DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26205#0016
14
A specific role was played by the rivers of the underworld, the Styx and the
Acheron, worshipped by the Greeks and associated with the cult of the dead
and the oracle (the Acheron had his oracle in Thesprotia, called nekyoman-
teion ■— Herod. 5, 92, 7; Paus. 9, 30, 6 14). This, however, is quite a different
problem, as is the role of the Eridanus, the great mythical river of the Occident,
begotten by Okeanos and Thetis, which was already mentioned by Hesiod
(Theog. 388) who associated it with the fall of Phaethon. Apollonios Rhodius
(Argonaut. 4, 627) states that the Argonauts came back along it from the
Golden Fleece expedition. Virgil (Aen. 6, 659) wrote that it rises in the
underground Elysium. Nowadays it is interpreted as the Po, although attempts
were undertaken to identify it with either the Rhine or the Vistula, because
of the information on amber extraction at its mouth (Herod. 3, 115; Strabo
5, 125; Plin. N. H. 37, 30) 15 16. It was not venerated by the ancients, although
it was mentioned many times in literary texts, and its images did not come
into being until Roman times (cf. Chapter III).
It was stated on p. 10 that rivers assume human shape in Homer. However,
in ancient literature one sometimes hears about rivers, their personifications
or gods adopting the form of a bull. This can probably be associated with
the fact that Homer, once indeed only (II. 21, 239), compares a river, in this
case the Scamander, to a mighty bull. Subsequent poets willingly use this
metaphor (among others: Eurip. Ion 1261; Eurip. Iph. Aul. 273—276, con-
cerning the Cephisus and the Alpheus), generally with regard to the Acheloos
(Soph. Trach. 9—14). As early as in Roman times, Strabo (LO 2, 19), attempted
to explain rationally the causes of such a way of representing a river, and
Aelian (Var. Hist. 2, 33), distinguished the rivers that had a human form
(among others, the Erymanthos, the Cephisus, the Anapos or the Akragas)
and those assuming the shape of a bull (the Erasinos, the Eurotas, the
Asopos)1R. To the popularity of a river’s image as a bull in the Greek world,
testifies, among others, the fact (naturally besides the archaeological material
presented in Chapter II) that Euripides (Iph. Aul. 273) ahistorically placed
the Alpheus in bull’s shape at the bow of Nestor’s ship. The river’s identification
with a bull must have been frequent, since Pausanias (2, 32, 7) mentions that
the river Hyllikos, whose source was between Troezen and Hermiona, was
earlier called Taurios (Athen. 3, 122 ff., denotes it as Taurus).
Both forms, anthropomorphic and zoomorphic, mentioned in ancient
literature, find their reflection in art, where also (in fact, rarely) the cult cf the
rivers in antiquity can be examined.
14 This oracle is not mentioned by J. Boardman, LIMC, I, 1981, s. v. Acheron.
15 According to Pliny (N. H. 37, 30) Aeschylus attempted to identify it with the Rhone. The
mention of amber having been found at the river’s mouth is explained (assuming the identification
with the Po) by the fact that at the place where this river falls into the Adriatic Sea amber was
reloaded in Roman and Etruscan ports which had been transported by land from northern Europe.
16 Regarding the scope of this publication, it is impossible to embark upon more detailed
considerations. This question is discussed extensively by Weiss, pp. 12—21 and 59—67.
A specific role was played by the rivers of the underworld, the Styx and the
Acheron, worshipped by the Greeks and associated with the cult of the dead
and the oracle (the Acheron had his oracle in Thesprotia, called nekyoman-
teion ■— Herod. 5, 92, 7; Paus. 9, 30, 6 14). This, however, is quite a different
problem, as is the role of the Eridanus, the great mythical river of the Occident,
begotten by Okeanos and Thetis, which was already mentioned by Hesiod
(Theog. 388) who associated it with the fall of Phaethon. Apollonios Rhodius
(Argonaut. 4, 627) states that the Argonauts came back along it from the
Golden Fleece expedition. Virgil (Aen. 6, 659) wrote that it rises in the
underground Elysium. Nowadays it is interpreted as the Po, although attempts
were undertaken to identify it with either the Rhine or the Vistula, because
of the information on amber extraction at its mouth (Herod. 3, 115; Strabo
5, 125; Plin. N. H. 37, 30) 15 16. It was not venerated by the ancients, although
it was mentioned many times in literary texts, and its images did not come
into being until Roman times (cf. Chapter III).
It was stated on p. 10 that rivers assume human shape in Homer. However,
in ancient literature one sometimes hears about rivers, their personifications
or gods adopting the form of a bull. This can probably be associated with
the fact that Homer, once indeed only (II. 21, 239), compares a river, in this
case the Scamander, to a mighty bull. Subsequent poets willingly use this
metaphor (among others: Eurip. Ion 1261; Eurip. Iph. Aul. 273—276, con-
cerning the Cephisus and the Alpheus), generally with regard to the Acheloos
(Soph. Trach. 9—14). As early as in Roman times, Strabo (LO 2, 19), attempted
to explain rationally the causes of such a way of representing a river, and
Aelian (Var. Hist. 2, 33), distinguished the rivers that had a human form
(among others, the Erymanthos, the Cephisus, the Anapos or the Akragas)
and those assuming the shape of a bull (the Erasinos, the Eurotas, the
Asopos)1R. To the popularity of a river’s image as a bull in the Greek world,
testifies, among others, the fact (naturally besides the archaeological material
presented in Chapter II) that Euripides (Iph. Aul. 273) ahistorically placed
the Alpheus in bull’s shape at the bow of Nestor’s ship. The river’s identification
with a bull must have been frequent, since Pausanias (2, 32, 7) mentions that
the river Hyllikos, whose source was between Troezen and Hermiona, was
earlier called Taurios (Athen. 3, 122 ff., denotes it as Taurus).
Both forms, anthropomorphic and zoomorphic, mentioned in ancient
literature, find their reflection in art, where also (in fact, rarely) the cult cf the
rivers in antiquity can be examined.
14 This oracle is not mentioned by J. Boardman, LIMC, I, 1981, s. v. Acheron.
15 According to Pliny (N. H. 37, 30) Aeschylus attempted to identify it with the Rhone. The
mention of amber having been found at the river’s mouth is explained (assuming the identification
with the Po) by the fact that at the place where this river falls into the Adriatic Sea amber was
reloaded in Roman and Etruscan ports which had been transported by land from northern Europe.
16 Regarding the scope of this publication, it is impossible to embark upon more detailed
considerations. This question is discussed extensively by Weiss, pp. 12—21 and 59—67.