Editing Oceanids (section)

===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>