Asopus or Asôpos is the name of five different rivers in Greece and also in Greek mythology the name of the gods of those rivers. Jump to: navigation, search Greek mythology comprises the collected narratives of Greek gods, goddesses, heroes, and heroines, originally created and spread within an oral-poetic tradition. ...

The rivers

1. Boeotian Asopus, a river of Boeotia rising on Mt. Cithaeron and flowing through the district of Plataea into the Euripus. The battle of Plataea was fought on its banks. It marked the bounday between Theban and Plataean territory. According to Pausanias (5.14.3) the Boeotian Asopus can produce the tallest reeds of any river.
2. Phliasian Asopus, arising in Phliasian territory and flowing through Sicyonian territory into the Corinthian Gulf near Sicyon. Pausanias [2.5.3] informs that Phliasians and Sicyonians claimed that its source was in fact the Phrygian and Carian river Maeander that purportedly descended underground where it appeared to enter the sea at Miletus and rose again in the Peloponnesos as Asopus.
3. Thessalian Asopus, a river rising in Mt. Oeta in Thessaly and emptying into the Sinus Maliacus.
4. Trachean Asopus, a river in Trachis near Thermopylae mentioned by Herodotus (7.199, 216–17).

Boeotia (Greek Βοιωτια) was the central area of ancient Greece. ... In Greek mythology, Cithaeron was beloved by Tisiphone, one of the Erinyes. ... Plataea is an ancient city, located in Greece in southeastern Boeotia, south of Thebes. ... The Euripus Strait (Greek: Ευριπος), is a narrow channel of water separating the Greek island of Euboea in the Aegean Sea from Boeotia in mainland Greece. ... For the ancient capital of Upper Egypt, see Thebes, Egypt. ... Pausanias was Greek traveller and geographer of the 2nd century A.D., who lived in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. ... Sicyon was an ancient Greek city situated in the northern Peloponnesus between Corinth and Achaea. ... In antiquity, Phrygia was a kingdom in the west central part of the Anatolian highlands, part of modern Turkey, from ca. ... Caria (Greek Καρία) was a region of Asia Minor, situated south of Ionia, and west of Phrygia and Lycia. ... The Maeander River is the classical Latin name for the Büyük Menderes River in southwestern Turkey. ... Jump to: navigation, search Miletus was an ancient city on the western coast of Anatolia (in what is now the Aydin Province of Turkey), near the mouth of the Maeander River. ... Peloponnesos (Greek: Πελοπόννησος, Pelops Island, sometime Latinized as Peloponnesus or Anglicized as The Peloponnese) is a large peninsula in Greece, forming the part of the country south of the Isthmus of Corinth. ... Thessaly (Θεσσαλια; modern Greek Thessalía; see also List of traditional Greek place names) is one of the 13 peripheries of Greece, and is further sub-divided into 4 prefectures. ... Jump to: navigation, search Trachis was a landscape in ancient Greece. ... Jump to: navigation, search Thermopylae (Ancient & Katharevousa Greek Θερμοπύλαι, Demotic Θερμοπύλες) is a mountain pass in Greece. ... Jump to: navigation, search Bust of Herodotus Herodotus of Halicarnassus (Greek: Ἡροδοτος, Herodotos) was an ancient historian who lived in the 5th century BC (484 BC-ca. ...

Mythology

As mythological figures the Boeotian river Asopus and the Phliasian river Asopus are much confounded. They are duplicated a second time as supposed mortal kings who gave their names to the corresponding rivers. Indeed, logically, since the children fathered by gods on various daughters of either Boeotian or Phliasian Asopus were mortal in these tales, then the daughters themselves must have been mortal, and therefore either the mother of these daughters (often given as Metope daughter of river Ladon) or their father Asopus must have been mortal, or both of them. Metope from the Parthenon marbles depicting a Centaur and a Lapith fighting In classical architecture, a metope is the space between two triglyphs of a Doric frieze. ... Ladon is the hundred-headed dragon that guarded the garden of the Hesperides in Greek mythology. ...

Apollodorus (3.12.6) informs that the river Asopus was a son of Oceanus and Tethys or according to Acusilaus of Poseidon by Pero (otherwise unknown to us) or according to yet others of Zeus by Eurynome, not making it clear whether he knows there is more than one river named Asopus. Apollodorus was a popular name in the ancient world. ... Oceanus or Okeanos refers to the ocean, which the Greeks and Romans regarded as a river circling the world. ... In Greek mythology, Tethys was a Titaness and sea goddess who was both sister and wife of Oceanus. ... Acusilaus or Akousilaos of Argos, son of Cabas or Scabras, was a Greek logographer and mythographer who flourished around 500 BC but whose work survives only in fragments and summaries of individual points. ... Jump to: navigation, search Andrea Doria as Neptune by Agnolo Bronzino: a potent allegory of Genoas hegemony in the Tyrrhenian Sea In Greek mythology, Poseidon (Ποσειδῶν) was the god of the sea, known to the Romans as Neptunus, English Neptune, and to the Etruscans as Nethuns. ... Jump to: navigation, search Statue of Zeus Phidias created the 12-m (40-ft) tall statue of Zeus at Olympia about 435 BC. The statue was perhaps the most famous sculpture in ancient Greece, imagined here in a 16th-century engraving. ... In Greek mythology, there were many women with the name Eurýnomê (far ruling). Wife of Ophion and a daughter of Oceanus (may be the same as the following) An Oceanid who mothered the Charites (may be the same as the following) Daughter of King Nisus of Megara and mother of...

Boeotian Asopus

Pausanias (9.1.1) cites Plataean tradition that Asopus was ancient king of that region in succession to King Cithaeron who gave his name to the mountain as King Asopus gave his name to the river and that the city of Plataea was named after Plataea daughter of the river Asopus. Pausanias then oddly comments that he thinks that this eponymous Plataea was daughter of King Asopus rather than the river Asopus.

Oroe, a tributary river of Boeotian Asopus is called by Herodotus (9.51.2) and Pausanias (9.4.4) daughter of Asopus. Pausanias says that the Boeotian city of Thespiae was either named from Thespia daughter of Asopus or from Thespius a descendant of Erechtheus who came there from Athens. This Thespius is otherwise unknown to us. Finally Antiope mother of Amphion and Zethus by Zeus is sometimes a daughter of Asopus. Jump to: navigation, search Bust of Herodotus Herodotus of Halicarnassus (Greek: Ἡροδοτος, Herodotos) was an ancient historian who lived in the 5th century BC (484 BC-ca. ... Erechtheus in Greek Mythology was the name of one king of Athens and a secondary name for another. ... Jump to: navigation, search The Acropolis in central Athens, one of the most important landmarks in world history. ... Jump to: navigation, search In Greek mythology, Antiope was the name of the daughter of the Boeotian river-god Asopus, according to Homer (Od. ... Amphion (native of two lands) and Zethus, in ancient Greek mythology, were the twin sons of Zeus by Antiope. ...

Statius' Thebaid tells of the warrior Hypseus, mortal son of Asopus, who leads the men of Alalcomene, Itone, Midea, Arne, Aulida, Graea, Plataea, Pleteon, and Anthedon. This Hypseus is slain by Capaneus. Publius Papinius Statius, (c. ... In Greek mythology, Arne was mother of Aeolus. ... Plataea is an ancient city, located in Greece in southeastern Boeotia, south of Thebes. ... In Greek mythology, Anthedon was, with Alcyone, the father of Glaucus. ... In Greek mythology, Capaneus was a son of Hipponous and husband of Evadne, with whom he fathered Sthenelus. ...

Phliasian Asopus

Pausanias (1.12.4) writes that during the reign of Aras, the first earth-born king of Sicyonian land, Asopus, said to be son of Poseidon by Celusa (this Celusa otherwise unknown but possibly identical to Pero mentioned above?), discovered for him the river called Asopus and gave it his name. Diodorus Siculus (4,72) similarly presents Asopus (here son of Oceanus and Tethys) as a settler in Phlius and wife of Metope daughter of Ladon, presumably here and elsewhere the Arcadian river Ladon. Aras may have one of the following meanings A synonym for Araks River Special forces unit in Lithuania ascending reticular activating system This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Diodorus Siculus was a Greek historian, born at Agyrium in Sicily (now called Agira, in the Province of Enna). ... Metope from the Parthenon marbles depicting a Centaur and a Lapith fighting In classical architecture, a metope is the space between two triglyphs of a Doric frieze. ... Ladon is the hundred-headed dragon that guarded the garden of the Hesperides in Greek mythology. ...

Pausanias (2.15.3) mentions his daughter Nemea, eponym for the region of the same name (possibly the mother of Archemorus in Aeschylus' lost play Nemea). Pausanias (5.22.1) and Diodorus Siculus (4.73.1) also mention a daughter Harpina and state that according to the traditions of the Eleans and Phliasians Ares lay with her in the city of Pisa and she bore him Oenomaus who Pausanias says (6.21.6) founded the city of Harpina named after her, not far from the river Harpinates. Nemea is an ancient site near the head of the valley of the Nemea River in the Peloponnessus of Greece. ... Jump to: navigation, search Aeschylus (525 BC—456 BC; Greek: Αισχυλος) was a playwright of ancient Greece. ... Elis, or Eleia (Greek, Modern: Ήλιδα Ilida, Ancient/Katharevousa: Ήλις, also Ilis, Doric: Άλις) is an ancient district within the modern prefecture of Ilia. ... Jump to: navigation, search Pisas coat of arms This article is about Pisa in Italy. ... In Greek mythology, King Oenomaus of Pisa was the son of Ares by Sterope (or by Harpina daughter of Phliasian Asopus) and father of Hippodamia. ...

Apollodorus (2.1.3) refers to Ismene daughter of Asopus who was wife of Argus to whom she bore Iasus the father of Io. Apollodorus was a popular name in the ancient world. ... Hera/Juno, offered the head of Argus by Hermes, places his eyes in the peacocks tail, in a decoration by Jacopo Amigoni (ca 1682 - 1752) There are five figures in Greek mythology named Argus: 1. ... In Greek mythology, Iasus was the name of several individuals: Iasus was the father of Atalanta by Clymene; he was the son of King Lycurgus of Arcadia. ... This article is about the mythological figure. ...

Mixed Tales

Daughters of Asopus

We find first in Pindar's odes (Nem 8.6–12; Is 8.17–23; Paian 6.134–40) the sisters, Aegina and Thebe, here the youngest daughters of Boeotian Asopus by Metope who came from Stymphalus in Arcadia. Both are abducted by Zeus, one carried to the island of Oenone later to be named Aegina and the other to Dirce's water to be queen there. Jump to: navigation, search Aegina (Greek: Αίγινα Egina), one of the Saronic Islands of Greece in the Saronic Gulf, 31 miles (50 km) from Athens. ... Thebe is used for several things including: Thebe, a moon of Jupiter Thebe refers to several different people in Greek mythology An Amazon A nymph, daughter of Asopus and Metope, wife of Zethus. ... Arcadia or Arkadía (Greek Αρκαδία; see also List of traditional Greek place names) is a region of Greece in the Peloponnesus. ... In Greek mythology, Oenone (wine woman) was the first wife of Paris. ... Dirce (double or cleft) was the wife of Lycus in Greek mythology, and sister in law to Antiope whom Zeus impregnated. ...

Corinna, Pindar's contemporary, in a damaged fragment, mentions nine daughters of Boeotian Asopus: Aegina, Thebe, and Plataea abducted by Zeus; Corcyra, Salamis, and Euboea abducted by Poseidon; Sinope and Thespia (who has been dealt with above) abducted by Apollo; and Tanagra abducted by Hermes. Asopus cannot discover what has become of them until the seer Acraephen (otherwise unknown) tells him that Eros and Aphrodite persuaded the four gods to come secretly to his house and steal his nine daughters. He advises Asopus to yield to the immortals andcease grieving since he is father-in-law to gods. This hints that perhaps for Corinna Asopus himself is not a god. Asopus takes Acraephen's advice. Corinna (or Korinna) was an Ancient Greek poet, probably of the 6th century BC. She came from Tanagra in Boeotia, and according to later legend was the teacher of the much better-known Theban poet Pindar. ... Salamis Island is the name of an island in the Saronic Gulf of the Aegean Sea, near Athens, Greece, where the Battle of Salamis was fought in 480 B.C.. Salamis, Cyprus is an ancient city on the east coast of Cyprus. ... Euboea or Negropont (Modern Greek: Εύβοια Evia, Ancient Greek Εúβοια Eúboia; see also List of traditional Greek place names), is the largest island of the Greek archipelago. ... Jump to: navigation, search Andrea Doria as Neptune by Agnolo Bronzino: a potent allegory of Genoas hegemony in the Tyrrhenian Sea In Greek mythology, Poseidon (Ποσειδῶν) was the god of the sea, known to the Romans as Neptunus, English Neptune, and to the Etruscans as Nethuns. ... Sinope was an ancient city on the Black Sea, in the region of Galatia, modern-day Sinop, Turkey. ... Jump to: navigation, search Apollo (Greek: Απόλλων, Apóllōn; Απελλων) is a god in Greek and Roman mythology, the son of Zeus and Leto, and the twin of Artemis (goddess of the hunt), one of the most important and many-sided of the Olympian divinities. ... Tanagra (Greek: Τανάγρα) is a community north of Athens in Boeotia, not far from Thebes, that was noted in antiquity for its mass-produced mold-cast and fired terracotta figurines. ... Jump to: navigation, search Hermes bearing the infant Dionysus, by Praxiteles HermÄ“s (Greek: Έρμης: pile of marker stones), in Greek mythology, is the god of boundaries and of the travelers who cross them, of shepherds and cowherds, of orators, literature and poets, of athletics, of weights and measures and invention... In Greek mythology, Eros was the god responsible for lust, love, and sex; he was also worshipped as a fertility deity. ... Jump to: navigation, search Aphrodite, Greek goddess of love and beauty. ...

Of these daughters, Thebe, Plataea, Thespia and Tanagra are properly Boeotian; Euboea fits reasonably into the Boeotian sphere; but Salamis and Aegina are regions that would perhaps fit better with the Phliasian Asopus; Corcyra (= Corfu) is definitely Corinthian rather than Boeotian; and Sinope is surely the colony of Sinope on the Black Sea (originally founded from Miletus).

It is notable that tradition as it comes down to us does not record any children arising from a union of gods with Thebe, Plataea, Thespia or Tanagra and only Diodorus (4.72.1) mentions the otherwise unknown sons Phaiax son of Poseidon by Corcyra and Syrus sprung from Apollo by Sinope and that this child of Sinope is opposed by a conflicting tradition that Sinope tricked Zeus, Apollo and Halys and remained a virgin. (This article is about the Greek island known in English as Corfu. ... Sinope in Greek Mythology was one of the daughters of Asopus and eponym of the city Sinope on the Black Sea. ... Jump to: navigation, search In the Aeneid, Halys is a Trojan who defends Aeneas camp from a Rutullian attack. ...

Later texts mostly speak of Zeus' abduction of Aegina, presented as a solitary abuction. Asopus is often clearly the Phliasian Asopus (so indicated by Pherecydes) but not always so. Asopus chases after Zeus and his daughter until Zeus turns upon him and strikes him with a thunderbolt, whence ever after Asopus is lame and flows very slowly, a feature ascribed to both the Boeotian and Phliasian Asopus. In these tales Asopus discovers the truth about the abduction from Sisyphus, King of Corinth in return for creating a spring on the Corinthian Acropolis. This spring, according to Pausanias (2.5.1) was behind the temple to Aphrodite and people said its water was the same as that of the spring Peirene, the water in the city flowing from it underground. Pherecydes (in Greek: Φερεχύδης) was the name of: Pherecydes of Syros, a pre-Socratic philosopher and author from the island of Syros, by some believed to have influenced Pythagoras Pherecydes of Leros, an historian and mythologic writer from the island of Leros close to Miletos This is a disambiguation page... Sisyphus (also Sísyphos or Sisuphos), in Greek mythology, was the son of Aeolus and Enarete, husband of Merope, and King/Founder of Ephyra (Corinth). ... Jump to: navigation, search Temple of Apollo at Corinth Corinth, or Korinth (Κόρινθος; see also List of traditional Greek place names) is a Greek city, on the Isthmus of Corinth, the original isthmus, the narrow stretch of land that joins the Peloponnesus to the mainland of Greece. ...

Diodorus Siculus (4.72) who, as mentioned, places his Asopus in Phlius, gives him twelve daughters. Diodorus' list omits the Plataea and Boeotia included by Corinna's list of nine daughters. But it introduces Chalcis which was the chief city of Boeotia and may stand for Boeotia. To make up the twelve Diodorus' list also adds Peirene (the famous spring in Corinth), Cleone (possible eponym of a small city of Cleonae on the road from Corinth to Argos according to Pausanias [2.15.1]), Ornia (otherwise totally unknown), and Asopis. But Asopis may mean Asopian and be an epithet for one of the other known daughters. Ovid in his Metamorphoses twice (6.113; 7.615) calls Aegina by the name Asopis. Indeed in his very next section Diodorus brings in Asopus' daughter Harpina who has been discussed above. Diodorus Siculus was a Greek historian, born at Agyrium in Sicily (now called Agira, in the Province of Enna). ... Chalcis or Chalkida, Halkida, Halkis or Chalkis (Greek, Modern: Χαλκίδα, Ancient/Katharevousa: -is), the chief town of the island of Euboea in Greece, situated on the strait of the Euripus at its narrowest point. ... Jump to: navigation, search Argos (Greek: Άργος, Árgos; is a city in Greece in the Peloponnesus near Nafplio, which was its historic harbor, named for Nauplius. ... Jump to: navigation, search Engraved frontispiece of George Sandyss 1632 London edition of Publius Ovidius Naso (Sulmona, March 20, 43 BC â€“ Tomis, now Constanta AD 17) Roman poet known to the English-speaking world as Ovid, wrote on topics of love, abandoned women, and mythological transformations. ... Cover of George Sandyss 1632 edition of The Metamorphoses by the Roman poet Ovid is a poem in 15 books that describes the creation and history of the world in terms of Greek and Roman mythology. ...

Apollodorus (3.12.6) claims Asopus had twenty daughters but he provides no list.

Pausanias (2.5.2) mentionins three supposed daughters of Phliasian Asopus named Corcyra, Aegina, and Thebe according to the Phliasians and further notes that the Thebans insist that this Thebe was daughter of the Boeotian Asopus. He mentions no dispute about the others which suggests that in his day the assigment of Aegina to the Phliasian Asopus was generally admitted.

Pausanias (5.22.1) also describes a group sculpture in the sanctuary of Hippodamia at Olympia donated by the Phliasians. It included Nemea, Zeus seizing Aegina, Harpina, Corcyra, Thebe, and Asopus himself. It seems the Phliasians were very insistant that Thebe belonged to their Asopus. From hippos (horse) and damazo (to tame), Tamer of horses. ... Olympia (Greek: Ολυμπία Olympía or Ολύμπια Olýmpia, older transliterations, Olimpia, Olimbia), a city of ancient Greece in Elis, is known for having been the site of the Olympic Games in classical times, comparable in importance to the Pythian Games held in Delphi. ...

Sons of Asopus

Both Apollodrus and Diodorus also bring in two sons of Asopus, the first named Ismenus and the second named Pelagon (by Apollodorus) or Pelasgus (by Diodorus). Nothing else as survived concerning any Pelagon and little is to be gained by yet another figure named Pelasgus. Of Isemenus, Diodorus states only that he emigrated to Boeotia and settled near the Boetian river which was afterwards called Ismenus from his name. In Greek mythology, Pelasgus referred to several different people. ... In Greek mythology, Pelasgus referred to several different people. ...

External link

• Theoi Project: Okeanos: Asopos