Asia (mythology)

Asia or Clymene in Greek mythology was 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.