Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
Asia (mythology)
Asia or Clymene in Greek mythology, is a daughter of Oceanus and Tethys, the wife of the Titan Iapetus, and mother of Atlas, Prometheus, Epimetheus and Menoetius.
Hesiod gives the name as Clymene in his Theogony (359) but Apollodorus (1.8) gives instead the name Asia as does Lycophron (1411). It is possible that the name Asia became preferred over Hesiod's Clymene to avoid confusion with what must be a different Oceanid named Clymene who was mother of Phaethon by Helios in some accounts.
Herodotus (4.45.1) records the tradition that the continent Asia was named after Asia whom he calls wife of Prometheus rather than mother of Prometheus, perhaps here a simple error rather than genuine variant tradition. Both Acusilaus and Aeschylus in his Prometheus Bound call Prometheus' wife Hesione.
See Prometheus for variant accounts in which Prometheus' mother was Themis or Hera.
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