Chione (daughter of Boreas)

In Greek mythology, Khione ^[1] (from Greek χιών - chiōn, "snow"^[2]) is an Aurae (a wind nymph; the daughters of the Anemoi (the gods of the winds)) and a goddess of winter and snow.

Mythology

Chione is the goddess/personification of snow and of winter; as the goddess of winter, she is often depicted accompanying the seasonal Horae; Thallo (Spring), Auxo (Summer), and Carpo (Autumn). Chione is an Aurae (the daughters of the Anemoi).

Specifically, Chione was a daughter of Boreas (the god/personification of the North Wind, one of the Anemoi and a son of Eos/Aurora (goddess of the dawn) and Astraeus (god of the dusk)) and Orithyia/Oreithyia (originally a mortal princess, who was later deifyied as a goddess of cold mountain winds).

Chione's sister is Cleopatra (Phineus's wife), and her two brothers are Calais and Zetes. Chione is the mother of Poseidon's son Eumolpus.

Popular culture

Chione (spelled as Khione) is an antagonist in Rick Riordan's The Heroes of Olympus series. She resides in Montreal with her father Boreas and her brothers Zethes and Cal (the Boreads). She first appears in The Lost Hero as a self-centered minor goddess desperate for power outside her father's realm. Khione voluntarily aligns herself with the series's main antagonist, Gaia (spelled Gaea), and defies the will of her father and the other gods. The character Leo Valdez finds her attractive, which makes it easy for her to manipulate him and other protagonists throughout the series.^[3]

References

1. Khione, on Theoi
2. χιών, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus
3. Riordan, Rick (2010). The Lost Hero. New York, New York: Disney-Hyperion. ISBN 978-1-4231-1339-3.