and bore him a son named Krotos who became a close companion of the nine goddesses.

Eupheme "the well-spoken" was probably the Naiad Nymphe of the Helikonian spring, whose waters were believed to inspire poets. She may have been identified with Aganippe.

PARENTS
Perhaps a daughter of the River TERMESSOS
OFFSPRING
KROTOS (by Pan) (Sositheus Frag, Eratosthenes, Hyginus Fabulae 224, Hyginus Astronomica 2.27)

ENCYCLOPEDIA

EUPHE′ME (Euphêmê), the nurse of the Muses, of whom there was a statue in the grove of the Muses near Helicon. (Paus. ix. 29. § 3.)

Source: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.

"As you go along the straight road to the grove [of the Mousai on Mt Helikon, Boiotia] is a portrait of Eupheme carved in relief on a stone. She was, they say, the nurse of the Mousai." - Pausanias, Guide to Greece 9.29.5

"Mortals who were made immortal .... Crotos, son of Pan and Eupheme." - Hyginus, Fabulae 224

"Crotus, son of Eupheme, nurse of the Musae. As Sositheus [C3rd BC], writer of tragedies, says, he had his home on Mount Helicon and took his pleasure in the company of the Musae." - Hyginus, Astronomica 2.27


Sources:

  • Pausanias, Guide to Greece - Greek Geography C2nd AD
  • Hyginus, Fabulae - Latin Mythography C2nd AD
  • Hyginus, Astronomica - Latin Mythography C2nd AD

Other references not currently quoted here: Eratosthenes, Manilus Astronomica 2.433