This article is about the mythological goddess. For the island, seeRhodes. For the city, seeRhodes (city). For the ancient Greek emporium in Spain, seeRoses, Girona.
Various parents were given for Rhodos.Pindar makes her a daughter ofAphrodite with no father mentioned,[2] although scholia on Pindar addPoseidon as the father;[3] forHerodorus of Heraclea she was the daughter of Aphrodite and Poseidon,[4] while according toDiodorus Siculus she was the daughter of Poseidon andHalia, one of theTelchines, the original rulers of Rhodes.[5] According toApollodorus (referring to her as "Rhode") she was a daughter of Poseidon andAmphitrite, and full sister toTriton.[6] However, forEpimenides, her father wasOceanus,[7] while according to a scholion onOdyssey 17.208 (calling her "Rhode"), her father was the river-godAsopus, thus making her aNaiad.[8] Perhaps misreading Pindar, Asclepiades ("presumably the mythographer"Asclepiades of Tragilus) gives her father as Helios.[9]
The poetPindar tells the story, that when the gods drew lots for the places of the earth, Helios being absent received nothing. He complained to Zeus about it, who offered to make the division again. Helios refused, for he had seen a new island about to rise from the sea. So Helios, withZeus' consent, claimed a new island (Rhodes), which had not yet risen from the sea. And after it rose from the sea he lay with her and produced seven sons.[11] According to another source, it was Helios himself who caused the water overflowing the island to disappear, and after that he named this island "Rhodes" after Rhodos.[12]
By Helios, Rhodos was the mother of theHeliadae, who succeeded the Telchines as rulers of Rhodes. According to Pindar, Rhodos had, by Helios, seven sons.[13] Pindar does not name the sons, but according toDiodorus Siculus, the Heliadae wereOchimus,Cercaphus,Actis, Macar (i.e.Macareus),Candalus,Triopas, andTenages.[14] Diodorus Siculus also says that Helios and Rhodos had one daughter,Electryone. A scholion to Pindar gives the same list of sons, with Macareus (for Macar) and naming the last Heliadae as Phaethon, "the younger, whom the Rhodians call Tenages".[15] The older Phaethon referred to here probably being the famousPhaethon (whose story is told byOvid) who drove Helios' chariot.[16] The scholion onOdyssey 17.208 (perhaps drawing on either of the lost tragediesHeliades (Daughters of Helios) byAeschylus, andPhaethon, byEuripides), also makes Rhodos the mother, by Helios, of this famous Phaethon, as well as three daughters:Lampetie,Aigle, andPhaethousa.[17] (In theOdyssey, Lampetie and Phaethousa, the shepherds of Helios' cattle and sheep onThrinacia, are instead the daughters of Helios byNeaera.)[18]
WhenAphrodite cursed Helios and made him fall in love with a mortal princess namedLeucothoe, he is said to have forgotten about Rhodos, among other lovers.[19]
While Rhodian coins were known for displaying the magnificent head ofHelios, some of them showed the head of Rhodos; additionally, therose (Greekrhodon) became the island's symbol.[20] During theHellenistic period, she was worshipped in Rhodes as the island's tutelary goddess.[21]
^Scholion to Pindar,Olympian 7.132a (Fowler 2001,p. 205), which quotesHellanicus of Lesbos as calling their mother "Rhode" rather than "Rhodos". Fowler 2013,p. 591 in his list of the sons of Rhodos and Helios given by the scholion to Pindar, omits (apparently inadvertently) Ochimos, though he does mention him later (p. 592) as one of the brothers (along with Cercaphus) as not having participated in the murder of Tenages.
^Fowler 2013, p. 592, says that "It is probably safe to assume ... but not quite certain". For Ovid's account seeMetamorphoses1.750–2.324
^Gantz, p. 32;Frazer,note 2 to Apollodorus, 3.14.3; Fowler 2013,p. 591. The scholion cites "the tragedians" as his source; for an account of these two lost plays, and their being possible sources for the scholion, see Gantz, pp. 31–32.
Apollodorus,Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921.Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
Diodorus Siculus,Diodorus Siculus: The Library of History. Translated by C. H. Oldfather. Twelve volumes.Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1989.5.55.
Fowler, R. L. (2000),Early Greek Mythography: Volume 1: Text and Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2000.ISBN978-0198147404.
Fowler, R. L. (2013),Early Greek Mythography: Volume 2: Commentary, Oxford University Press, 2013.ISBN978-0198147411.
Hard, Robin,The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology", Psychology Press, 2004,ISBN9780415186360.
Homer;The Odyssey with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, PH.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1919.Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
