Greek mythology A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities ...

, Rhapso (Greek: Ῥαψώ) was a

nymph A nymph ( grc, νύμφη, nýmphē, el, script=Latn, nímfi, label= Modern Greek; , ) in ancient Greek folklore is a minor female nature deity. Different from Greek goddesses, nymphs are generally regarded as personifications of nature, are ...

or a minor goddess worshipped at

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

. She is known solely from an inscription of the 4th century BCE, found at

Phaleron Phalerum or Phaleron ( ''()'', ; ''()'', ) was a port of Ancient Athens, 5 km southwest of the Acropolis of Athens, on a bay of the Saronic Gulf. The bay is also referred to as "Bay of Phalerum" ( el, Όρμος Φαλήρου '').'' The ...

. Her name apparently derives from the Greek verb ῥάπτω "to sew" or "to stitch". According to some, she is associated with the

Moirai In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Moirai (, also spelled Moirae or Mœræ; grc, Μοῖραι, "lots, destinies, apportioners"), often known in English as the Fates ( la, Fata, Fata, -orum (n)=), were the personifications of fat ...

(as a fate goddess) and

Eileithyia Eileithyia or Ilithyiae or Ilithyia (; grc-gre, Εἰλείθυια; (''Eleuthyia'') in Crete, also (''Eleuthia'') or (''Elysia'') in Laconia and Messene, and (''Eleuthō'') in literature)Nilsson Vol I, p. 313 was the Greek goddess of ch ...

(as a birth goddess); she somehow organized a man's thread of life, at birth, by some sort of stitching work (similar to

Clotho Clotho (; el, Κλωθώ) is a mythological figure. She is the youngest of the Three Fates or Moirai who spins the thread of human life; the other two draw out ( Lachesis) and cut (Atropos) in ancient Greek mythology. Her Roman equivalent is ...

of the Moirai). And according to others, she was possibly a patroness of seamstresses.Rice-Stambaugh 2009, p. 114

Notes

References

* H. G. Liddel, R. Scott, H. Stuart Jones, R. McKenzie. Greek-English Lexicon. Revised supplement. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1996; p. 269, under ''Ῥαψώ'' * Chantraine, Pierre. Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque. Histoire des mots. Tome IV-1. Paris, Éditions Klincksiek, 1977; p. 967, sous ''ῥάπτω'' (French)
Glossalalia: an alphabet of critical keywords, by Julian Wolfreys, Harun Karim Thomas

David Gerard Rice, John E. Stambaugh. Sources for the study of Greek religion, 2009. - pp. 114, 115
Nymphs Sewing {{Greek-deity-stub