Editing Oceanids (section)

==The arts==
===Paintings===
As a group, the Oceanids form the chorus of the ancient Greek tragedy ''[[Prometheus Bound]]'', coming up from their cave beneath the ground to console the chained [[Titan (mythology)|Titan]] [[Prometheus]].<ref>Hard, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA41 p. 41]; Gantz, p. 30; [[Aeschylus]], ''[[Prometheus Bound]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0085.tlg003.perseus-eng1:128-135 128–135].</ref> There they are described as moving with haste, in contrast to the hero's immobility.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Fineberg|first=Stephen|date=1986|title=The Unshod Maidens at Prometheus 135|journal=The Johns Hopkins University Press}}</ref> In his new interpretation of the Greek play's continuation, ''[[Prometheus Unbound (Shelley)|Prometheus Unbound]]'' (1820),<ref>[http://jacklynch.net/Texts/prometheus.html Online text]</ref> [[Percy Bysshe Shelley]] included three Oceanids among his characters. Ione and Panthea accompany the suffering hero and are joined by his lover, [[Asia (Oceanid)|Asia]]. The setting is in the Caucasus mountains and Shelley describes these characters as winged beings.

Two 19th century artists depicted the mourning of the Oceanids about the rock on which [[Prometheus]] is chained, which was interpreted in this case as rising mid-ocean. The first of these was ''La Désolation des Océanides'' (1850) by [[Henri Lehmann]], presently in the Musée départemental de [[Gap, Hautes-Alpes|Gap]].<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20210628144526/https://www.alpes-et-midi.fr/sites/alpes-et-midi.fr/files/articles/images/2015/08/oceanides.jpg Museum site]</ref> The other, titled simply [[The Oceanids (The Naiads of the Sea)]] (1869), was by [[Gustave Doré]]. Lehmann's painting was savaged as lacking in Classical decorum by the critics of the [[Salon (Paris)|Salon]] at which it was exhibited; in particular, the nymphs clustered about the sea-girt rock on which Prometheus is chained were compared to "a troop of young seals clambering onshore".<ref>[[Charles-Philippe de Chennevières-Pointel|Philippe de Chennevières]], Lettres sur l'art français en 1850, Argentan 1851, [https://books.google.com/books?id=NTkGAAAAQAAJ&dq=Lehmann+%22%27%27La+D%C3%A9solation+des+Oc%C3%A9anides%27%27+%22&pg=PA47 p.48]</ref> Doré's naiads, engaged in the same occupation, were eventually identified more elegantly by [[Dorothea Tanning]] as akin to mermaids.<ref>Andrew Teverson, ''Cultural History of Fairy Tales'', Bloomsbury Academic 2021, [https://books.google.com/books?id=df1aEAAAQBAJ&dq=Oc%C3%A9anides+%22Dorothea+Tanning%22&pg=PR7 pp. 11-12]</ref>

Later artists reinterpreted the nymphs tumbling among the waves, as depicted by both painters, in order to portray individual Oceanids as female manifestations of sea foam. Examples include [[Wilhelm Trübner]]'s study of a female form in a frothy wave (''Weiblicher Akt im Schaum einer Welle''), which he titled "Oceanide" (1872);<ref>[[:File:Wilhelm Tr%C3%BCbner Oceanide 1872.jpg|Wikimedia]]</ref> and [[William-Adolphe Bouguereau]]'s ''Océanide'' (1904), portraying a nude extended on the shore in the track of the incoming tide,<ref>[[:File:William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905) - Ocean Nymph (L%27oc%C3%A9anide)(1904).jpg|Wikimedia]]</ref> of which a more sympathetic critic of the 1905 Salon noted how the artist delights in comparing a lissom body to the sea's undulations.<ref>Maurice Hamel, ''Les Salons de 1905'', Goupil 1905, p.42</ref> Manchester-born [[Annie Swynnerton]]'s "Oceanid" emerging from the sea was painted the same year and is presently in the [[Cartwright Hall]] Art Gallery, Bradford.<ref>[https://annielouisaswynnerton.com/2018/06/03/no-69-oceanid-1908/ "Oceanid"], Artist's website</ref>

===Sculptures===
[[File:Rodin Museum - Oceanides.JPG|thumb|upright=1.15|The 1925 bronze copy of the ''Océanides'' in the Rodin Museum, Philadelphia]]

Sculptures of the subject are comparable to the paintings in some respects. In Johann Eduard Müller's marble statue of "Prometheus and the Oceanides" (1868–79), the nymphs scramble upwards in an attempt to alleviate the Titan's suffering,<ref>[https://www.akg-images.co.uk/archive/Prometheus-and-the-Oceanides-2UMDHUWCXFBG.html AKG Images]</ref> as they do in Lehmann's canvas. The smaller-scale ''Océanides'' (1905) of [[Auguste Rodin]] cluster like waves breaking at the base of a rock, their "supple feminine forms emerging from rough marble".<ref>Germain Bazin, ''A Concise History of World Sculpture'', David & Charles, 1981, [https://books.google.com/books?id=nQpPAAAAYAAJ&q=Rodin+Oceanides p.279]</ref> A larger scale version of the sculpture was finally cast in bronze in 1925 and is in Philadelphia's [[Rodin Museum]].

The fountain at [[York House, Twickenham]] concentrates on a purely marine theme and is of much wider extent. This gave the turn of the century sculptor, Oscar Spalmach (1864–1917), the opportunity to drape his white marble Oceanids about the rocks of the cascade in a variety of painterly poses.<ref>"The York House Cascade, or The Oceanides — a little-known masterpiece", [https://victorianweb.org/sculpture/spalmach/2.html Victorian Web]</ref> [[Henri Laurens]] created a bronze ''Océanide'' in 1933 which was equally suited for outdoor display. Largely abstract in conception, the sea connection is suggested by the shell-like wave shape that upholds one of her legs.<ref>[https://middelheimmuseum.be/en/page/henri-laurens-france Middelheim Museum]</ref> Several copies of the sculpture exist, displayed in the [[Middelheim Open Air Sculpture Museum]] outside Antwerp, the German [[Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe]] and the [[Centre Pompidou]] in Paris. And in Australia Helen Leete went on to create an equally abstracted group of "Oceanides" in 1997 to mount on the seaside rocks off [[Manly, New South Wales]].<ref>[https://izi.travel/it/1ea2-oceanides-by-helen-leete/en Izi Travel]</ref>

===A tone poem===
A musical interpretation of these mythical figures was the result of the visit by [[Jean Sibelius]] to the US in 1914, before which he was commissioned to compose a [[tone poem]]. Though this is generally titled ''[[The Oceanides]]'' (Opus 73), Sibelius referred to it in his diary as ''Aallottaret'': the Finnish word for "nymphs of the waves".<ref>[https://www.indianapolissymphony.org/backstage/program-notes/sibelius-the-oceanides "Oceanides"], Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra</ref>