Cyane
A Sicilian water nymph who tried to stop Hades from abducting Persephone and dissolved into her own spring from grief.
The Myth of Cyane
Cyane was a Naiad who presided over a spring and pool near Syracuse in Sicily. She was present on that terrible day when Hades burst through the earth in his black chariot, seized Persephone, and began dragging her to the Underworld. Cyane rose from her waters and physically blocked his path, spreading her arms across the pool and telling the god he could not take the girl by force.
Hades was not interested in negotiation. He hurled his royal sceptre into the depths of Cyane's pool, opening a passage directly to his underground realm, and plunged through with Persephone. Cyane, powerless and devastated, wept. She wept so long and so completely that her body dissolved — flesh becoming water, bones becoming the bed of the spring, hair becoming waterweeds. She literally became her own grief.
When Demeter searched the world for her missing daughter, it was Cyane's pool that offered the first clue. Persephone's belt floated to the surface, placed there by the dissolved nymph who could no longer speak but could still bear witness.
Parents
Unknown river god
Children
None
Symbols
Fun Fact
The colour cyan takes its name from this nymph — kyanos was the Greek word for the dark blue of deep water, and Cyane was its spirit.
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth. See our full guide to English words from Greek mythology.
Explore Further
Juturna
🌿 nymphsprings, prophecy
An Italian water nymph loved by Jupiter, who granted her dominion over springs and streams as compensation for taking her virginity.
Telphusa
🌿 nymphsprings, prophecy
A spring nymph of Boeotia who tricked Apollo into building his oracle at Delphi instead of at her spring.
Arethusa
🌿 nymphNymph who became a freshwater spring
Arethusa was a nymph of Artemis who was pursued by the river god Alpheus and transformed into a freshwater spring on the island of Ortygia in Syracuse.
Naiads
🌿 nymphFreshwater nymphs
Naiads presided over every spring, stream, river, lake, and fountain — their water held prophetic and healing powers.
Autonoe
🌿 nymphnature, grief
A Nereid and, in separate traditions, a daughter of Cadmus who witnessed the death of her son Actaeon.
Egeria
🌿 nymphcounsel, springs
A prophetic water nymph of Italian tradition who served as divine adviser to Rome's second king, Numa Pompilius.
Castalia
🌿 nymphprophecy, springs
A nymph who was transformed into a spring at Delphi, whose waters inspired prophetic visions.
Lilaea
🌿 nymphrivers, springs
A Naiad nymph of the spring that feeds the river Cephissus in Phocis, and the namesake of an ancient Greek town.
Creusa
🌿 nymphsprings, motherhood
A Naiad nymph of Thessaly who bore Hypseus and Stilbe to the river god Peneus.
Praxithea
🌿 nymphsprings, sacrifice
A Naiad nymph who married King Erechtheus of Athens and consented to the sacrifice of her own daughters to save the city.
Salmacis
🌿 nymphdesire
Water nymph of Caria whose desperate embrace of Hermaphroditus caused the gods to fuse them into a single dual-sexed being.
Meliboea
🌿 nymphnature, grief
A nymph (or mortal woman) who survived the massacre of Niobe's children and was preserved by her extreme pallor of terror.