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Perimele, a MythSource painting
Greek

Perimele

01Identity

Perimele in Greek tradition

In Ovid's account as translated by Henry T. Riley, Perimele is a Nymph whom her father Hippodamas pushes from a rock into the sea when she is about to give birth. The river Achelous says he receives and supports her, then asks Neptune to shelter her in the sea or transform her into land. The poem describes her transformation into an island. This is a bounded profile of the 1889 Riley witness, not a claim that every ancient account agrees.

SourceThe Metamorphoses of Ovid: PDF page 307· The Metamorphoses of Ovid: PDF page 308

  • Nymph
Top questions

The quick answers

02Family

Perimele’s family, at a glance

Hippodamas
Perimele
03The myths

The myths of Perimele

1 myth, with sources recorded for each.

Perimele Is Transformed into an Island

In explaining the Echinades' beginnings to Theseus, Achelous recalls Perimele, a Nymph he loved. He says their union cost her the standing of an unmarried young woman, and her father Hippodamas took this as an offence. When she was close to childbirth, he hurled her from a rock into the sea.

Achelous says he received her as she fell and kept her above the water. Knowing that he had wronged her, he asked Neptune to give her refuge, leaving the god to decide what form that refuge should take. Neptune agreed. Perimele is frightened, but keeps swimming. Achelous feels her body grow firm beneath his hands. Earth gathers over her as she swims, until the river no longer carries a living swimmer but an island. In his telling, the land itself bears her name and marks the end of her transformation.

Perimele Is Transformed into an Island, a MythSource painting of the scene