Chelone (Greek mythology)

Chelone (Χελωνη, Khelônê) was an Oread nymph of Arcadia in Greek mythology. "Khelônê" means "tortoise" in Greek, and the tortoise was a symbol of silence in ancient times. There are two etiological stories that tell the story of Chelone: Aesop's Fables and a version told by the fourth century CE grammarian Servius.

In Aesop’s Fables, Chelone wasn’t a nymph but in fact a tortoise. However, Chelone did not have a shell. Then she refused to attend the marriage of Zeus and Hera.

"Zeus invited all the animals to his wedding. The tortoise alone was absent, and Zeus did not know why, so he asked the tortoise (khelone) her reason for not having come to the feast. The tortoise said, ‘Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home.’ Zeus got angry at the tortoise and ordered her to carry her house with her wherever she went.”^[1]

Certain parts of the myth tell that Chelone was taking too long to be ready for the feast, which caused Zeus to become angry. In retribution, he crashed her house over her, and thus condemned her to drag her house forever as a tortoise.

In Servius’s On Virgil's Aeneid, Chelone is a nymph transformed by Mercury for her rudeness to Juno and Jupiter.

"For his wedding with Juno [Hera], Jupiter [Zeus] ordered Mercurius [Hermes] to invite all the gods, the men and the animals to the wedding. Everyone invited by Mercurius [Hermes] came, except for Chelone who did not deign to be there, mocking the wedding. When Mercurius noticed her absence, he went back down to the earth, threw in the river the house of Chelone that was standing over the river and changed Chelone in an animal that would bear her name. Chelone is said testudo (tortoise) in Latin.” ^[2]

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