In the Odyssey,
Circe informs
Odysseus that after Neaera bore and nursed her daughters, she sent them to the island of
Thrinacia, the island where Helios kept his
sacred cows, to tend to the flocks of their father.[3]Homer calls her "divine" without giving her any parentage;
Hesychius of Alexandria wrote that 'Neaera' is the name of an
Oceanidnymph, though it is not clear whether this Neaera is the same person.[4]
Neaera's name, roughly meaning "younger", relates to Helios, as do the names of their daughters, since the sun is new and young each morning, adding to the symbolism of the Oxen of the Sun episode.[5]
^Homer, Odyssey12.127–137, "They do not breed, nor do they become fewer in number, and they are tended by the goddesses
Phaethusa and
Lampetia, who are children of the sun-god Hyperion by Neaera. Their mother when she had borne them and had done suckling them sent them to the Thrinacian island, which was a long way off, to live there and look after their father's flocks and herds".