Potamoi: Difference between revisions

[[File:Бог реки Нил коптская ткань IV В.jpg|thumb|[[Nilus (mythology)|Nilus]], the ''potamoipotamos'' of the [[Nile River]], depicted in a [[Copts|Coptic]] tapestry]]

The '''''Potamoi''''' ({{lang-langx|grc-gre|Ποταμοί|Potamoí|Rivers}}, "Rivers") are the gods of [[river]]s and streams of the earth in [[Greek mythology]].

The river gods were the 3000 sons of the great earth-encircling river [[Oceanus]] and his wife [[Tethys (mythology)|Tethys]] and the brothers of the [[Oceanid]]s.<ref>[[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hes.+Th.+337 337&ndash;345, 366&ndash;370].</ref> They were also the fathers of the [[Naiad]]s.{{Citation needed|date=August 2016}} and [[Potamides]].<ref>Rose, Herbert J. (1957); p 25.</ref> 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.{{Citation needed|date=August 2016}}

* [[Scamander]], who fought on the side of the [[Troy|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.<ref>[[Homer]], ''[[Iliad]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg001.perseus-eng1:20.54-20.85 20.74], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg001.perseus-eng1:21.200-21.232 21.211 ff.].</ref>

Ancient Greek poet [[Hesiod]] mentioned several river gods by name, along with their origin story, in ''[[Theogony|Theogonia]]<ref>θεογονία. [[Henry Liddell|Liddell, Henry George]]; [[Robert Scott (philologist)|Scott, Robert]]; ''[[A Greek–English Lexicon]]'' at the [[Perseus Project]]</ref>'' ("the birth of the gods"):<blockquote>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)<ref>{{Cite book |last= |first= |url=https://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/hesiod/theogony.htm |title=The Theogony |year=1914 |isbn=978-1-4209-0525-0 |language=en |translator-last=Evelyn-White |translator-first=Hugh G. |oclc=1289856352}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Hesiod |url=https://www.theoi.com/Text/HesiodTheogony.html |title=Hesiod, Homeric Hymns, Epic Cycle, Homerica. |publisher=William Heinemann |others=H G. Loeb Classical Library |year=1914 |volume=57 |location=London}}</ref></blockquote>

|''Apollonius, Callimachus''

|[[AnaposAnapus]]

|✓; some accounts, son of Zeus and Eurynome or Poseidon and either [[Pero (mythology)|Pero]] or [[Celusa]]

|Hyperborea,

|son of [[Lelex]] and [[Cleocharia]] or of Myles

|*

|authorsauthor=William Smith, LLD. |author2=William Wayte. |author3=G. E. Marindin |location=Albemarle Street, London |publisher=John Murray | year=1890| access-date=2023-01-23 |via=[[www.perseus.tufts.edu]]}}</ref> [[Troad]], Anatolia (modern-day [[Hisarlik]], [[Çanakkale Province|Çanakkale]], [[Turkey]]).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Homer |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/704121276 |title=The Iliad of Homer |date=2011 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |others=Richmond Lattimore, Richard P. Martin |isbn=978-0-226-47048-1 |location=Chicago |chapter=12 |oclc=704121276 |quote=[After the Greeks had departed from Troy :] Poseidon and Apollon took counsel to wreck the wall [of the Greeks], letting loose the strenghtstrength 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 (. . .).}}</ref>. Per the ''[[Barrington Atlas]]'', the Rhesus is likely Karaath Çay, a tributary of the [[Biga Çayı]] (known to antiquity as the Granicus).<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Huxley |first=George |date=2002 |title=Review of Parthenius of Nicaea. The poetical fragments and the ᾽Ερωτικὰ Παθήματα |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23041295 |journal=Hermathena |issue=172 |pages=110–117 |jstor=23041295 |issn=0018-0750}}</ref> The Rhesus is alternately called the '''Rhedas''', and was said to flow into the "[[Thracians|Thracian]] [[Bosporus|Bosphorus]] at [[Chalcedon]]."<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AhBTAEKpfNMC&dq=rhesus+river+god&pg=PA681 |title=A Classical Manual: Being a Mythological, Historical, and Geographical Commentary on Pope's Homer and Dryden's Aeneid of Virgil |date=1833 |publisher=J. Murray |location=London |pagespage=216 |language=en |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref>

!'''TOTAL'''

!89

!2526

!18

* [http://www.theoi.com/Potamos/Potamoi.html "Potamoi"] at Theoi.com]