In ancientGreek andRoman mythology,Rhodope (Ancient Greek:Ῥοδόπη,romanized: Rhodópē) is the wife ofHaemus and queen ofThrace. She and her husband were punished together by being transformed into mountain ranges after daring to compare themselves toZeus andHera, the highest gods. TheRhodope Mountains, shared betweenBulgaria andGreece, were named after this queen.

Rhodope's parentage is not clear in ancient texts; a scholiast makes a Thracian Rhodope the daughter of the river-godStrymon, but it is not clear whether this is supposed to be the same Rhodope.^[1][2] In theHomeric Hymn to Demeter, a Rhodope is the daughter ofOceanus andTethys and playmate toPersephone before her abduction.^[3]

Rhodope marriedHaemus, and together they had a son named Hebrus, the namesake of the Hebrus river (now more commonly known asMaritsa) which now forms one of the northern boundaries ofGreece, the boundary betweenWest andEast Thrace.^[4][5]

Rhodope marriedHaemus, king ofThrace, and became queen. She and Haemus had a good marriage that led to them becoming arrogant and insolent against the gods.^[6] Eventually they started referring to themselves asZeus andHera, the names of the highest of the gods.^[7] As punishment the gods turned them both into icy peaks; Haemus became theHaemus Mons (the modern Balkan Mountains, after which the peninsula is named),^[8] while Rhodope became theRhodopes.^[9]

Thracian Mount Rhodope and Mount Haemus, now icy peaks, once mortal beings who ascribed the names of the highest gods to themselves.

In a parodic or paradoxographic^[10] pseudo-Plutarchic text, now known not to have been authored byPlutarch,^[11] Rhodope and Haemus were in addition brother and sister, and it was the incest along with their hubris that caused Hera and Zeus to punish them.^[12] A scholiast made the pair father and daughter.^[13] Some time later, the goddessAthena wove Rhodope's tale into her tapestry during her weaving contest with the Lydian maidenArachne, as a warning against those who dared to challenge the gods.^[9]

Haemus and Rhodope's myth belong to a subcategory of stone myths were the petrification serves as punishment against lust, or a sad contrast between unfeeling, inanimate stones and human love, also seen seen in the myth ofLethaea andOlenus.^[14]

Other people who were punished for insulting the gods:

• Gerana
• Alcyone and Ceyx
• Antigone of Troy
• Lethaea
• Side

• Anonymous,Scholia inTheocritus, Bion and Moschus volume II, edited by T. Kiessling, including scholia and indices. London: Richard Priestley. 1826.Google books.
• Avery, Catherine B., ed. (1962).New Century Classical Handbook. New York, US: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
• Bell, Robert E. (1991).Women of Classical Mythology: A Biographical Dictionary.ABC-Clio.ISBN 9780874365818.
• Forbes Irving, Paul M. C. (1990).Metamorphosis in Greek Myths.Clarendon Press.ISBN 0-19-814730-9.
• Grimal, Pierre (1987).The Dictionary of Classical Mythology. Wiley-Blackwell.ISBN 0-631-13209-0.
• Kiessling, T.; Heindorfius, L. F. Τ, eds. (1826).Theocritus, Bion et Moschus. Vol. II. London, United Kingdom.
• Larson, Jennifer (June 28, 2001).Greek Nymphs: Myth, Cult, Lore. Oxford, New York:Oxford University Press.ISBN 0-19-512294-1.
• Ovid,Metamorphoses, with an English prose translation by A. S. Kline, 2000.Text available online at Poetry in Translation.
• Pseudo-Plutarch,De fluviis inPlutarch's Morals. Translated from the Greek by several hands. Corrected and revised by. William W. Goodwin, PH. D. Boston. Little, Brown, and Company. Cambridge. Press Of John Wilson and son. 1874. 5.Available in Perseus Digital Library.
• TheHomeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White. Homeric Hymns. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914.Available online at Perseus.tufts Digital Library.
• Tripp, Edward (June 1970).Crowell's Handbook of Classical Mythology (1st ed.). Thomas Y. Crowell Co.ISBN 069022608X.

• RHODOPE on the Theoi Project.

• Queens in Greek mythology
• Mythological Thracian women
• Metamorphoses into terrain in Greek mythology
• Metamorphoses characters
• Deeds of Zeus
• Deeds of Hera
• Rhodope Mountains
• Mythological people involved in incest
• Hubris myths

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Articles containing Ancient Greek (to 1453)-language text