InGreek mythology,Nerites (Ancient Greek:Νηρίτης,romanized: Nērítēs,lit. 'sea snail') is a minorsea deity, the son of "Old Man of the Sea"Nereus and theOceanid nymphDoris, and brother of the fiftyNereids (apparently their only male sibling). He was described as a young boy of stunning beauty. According toAelian, although Nerites was never mentioned by epic poets such asHomer andHesiod he was a common figure in themariners' folklore nevertheless.

According toAristotle, the namenerites refers to many species ofsea snails.R. S. P. Beekes suggests aPre-Greek origin for the word.^[1]

Aelian cites two versions of the myth concerning Nerites, which are as follows:

In the first version,Aphrodite, before her ascension from the sea toOlympus, fell in love with Nerites. When the time had come for her to join theOlympian gods, she wanted Nerites to go with her, but he refused, preferring to stay with his family in the sea.^[2] Even the fact that Aphrodite promised him a pair of wings did not make him change his mind. The scorned goddess then transformed him into a shellfish and later gave the wings to her son,Eros.^[3]

In the second version, Nerites was loved byPoseidon and answered his feelings. Their love was the origin of mutual love (Anteros). Poseidon also made Nerites hischarioteer; the boy drove the chariot astonishingly fast, to the admiration of various sea creatures. The sun godHelios, for reasons unknown to Aelian's sources, changed Nerites into a shellfish; the narrative of the love-story is disrupted by Helios who is resentful of the boy's speed as a fellow charioteer, but with no explanation behind it, allowing Aelian to conjecture that the two gods were rivals in love and Helios might have wanted the boy's affections for himself and was offended by his refusal.^[4] Aelian also suggested that Helios was angered at Nerites being amongst the sea monsters with his skill and wished for him to be amongst the constellations.^[3]

In the nineteenth century several terracotta figurines from the Greek island ofAegina were identified by the German archaeologistKarl Bernhard Stark as artistic representations of Aphrodite with Nerites.^[5][6]

• Adonis
• Ganymede
• Pelops
• Phaethon
• Greek sea gods

• Beekes, Robert;van Beek, Lucien[in Dutch] (2010).Lubotsky, Alexander (ed.).Etymological Dictionary of Greek.Brill Publishers.ISBN 978-90-04-17418-4.
• Aelian,De Natura Animalium, translated by A. F. Scholfield (1958), with some minor alterations.Available at Attalus.org.
• Grimal, Pierre (1996).The Dictionary of Classical Mythology. Wiley-Blackwell.ISBN 978-0-631-20102-1.
• Sanders, Ed; Thumiger, Chiara; Carey, Christopher; Lowe, Nick J. (2013).Erôs in Ancient Greece.Oxford University Press.ISBN 978-0-19-960550-7.
• Stark, Karl Bernhard (1865)."Aphrodite Pontia und Nerites, Terracotta aus Aegina".Archäologische Zeitung (in German) (200). RetrievedNovember 12, 2023.
• Wagner, Richard (1898). "Nerites". In Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (ed.).Ausführliches Lexikon der griechischen und römischen Mythologie [Detailed dictionary of Greek and Roman mythology] (in German). Vol. III. Leipzig: Teubner-Verlag.

• "NERITES". Theoi Project.

• Greek sea gods
• Metamorphoses into arthropods in Greek mythology
• Consorts of Aphrodite
• Men of Poseidon
• Deeds of Poseidon
• Helios in mythology
• Deeds of Aphrodite
• Animal deities
• Anthropomorphic molluscs
• Mythological molluscs

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• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Articles containing Ancient Greek (to 1453)-language text
• CS1 interwiki-linked names
• CS1 German-language sources (de)