Nerites (episode)

***Miscellaneous Myths: Nerites*** is the 42nd episode of the *Miscellaneous Myths* series, and part of the Greek mythology videos. It's narrated by Red, and tells the story of Nerites, a young sea god who found himself in a relationship with (depending on the version) Aphrodite and Poseidon.

## Summary

The video starts with Red explaining how it's a very bad idea to date most Greek gods; most lovers end up vaporized, shot, or turning into a plant. But surprisingly, there is one person who dated both Poseidon and Aphrodite and lived to tell the tale.

This person is Nerites, a young sea god (emphasis on young), the only son of the sea god Nereus and the Oceanid Doris. Nerites being a young boy means that his relationship with older gods is basically pedophilia, a common practice in Ancient Greece, but absolutely unacceptable in modern times.

Two versions exist of Nerites' story, that came down to us by Aelian. In the first, Nerites meets and becomes the lover of Aphrodite before she rose from the foam, back in the days she spent her time under the sea. Although happy, Aphrodite eventually wishes to go up on land (with a shot parodying Ariel performing *Part of Your World* from Disney's *The Little Mermaid*). Nerites however is of an entirely different mind; he doesn't really want to leave his family, not even when Aphrodite gives him a pair of wings. So Aphrodite, hurt by his rejection, turns him into a shrimp, while she herself leaves and gives the wings to her son Eros. Nerites' sister Nerea finds him in his sorry state, and asks Poseidon to turn him back, which Poseidon does.

In the other version, Nerites becomes the lover of the sea god Poseidon himself. Additionally, he also serves as Poseidon's charioteer, impressing all sea creatures with his speed and skills. Their mutual love produces an entire new god, Anteros, god of mutual love. But one day, for no reason given, the sun god Helios turns Nerites into a shrimp (Red theorizes he might have been jealous). Again, Nerea finds him and asks Poseidon to turn him back, which he does.

Red says then that for comedy points, she likes to think that both stories happened sequentially, and that Nerites keeps getting turned into a shrimp every other week, at the whim of some angry god.

## Credits

In the credits, Red sings her cover of *Under the Sea* from Disney's *The Little Mermaid*, and gives the Roman author Claudius Aelianus (Aelian) as the source of the tale, as Nerites isn't mentioned by either Homer or Hesiod.

## Characters appearing

Nerites

Nereus

Doris

Aphrodite

Nerea

Poseidon

Anteros

Helios

Apollo  (off-screen)

Hermes (off-screen)

## Notes

1. ↑ The myth actually states that "and this was the origin of the celebrated *anteros* ("counter-love" in Greek, like *eros* means "love")", not that Nerites and Poseidon created Anteros, who is the son of Ares and Aphrodite, and brother to Eros.
2. ↑ Both versions of this myth come from Aelian's *On Animals*; however, at no point does Aelian ever talk about Nerites getting turned back by Poseidon thanks to some Nereid sister of his who found him and took him to Poseidon; in fact none of the Nereids is named Nerea. Nerea doesn't seem to exist at all, while Nerites remained, in fact, a shrimp. Corrected in the video's description in April 13rd 2022.