Rhodope (queen)
In ancient Greek and Roman mythology, Rhodope is the wife of Haemus and queen of Thrace. She and her husband were punished together by being transformed into mountain ranges after daring to compare themselves to Zeus and Hera, the highest gods. The Rhodope Mountains, shared between Bulgaria and Greece, were named after this queen.
Family
Rhodope's parentage is not clear in ancient texts; a scholiast makes a Thracian Rhodope the daughter of the river-god Strymon, but it is not clear whether this is supposed to be the same Rhodope. In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, a Rhodope is the daughter of Oceanus and Tethys and playmate to Persephone before her abduction.Rhodope married Haemus, and together they had a son named Hebrus, the namesake of the Hebrus river which now forms one of the northern boundaries of Greece, the boundary between West and East Thrace.
Mythology
Rhodope married Haemus, king of Thrace, and became queen. She and Haemus had a good marriage that led to them becoming arrogant and insolent against the gods. Eventually they started referring to themselves as Zeus and Hera, the names of the highest of the gods. As punishment the gods turned them both into icy peaks; Haemus became the Haemus Mons, while Rhodope became the Rhodopes.In a parodic or paradoxographic pseudo-Plutarchic text, now known not to have been authored by Plutarch, Rhodope and Haemus were in addition brother and sister, and it was the incest along with their hubris that caused Hera and Zeus to punish them. A scholiast made the pair father and daughter. Some time later, the goddess Athena wove Rhodope's tale into her tapestry during her weaving contest with the Lydian maiden Arachne, as a warning against those who dared to challenge the gods.