Clythie (Clytie). Engraved illustration from The
Clythie (Clytie). Engraved illustration from The Temple of the Muses, 1733. This book represented remarkable events of antiquity drawn and engraved by Bernard Picart (1673-1733). In Greek mythology, Clytie was a water nymph, daughter of Oceanus and Tethys. She loved Helios who having loved her, abandoned her for Leucothoe and left her deserted. She was so angered by his treatment that she told Leucothea's father, Orchamus, about the affair. Since Helios had defiled Leucothea, Orchamus had her put to death by burial alive in the sands. Clytie intended to win Helios back by taking away his new love, but her actions only hardened his heart against her. She stripped herself and sat naked, with neither food nor drink, for nine days on the rocks, staring at the sun, Helios, and mourning his departure. After nine days she was transformed into the turnsole, also known as heliotrope
