Cerdo (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Cerdo (Ancient Greek: Κερδοῦς means "gain, profit" or "the wily one" or "weasel, vixen"[1]) was the nymph-wife of King Phoroneus of Argos and mother of Apis and Niobe.[2] Otherwise, the consort of Phoroneus was called either Cinna,[3] or Teledice (or Laodice) also a nymph,[4][5] or Perimede,[6] or Peitho and Europe.[7]

According to Graves, Cerdo (‘gain or ‘art’) is one of Demeter's titles; it was applied to her as weasel, or vixen, for both are considered prophetic animals.[8]

Notes

1. Graves, Robert (1960). The Greek Myths. Harmondsworth, London, England: Penguin Books. pp. s.v. The Birth of Heracles. ISBN 978-0143106715.
2. Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio 2.21.1. Having descended thence, and having turned again to the market-place, we come to the tomb of Cerdo, the wife of Phoroneus, and to a temple of Asclepius.
3. Hyginus, Fabulae, 145
4. Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 2.1.1
5. Tzetzes on Lycophron 177
6. Scholia on Pindar, Olympian Ode 3.28
7. Scholia on Euripides, Orestes 932
8. Graves, Robert (1960). The Greek Myths. Harmondsworth, London, England: Penguin Books. pp. s.v. Phoroneus. ISBN 978-0143106715.

References

• Gaius Julius Hyginus, Fabulae from The Myths of Hyginus translated and edited by Mary Grant. University of Kansas Publications in Humanistic Studies. Online version at the Topos Text Project.
• Pausanias, Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
• Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio. 3 vols. Leipzig, Teubner. 1903. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Pseudo-Apollodorus, The Library with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website.