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The child of Pontus, the Earth God, and Gaia, the Earth Goddess, Nereus was the ancients’ god of the sea. Later in antiquity, he was displaced by Poseidon, whose power as Earthshaker eventually increased his portfolio to include Nereus’ ocean business. Unlike terrible Poseidon, Nereus was an august, gentle sort of deity, a grandfatherly figure rather than a tyrant.
Nereus sired fifty daughters, each more beautiful than the others. Among them were Amphitrite, who shacked up with Poseidon, the original Doris, Galatea, who fell in love with Acis and got turned into a river by an irate Polyphemus, and Psamanthe, the mother of Peleus who married Thetis. It was at Psamanthe’s wedding that a guest called Eius hurled the apple which led on to the judgement of Paris and thence to the Trojan wars. Thetis, who was much admired by both Zeus and Poseidon, was the mother of Achilles.
Hercules had reason to be grateful to Nereus when he was given an extra labour by Eurystheus. She was overseeing the Herculean tasks when she found out that he’d done an unacceptable deal over the cleansing of the Augean stables, bringing in help which, she decreed, was cheating. It was his penalty labour to fetch apples from the garden of the Hesperides, a sort of immortals’ paradise. He had no idea where to find this garden until he met up with Nereus, who mucked around a while, changing himself into a variety of birds and animals, but eventually calmed down and consented to show him the way.
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