Psamathe
| Greek deities series | |
|---|---|
| Primordial deities | |
| Titans and Olympians | |
| Chthonic deities | |
| Personified concepts | |
| Other deities | |
| Aquatic deities | |
- This article is about the mythological figures. For the moon of Neptune, see Psamathe (moon). For the polychaete worm genus, see Psamathe (polychaete).
Psamathe (Greek: Ψάμαθη, from ψάμαθος "sand of the sea-shore") was a Nereid in Greek mythology, i.e., one of the fifty daughters of Nereus and Doris. The goddess of sand beaches, Psamathe was the wife of Proteus[1] and the mother of Phocus by Aeacus.[2]
This was also the name of the mortal mother of Linus by Apollo. This second Psamathe was the daughter of Crotopus, king of Argos, who, fearing her father, gave her infant son Linus to shepherds to be raised; after reaching adulthood, he was torn apart by the shepherd's dogs, and Psamathe was killed by her father, who would not believe that she had had intercourse with a god rather than a mortal. Apollo avenged her murder by sending a child-killing plague to Argos, which would not cease until the Argives, at the god's command, paid honors to Psamathe and Linus.[3] In an alternate version, the baby Linus was torn apart by the king's sheepdogs upon being exposed and Apollo sent Poene, the personification of punishment, upon the city. Poene would steal children from their mothers until Coroebus killed her.[4]
Some translations of Ovid have the name as Psamanthe.[5]