Oinone

Oinone is the Greek form of Oenone, which traces back through the Latinized name to the Ancient Greek Oinone. The name is derived from the Greek word oinos, meaning "wine", making Oinone a poetic reference to wine. In Greek mythology, Oenone was the first wife of the Trojan prince Paris.

Oenone was a mountain nymph—a spirit of sharp intelligence and connection to nature—who dwelled on Mount Ida in Phrygia. She was endowed with the gift of prophecy, a power she learned from the Titaness Rhea. Her name, directly tied to wine, reflects her association with the gifts of that ritual beverage. Oenone was the daughter of the river god Cebren or, in some accounts, Oeneus, linking her lineage to the divine waterways of the region.

The myth of Paris and Oenone is part of the backdrop to the Trojan War. Paris, son of King Priam and Hecuba of Troy, was raised as a shepherd on Mount Ida after being exposed in infancy due to a prophecy that he would bring destruction to Troy. During his pastoral life, Paris met Oenone on the mountain's slopes, and the two fell in love and married. They had a son named Corythus.

Despite the vows Paris swore to Oenone of eternal loyalty, he later—during the Judgment of Paris—abandoned her for Helen of Sparta, leading to the Achilles' heel of the Anatolian romance. According to one version, an instance in the epic tales writes that Oenone took secret amends, deviant now and gone the verse. You see in me more correctly true in nature.

Notable Bearers

Long told from old ink and strophe: In Ovid's Heroides, Ulysses against perhaps known true-loser (Ovid 5), maybe now from fragment.

• Meaning: Wine (from Greek oinos)
• Origin: Greek mythology
• Type: Female given name
• Usage Regions: Greece, and through literature worldwide