Eurynome Other names: Location:  Greece Notes from Hrana Goddesses & Heroines text

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Hrana's Notes

The most ancient of Greek goddesses, she rose naked from primordial chaos and instantly began to dance: a dance that separated light from darkness and sea from sky. Whirling in a passion of movement, Eurynome created behind herself a wind that grew lustful toward her. Turning to face it, she grasped the wind in her hands, rolled it like clay into a serpent, and named it Ophion.

Then Eurynome had intercourse with the wind serpent and, transforming herself into a dove, laid the universal egg from which creation hatched. Installing herself high above the new earth on Mt. Olympus, Eurynome looked down on it complacently. But Ophion, her own creation, bragged that he had been responsible for all that was tangible. Forthwith Eurynome kicked out his teeth and threw him into an underworld dungeon.

There was another goddess of this name-or perhaps the later Eurynome was an elaboration of the creator goddess. Said by the Greeks to rule the sea, she may have been the same goddess as-or part of a trinity with-the great sea rulers Tethys and Thetis. The "wide-ruling one," Eurynome had a temple in wild Arcadia, difficult to reach and open only once a year. If pilgrims penetrated the sanctuary, they found the image of the goddess as a woman with a snake's tail, tied with golden chains. In this form, Eurynome of the sea was said to have been the mother of all pleasure, embodied in the beautiful triplets, the Graces.