Metope
nymphA river nymph, daughter of the river Ladon, who married the river god Asopus and bore him twenty daughters — many of whom were abducted by gods.
The Myth
Metope was a daughter of the Arcadian river Ladon and married Asopus, the great river god of Boeotia and the Peloponnese. Together they produced twenty daughters, a remarkable brood even by the prolific standards of Greek river gods. These daughters became some of the most sought-after nymphs in mythology.
Zeus took Aegina. Poseidon took Salamis, Corcyra, and several others. Apollo claimed Sinope. Nearly every major god helped himself to one of Metope's daughters, and each abducted nymph gave her name to an island or city — Aegina, Salamis, Corcyra (Corfu), Sinope, Thebe, and more. Metope and Asopus essentially populated the map of Greece through their stolen children.
Asopus tried to recover his daughters. He chased Zeus himself when Aegina was taken, only to be driven back by thunderbolts. The scars of that pursuit were said to be the coal deposits found in the river's bed. Metope, unlike her husband, had no such dramatic confrontation. She endured. She produced. Her children became the geography of Greece.
Parents
The river Ladon
Symbols
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth:
Explore Further
Aegina
nymphA river nymph abducted by Zeus and brought to the island that bears her name.
Sinope
nymphA nymph who outwitted Zeus, Apollo, and the river god Halys by making each promise her virginity as...
Apollo
godGod of light, music, poetry, and prophecy. Apollo embodied the Greek ideal of youthful masculine...
Apollo (Far-Striker)
godThe radiant god of light, prophecy, music, healing, and plague — the most complex deity in the...
Apollo (Light)
godApollo was the most complex Olympian — god of light, music, poetry, prophecy, healing, plague, and...
Apollo Loxias
godAn epithet of Apollo meaning "the Oblique One," referring to the deliberately ambiguous nature of...
Arcadia
placeArcadia was both a real mountainous region in the central Peloponnese and an idealised landscape of...
Ladon (Dragon)
creatureThe hundred-headed serpent-dragon that guarded the golden apples in the Garden of the Hesperides,...
Poseidon
godLord of the seas and brother of Zeus. Poseidon's moods shaped the oceans — calm seas for those who...
Poseidon (Earth-Shaker)
godPoseidon was the god of the sea and earthquakes whose moods determined whether sailors lived or...
Poseidon Hippios
godAn epithet of Poseidon as lord of horses, reflecting his role as creator of the first horse and...
Zeus
godSupreme ruler of the Olympian gods and lord of the sky. Zeus overthrew his father Kronos and...