Nicaea (mythology)

Nicaea (nye-SEE-ə), also called Nikaia, is a Naiad nymph in Greek mythology. She is associated with the springs or fountain of the ancient Greek colony of Nicaea in Bithynia, in northwestern Asia Minor, or with the nearby lake Ascania. Her story appears mainly in the Dionysiaca, a fifth-century epic by Nonnus, though it may have come from local Bithynian tales. A sworn virgin, Nicaea rejects the advances of the god Dionysus.

Family

Nicaea is the daughter of the river-god Sangarius and the mother-goddess Cybele. With Dionysus, she became the mother of Telete (consecration) and Satyrus, along with other children.

Nonnus' account

In Nonnus’s account, Nicaea was a huntress devoted to Artemis, a virgin unacquainted with Aphrodite. The god Eros made a young shepherd named Hymnus fall in love with her. Hymnus stole Nicaea’s hunting gear and begged her to shoot him to end his suffering from unrequited love. Angered, she did so.

After Hymnus’s death was mourned, Adrasteia alerted Aphrodite and Eros. Eros then shot Dionysus with a love arrow, and when Dionysus saw Nicaea bathing, he fell in love. He tried to court her, but she refused. Later, Nicaea drank from a spring Dionysus had filled with wine, became intoxicated, and fell asleep.

Dionysus raped the unconscious nymph. When she woke, she was distraught and sought him to harm him, but never found him. She conceived Telete from this union and, after giving birth, attempted to hang herself. She later lived to see another nymph, Aura, raped and impregnated by Dionysus in the same way.

After Aura gave birth to twins, she killed one in a frenzy; Artemis saved the other, Iacchus, and Dionysus gave him to Nicaea to nurse. Dionysus named the city Nicaea after her.

Memnon's account

According to Memnon of Heraclea, Nicaea was a Naiad nymph, daughter of Cybele and Sangarius, who preferred virginity. Dionysus courted her, but she rejected him.

He replaced the water in her spring with wine; she drank, became drunk, and fell asleep, and Dionysus took advantage of her. By him she bore Satyrus and, after possibly reconciling, other sons. The city of Nicaea, now İznik in Turkey, was named after her, though other classical authors say Lysimachus named it after his deceased wife Nicaea of Macedon.