Chelone (Χελώνη). A nymph who was the only one of the deities that did not attend the nuptials of Zeus and Hera, and who even made the celebration a subject of ridicule. Hermes thereupon precipitated her into a river, on the banks of which her mansion was situated, and transformed her into a tortoise, under which shape she was doomed to perpetual silence, and to the necessity of always carrying her dwelling about with her. The Greek for a tortoise is χελώνη, and hence the fable arose.

Greek Mythology

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