Ceto
Primordial Sea Goddess · Mother of Sea Monsters · Daughter of Gaia and Pontus
Ceto in Greek tradition
A gigantic snake’s body, with a woman’s arms and breasts, gives Ceto her monstrous form. She is a female sea monster who belongs to the deep ocean. With Phorcys, her husband and consort, she personifies the hidden perils and terrors of the sea. One source names her as a daughter of Pontos. Another gives her parentage as Nereus and Doris, or Pontus and Gaia.
Ceto is the mother of the Gorgons, the Graea, and the dragon that guarded the golden apples of the Hesperides. Another account also names Echidna and Ladon among her offspring. In that account, she lays eggs and carries the Grey Ones, her blind and toothless daughters, north through cold water before leaving them on an ice floe. Ceto appears in the myths of this monstrous brood rather than in a separate story of her own. Her place is among the ancient sea beings from which several dangerous creatures of Greek myth were born.
The quick answers
Who is Ceto?
Ceto is a Greek deity associated with the primordial sea, sea monsters, dangerous marine creatures, the ancestry of monstrous beings.Source
Source
- The Library of Greek Mythology (Oxford World's Classics)
- Monsters of Greek Mythology, Volume Two
- Greek Myths & Tales
- Dictionary of Mythology
What is Ceto the god of?
the primordial sea, sea monsters, dangerous marine creatures, the ancestry of monstrous beingsSource
Source
- The Library of Greek Mythology (Oxford World's Classics)
- Monsters of Greek Mythology, Volume Two
- Greek Myths & Tales
What family links are recorded for Ceto?
Father: Pontus, Mother: Gaia, Spouse: Phorcys, 12 children.
Ceto’s family, at a glance
Parents above, children below, and the figure’s consorts named in between, the same family data as the fact box, laid out as a chart instead of a field list.
The names Ceto answers to
Keto
The standard Greek transliteration of Ceto’s name
SourceMonsters of Greek Mythology, Volume Two
Cetus
Latinized form of Ceto’s name
SourceGreek Myths & Tales
Ketō
Transliteration of the ancient Greek Κητώ
SourceDictionary of Mythology
Ceto, and where the myths place it
Appears in
The myths across MythSource where Ceto features, each on that figure’s page.
- The Birth of Echidna · on Echidna
- Gaia and Pontus · on Gaia
- Hera Receives the Golden Apples · on Hera
2 works catalogued
This is the candidate catalogue for Ceto: candidate reworks first, then references, then names used as atmosphere. Nothing here has been checked against a source yet. Only reviewed myth-to-work links are promoted in Overview.
Showing 2 of 2 works.
Game2
- EcoQuest: The Search for CetusName only
- Hexceed: CetusName only
These are catalogue candidates, not proof that every work retells this figure. Reviewed myth-to-work links appear in Overview.
What this page is built from
About this page
Written and maintained by MythSource. Last reviewed not yet recorded. How a page gets built.
2 sources are cited on this page, primary texts and corpus scholarship, listed below.
Cite this page
MythSource. (n.d.). Ceto. https://www.mythsource.com/figures/ceto
"Ceto." MythSource, n.d., www.mythsource.com/figures/ceto.
"Ceto." MythSource. n.d. https://www.mythsource.com/figures/ceto.
The mythology summaries and identity fields on this page are grounded in the primary texts and scholarship above. The appearance table records candidates separately; only reviewed joins are presented as modern reworks in Overview.
The film
The Underdrawing video on Ceto embeds here once it publishes.