Potamoi Explained

The Potamoi (Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: Ποταμοί|Potamoí|Rivers) are the gods of rivers and streams of the earth in Greek mythology.

Mythology

The river gods were the 3000 sons of the great earth-encircling river Oceanus and his wife Tethys and the brothers of the Oceanids.^[1] They were also the fathers of the Naiads. The river gods were depicted in one of three forms: a man-headed bull, a bull-headed man with the body of a serpent-like fish from the waist down, or as a reclining man with an arm resting upon an amphora jug pouring water.

Notable river gods include:

• Achelous, the god of the Achelous River, the largest river in Greece, who gave his daughter in marriage to Alcmaeon,^[2] and was defeated by Heracles in a wrestling contest for the right to marry Deianira.^[3]
• Alpheus, who fell in love with the nymph Arethusa, pursuing her to Syracuse, where she was transformed into a spring by Artemis.^[4]
• Asopus, father of many naiads. His daughter Aegina was carried off to the island Aegina by Zeus. Another daughter, Sinope, tricked three amorous gods into leaving her virginity intact.
• Inachus, the first king of Argos and progenitor of the Argive line through his son Argus.
• Nilus, Egyptian river god and the father of numerous daughters who mingled with the descendants of Inachus, forming a dynasty of kings in Egypt, Libya, Arabia and Ethiopia.
• Peneus, river god of Thessaly flowing from the foot of Pindus. He was the father of Daphne and Stilbe, love interests of the god Apollo.
• Scamander, who fought on the side of the Trojans during the Trojan War, and was offended when Achilles polluted his waters with the a large number of Trojan corpses. In response, he overflowed his banks, nearly drowning Achilles.^[5]

Ancient Greek poet Hesiod mentioned several river gods by name, along with their origin story, in Theogonia^[6] ("the birth of the gods"):

And Tethys bare to Ocean eddying rivers, Nilus, and Alpheus, and deep-swirling Eridanus, Strymon, and Meander, and the fair stream of Ister, and Phasis, and Rhesus, and the silver eddies of Achelous, Nessus, and Rhodius, Haliacmon, and Heptaporus, Granicus, and Aesepus, and holy Simois, and Peneus, and Hermus, and Caicus fair stream, and great Sangarius, Ladon, Parthenius, Euenus, Ardescus, and divine Scamander. — Theogony, Hesiod. Translated by Hugh G. Evelyn-White (1914)^{[7] [8]}

List of Potamoi

The following are the sons of Oceanus and Tethys:^[9]

Name of river! rowspan="2"

River god	Sources							Location	Son of Oceanus and Tethys
Hes.	Ovid	Apol.	Plut.	Hyg.	Pau.	Others
Achelous or Akheloios	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	Homer, Sophocles, Euripides, Callimachus, Apollonius Rhodius, Diodorus Siculus, Statius, Hyginus, Plato, Aristotle	Aetolia	✓
Acheron	✓		✓	✓					Underworld and Thesprotia	presumably
Acis	Changed into a river		✓						Sicily	son of Pan and nymph Symaethis
Acragas	?								Sicily
Aeas	✓		✓						Epirus
Aegaeus	✓							Apollonius	Scheria (Corcyra)
Aesar	✓							Strabo	Tyrrhenia or Etruria
Aesepus	✓	✓							Troad	✓
Almo	✓		✓						Latium
Alpheus	✓	✓	✓		✓	✓	✓		Arcadia	✓
Amnisos	✓							Apollonius, Callimachus	Crete
Amphrysos	✓		✓						Thessaly
Anapus	✓		✓					Nonnus	Sicily
Anauros	?								Thessaly
Anigros	✓							Strabo	Elis
Apidanus	✓		✓						Thessaly
Arar	River named after				✓				Gallia Celtica (Celtic Gaul)
Araxes	River named after				✓				Armenia	son of Pylus
Ardescus	✓	✓							Thrace	✓
Arnos	✓							Strabo	Etruria
Ascanius	✓					✓		Antoninus	Mysia
Asopus	✓			✓			✓		Boeotia and Argos	✓; some accounts, son of Zeus and Eurynome or Poseidon and either Pero or Celusa
Asterion	✓						✓		Argos
Axenus or Axius	✓					✓			Paeonia and Macedonia	✓
Baphyras	?								Pieria
Borysthenes	✓							Antoninus	Scythia
Brychon	✓							Lycophron	Chersonnese
Caanthus	✓						✓			✓
Caicinus	✓						✓		Bruttium
Caicus	✓	✓			✓				Teuthrania, Mysia	✓
Cayster	✓						✓		Lydia
Cebren	✓		✓	✓				Parthenius	Troad
Cephissus	✓		✓	✓		✓	✓		Phocis, Attica, Argos	✓
Chremetes	✓							Nonnus	Libya
Cladeus	?					✓			Elis
Clitumnus	?								Umbria
Cocytus	✓							Oppian	Underworld and Thesprotia
Cratais	✓					✓
Crinisus	✓					✓		Virgil, Lycophron, Servius, Aelian	Sicily
Cydnos	✓							Nonnus	Cilicia
Cytheros	?						✓		Elis
Elisson	?							Statius	Achaea
Enipeus	✓		✓	✓					Thessaly
Erasinus	✓						✓		Argos
Eridanus	✓	✓				✓			Attica	✓
Eridanus	✓	✓						Virgil, Nonnus	Hyperborea,	✓
Erymanthus	✓						✓	Aelian	Attica
Euphrates	✓				✓	✓			Assyria	✓
Eurotas	✓ River named after			✓	✓		✓		Laconia	son of Lelex and Cleocharia or of Myles
Evenus or	✓	✓		✓	✓				Aetolia	✓ ; some accounts, a mortal son of Ares and either Demodice or Stratonice who flung himself to the river Lycormas
Lycormas
Ganges	✓		✓		✓				India
Granicus	✓	✓	✓						Troad	✓
Haliacmon	✓	✓							Macedonia	✓
Halys	✓							Apollonius, Valerius Flaccus	Paphlygonia and Pontos
Hebrus	✓				✓			Lucian	Ciconia, Thrace
Heptaporus	✓	✓							Troad	✓
Hermus	✓	✓							Lydia
Hydaspes	✓				✓			Nonnus	India	✓; son of Thaumas and Electra
Ilissos	✓							Plato	Attica
Imbrasos	✓							Athenaeus	Samos
Inachus	✓			✓	✓	✓	✓		Argos	✓
Indus	✓				✓	✓			India or Caria	✓
Inopos	✓							Callimachus	Delos
Ismenus	✓				✓	✓			Boeotia	✓
Istrus or Ister	✓	✓							Scythia	✓
Ladon	✓	✓		✓			✓		Arcadia	✓
Lamos	✓							Nonnus	Cilicia or Boeotia	✓
Marsyas	River named after				✓				Phrygia	a satyr; son of Hyagnis and either Olympus or Oeagrus
Maeander	✓	✓	✓		✓	✓	✓		Caria	✓
Meles	✓							Hellanicus, Eugaeon	Lydia
Mincius	✓							Virgil	Gallia, Italy
Nestos or Nessus	✓	✓							Bistonia, Thrace	✓
Nilus	✓	✓		✓	✓	✓			Egypt	✓
Numicius	✓		✓						Latium, Italy
Nymphaeus	?							Quintus Smyrnaeus	Bithynia and Paphlagonia
Orontes	✓					✓			Syria	✓
Pactolus	✓				✓			Nonnus	Lydia
Parthenius	✓	✓							Paphlagonia	✓
Phasis	✓	✓			✓				Colchis	✓
Phlegethon or Pyriphlegethon	✓							Virgil, Statius	Underworld	son of Cocytus
Phyllis	✓							Apollonius	Thynia, Anatolia
Peneus	✓	✓	✓				✓		Thessaly	✓
Pleistos	✓							Apollonius	Phocis
Porpax	✓							Aelian	Sicily
Rhesus	✓	✓							Rhesus (Ancient Greek: Ῥῆσος / Rhẽsos, Latin; Rhesus) was a river in Bithynia,^[10] Troad, Anatolia (modern-day Hisarlik, Çanakkale, Turkey).^[11] Per the Barrington Atlas, the Rhesus is likely Karaath Çay, a tributary of the Biga Çayı (known to antiquity as the Granicus).^[12] The Rhesus is alternately called the Rhedas, and was said to flow into the "Thracian Bosphorus at Chalcedon."^[13]	✓
Rhine	✓							Nonnus	Switzerland/Germany/France/Netherlands
Rhodius	✓	✓							Troad	✓
Rhyndacus	✓							Nonnus	Phrygia and Bithynia
Sangarius or Sagaris	✓	✓		✓	✓				Phrygia	✓
Satnioeis	?							Homer	Troad
Scamander	✓	✓		✓	✓	✓			Troad	✓
Selemnus	?						✓		Achaea
Simoeis	✓	✓		✓		✓		✓	Troad	✓
Spercheus	✓			✓					Malis
Strymon	✓	✓		✓	✓	✓			Edonia, Thrace	✓
Symaethus	✓		✓						Sicily
Tanais	✓				✓	✓			Scythia	✓
Telmessus	✓							Aelian	Sicily
Termessus	✓						✓		Boeotia
Thermodon	✓				✓	✓			Pontos and Assyria	✓
Tiberinus	✓							Virgil	Latium, Italy
Tigris	✓				✓	✓			Assyria	✓
Titaressus^[14]	?							Homer, Strabo, Seneca	Thessaly
TOTAL	89	26	18	17	26	22	18			40 (+50*)

See also

• List of Oceanids
• Potamides (river nymphs)

References

• Apollodorus, Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Hesiod, Theogony, in The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, Massachusetts., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Homer, The Iliad with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, Ph.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Hyginus, Gaius Julius, Astronomica, in The Myths of Hyginus, edited and translated by Mary A. Grant, Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1960.
• Smith, William; Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London (1873).

External links

• "Potamoi" at Theoi.com

Notes and References

1. [Hesiod]
2. [Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]
3. [Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]
4. Smith, "Alpheius".
5. [Homer]
6. θεογονία. Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; A Greek–English Lexicon at the Perseus Project
7. Book: The Theogony . 1914 . 978-1-4209-0525-0 . en . Evelyn-White . Hugh G. . 1289856352.
8. Book: Hesiod . Hesiod, Homeric Hymns, Epic Cycle, Homerica. . William Heinemann . H G. Loeb Classical Library . 1914 . 57 . London.
9. [Hesiod]
10. Book: Rhesus . http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0104:entry=rhesus-bio-1 . Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. William Smith . William Wayte . G. E. Marindin . Albemarle Street, London . John Murray . 1890. 2023-01-23 . www.perseus.tufts.edu.
11. Book: Homer . The Iliad of Homer . 2011 . University of Chicago Press . Richmond Lattimore, Richard P. Martin . 978-0-226-47048-1 . Chicago . 12 . 704121276 . [After the Greeks had departed from Troy :] Poseidon and Apollon took counsel to wreck the wall [of the Greeks], letting loose the strength of rivers upon it, all the rivers that run to the sea from the mountains of Ida, Rhesos (Rhesus) and Heptaporos, Karesos (Caresus) and Rhodios, Grenikos (Granicus) and Aisepos (Aesepus), and immortal Skamandros (Scamander) and Simoeis (. . .)..
12. Huxley . George . 2002 . Review of Parthenius of Nicaea. The poetical fragments and the ᾽Ερωτικὰ Παθήματα . Hermathena . 172 . 110–117 . 23041295 . 0018-0750.
13. Book: A Classical Manual: Being a Mythological, Historical, and Geographical Commentary on Pope's Homer and Dryden's Aeneid of Virgil . 1833 . J. Murray . London . 216 . en . Google Books.
14. Homer,Iliad