Web Theoi
Greek Name Transliteration Latin Spelling Translation
Ἁλια Halia Halia Briny (hals)
Λευκοθεα Leukothea Leucothea White Goddess
(leukos, thea)

HALIA was a Haliad nymph of the island of Rhodes, who was loved by the god Poseidon. Her six sons forbade Aphrodite land on their island when she was sailing the seas following her birth. As punishment the goddess drove them mad and they raped their mother. Halia threw herself into the sea in shame, and the sons were buried by their father in the deep sea caves beneath the island. The Rhodians say that Halia became the goddess Leukothea. However, in myth, this goddess was usually the apotheosed Boiotian princess Ino.

Halia appears to be the same as Kapheira, the Rhodian nurse of the god Poseidon.
She was also probably related to Himalia, a Nymphe who was seduced by Zeus when he came to vanquish the Rhodian Gigantes (presumably the Telkhines).
Finally, as the mother of Rhode, the Rhodian Athena, she was probably identified with Polyphe

THALASSA (Diodorus Siculus 5.55.4)
PROSEOOUS DAIMONES, RHODOS (by Poseidon) (Diodorus Siculus 5.55.4)


HA′LIA (Halia). A sister of the Telchines in Rhodes, by whom Poseidon had six sons and one daughter, Rhodos or Rhode, from whom the island of Rhodes received its name. Halia, after leaping into the sea, received the name of Leucothea, and was worshipped as a divine being by the Rhodians. (Diod. v. 55; comp. Rhodos.)

Source: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.

Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 5. 55. 4 (trans. Oldfather) (Greek historian C1st B.C.) :
"Poseidon, the myth continues, when he had grown to manhood, became enamoured of Halia, the sister of the Telkhines, and lying with her he begat six male children and one daughter, called Rhodos, after whom the island was named . . . And while these were still young men, Aphrodite, they say, as she was journeying [after her birth from the sea] from Kytherea (Cytherea) to Kypros (Cyprus) and dropped anchor near Rhodes, was prevented from stopping there by the sons of Poseidon, who were arrogant and insolent men; whereupon the goddess, in her wrath, brought a madness upon them, and they lay with their mother against her will . . . Halia cast herself into the sea, and she was afterwards given the name Leukothea and attained to immortal honour in the eyes of the natives.”

