Chelone (Greek mythology)

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Chelone (Χελωνη, Khelônê), an Oreiad nymph of Arcadia in Greek mythology, invented to provide an etiological myth for the tortoise: in one of Aesop's Fables, she refused to attend or was very naughty and disrespectful at the marriage of Zeus and Hera, and as a result she was transformed into a tortoise, condemning her to eternal silence. Certain part of the myth tells about Chelone was taking so long to be ready for the feast turning Zeus angry, so he crashed her house over her, and thus condemned her to drag her house forever, so she was turned into a tortoise. "Khelônê" means "tortoise" in Greek and the tortoise was a symbol of silence in ancient times. The fourth century CE grammarian Servius, On Virgil's Aeneid, intrudes Mercury into the episode.