Nereis

• a Nereid; v. Nereus, II. A.

• one of the daughters of Priam, Hyg. Fab. 90.

• a daughter of Pyrrhus, king of Epirus; the wife of Gelo, of Syracuse, Just. 28, 3, 4.

(Νηρεΐς), or Nerine (Verg. Ecl. 7.37), is a patronymic from Nereus, and applied to his daughters (Nereides, Νηρεΐδες, and in Homer Νηρηΐδες) by Doris, who were regarded by the ancients as marine nymphs of the Mediterranean, in contra-distinction from the Naiades, or the nymphs of fresh water, and the Oceanides, or the nymphs of the great ocean (Eustath. ad Hom. p. 622). The number of the Nereides was fifty, but their names are not the same in all writers (Hom. Il. 18.39, &c.; Hes. Th. 240, &c.; Pind. Isthm. 6.8; Apollod. 1.2.7; Ov. Met. 2.10, &c.; Verg. A. 5.825; Hygin. Fab. praef.) They are described as lovely divinities, and dwelling with their father at the bottom of the sea, and they were believed to be propitious to all sailors, and especially to the Argonauts (Hom. Il. 18.36, &100.140; Apollod. 1.9.25; Apollon. 4.859, 930). They were worshipped in several parts of Greece, but more especially in sea-port towns. such as Cardamyle (Paus. 3.2.5), and on the Isthmus of Corinth (2.1.7). The epithets given them by the poets refer partly to their beauty and partly to their place of abode. They were frequently represented in antiquity, in paintings, on gems, in relievoes and statues, and commonly as youthful, beautiful, and naked maidens, and often grouped together with Tritons and other marine monsters, in which they resemble the Bacchic routs. Sometimes, also, they appear on gems as half maidens and half fish, like mermaids, the belief in whom is quite analogous to the belief of the ancients in the existence of the Nereides. (Hirt, Mythol. Bilderb. p. 150, tabb. 18, 19.) [L.S]

(Νηρηΐς), daughter of Pyrrhus I., king of Epeirus. was married, apparently long after her father's death, to Gelon, the son of Hieron, king of Syracuse, by whom she became the mother of Hieronymus. It appears that she outlived her niece Deidameia, and was thus the last surviving descendant of the royal house of the Aeacidae. (Paus. 6.12.3; Plb. 7.4.5; Just. 28.3.4; Vales. ad Diod. Exc. p. 568,) Her name is found in an inscription on the theatre of Syracuse, from which it appears that she bore the title of queen. (Raoul-Rochette, Mémoires de Numismatique et d'Antiquité, p. 73, 4to. Paris, 1840.) Justin erroneously supposes her to be a sister of the Deidameia (or Laodameia, as he calls her) who was assassinated by Milon. That she was a daughter of the elder Pyrrhus, see Droysen, vol. ii. p. 275, note. [E.H.B]

• wife of Gelo: Paus. 6.12.3