DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9840#0279
XIII.]
THE RIVER TRITON.
225
•
Its shape recalls to mind the form of an ancient Greek
theatre, the houses here occupying the places of the
seats, and looking down, towards the west, on the river,
which is called Platyperama, but changes its name to
Ghidfiro, as it approaches the sea.
This is the most considerable stream of the plain
to the west of Megalo-Kastron, and is probably the
ancient Triton. Athene is said to have been born at
its source, where a temple sacred to her still existed in
the time of Diodorus of Sicily39. It need hardly be
added that she was supposed to be indebted to this
river for her name Tritogeneia. It is, however, more
probable that the real derivation of the epithet, in the
Homeric poems, is from a stream called Triton in
Boeotia40. Mueller has shewn beyond all doubt that
the connexion of Libya and its Tritonian lake, with
the wanderings of the Argonauts, arose long after
Homer's time41 : so that, in the Homeric age, nothing
can have been known of the legend recorded by Hero-
dotus42, and followed by Aeschylus, where he speaks
of the Libyan Triton as Athene's natal stream43.
We find another river in Arcadia, which was like-
wise described by local tradition as the birth-place of
the Tritonian Goddess44.
39 Diodorus Siculus, v. 72. p. 388. ed. Wess. MvdoXoyodo-i ok Kal
tjjV A.Qi)vav kclto. nrr\v Kptfriji/ etc Aids ev TaTs -mj'ycus tov TpiTiovoi iroTa-
fiov yevpi-jdrjvaL' Sid Kal TpiToyeveiav eirovofiao-dr/vaL. cVti Se Kal vvv eVi
irepl Tcts Trrjyas TctUTas lepbv ayiov tt}s Qeov TauTijs, ev ai Toirta ti}v
yeveaw auT^s uirdp^ai. pudoXoyovcn.
40 Scholiast on Atollon. Rhod. iv. 1311. Mueller, Orcho-
menos, p. 213. and p. 355. A temple was erected to her at Alalcomenae,
the place where she was said to have been born: Strabo, ix. p. 413.
Pausanias, ix. p. 777- Sir William Gell, Itinerary of Greece, p. 151.
supposes that he found the site of both the town and temple: compare Colonel
Leake, Travels in Northern Greece, Vol. n. p. 135, fol.
41 Mueller, Orchomenos, 1. c. Voelcker, Homerische Geographic,
§• 68-
42 Herodotus, iv. 180. Pausanias, i. p. 36. Eustathius, on
Dionysius Perieget. 267 . 43 Aeschylus, Eumen. 292.
44 At Aliphera in Arcadia, where there was a celebrated colossal statue of
her. Pausanias, viii. p. 653. Polybius, iv. 78. Leake's Travels in
tj o the
THE RIVER TRITON.
225
•
Its shape recalls to mind the form of an ancient Greek
theatre, the houses here occupying the places of the
seats, and looking down, towards the west, on the river,
which is called Platyperama, but changes its name to
Ghidfiro, as it approaches the sea.
This is the most considerable stream of the plain
to the west of Megalo-Kastron, and is probably the
ancient Triton. Athene is said to have been born at
its source, where a temple sacred to her still existed in
the time of Diodorus of Sicily39. It need hardly be
added that she was supposed to be indebted to this
river for her name Tritogeneia. It is, however, more
probable that the real derivation of the epithet, in the
Homeric poems, is from a stream called Triton in
Boeotia40. Mueller has shewn beyond all doubt that
the connexion of Libya and its Tritonian lake, with
the wanderings of the Argonauts, arose long after
Homer's time41 : so that, in the Homeric age, nothing
can have been known of the legend recorded by Hero-
dotus42, and followed by Aeschylus, where he speaks
of the Libyan Triton as Athene's natal stream43.
We find another river in Arcadia, which was like-
wise described by local tradition as the birth-place of
the Tritonian Goddess44.
39 Diodorus Siculus, v. 72. p. 388. ed. Wess. MvdoXoyodo-i ok Kal
tjjV A.Qi)vav kclto. nrr\v Kptfriji/ etc Aids ev TaTs -mj'ycus tov TpiTiovoi iroTa-
fiov yevpi-jdrjvaL' Sid Kal TpiToyeveiav eirovofiao-dr/vaL. cVti Se Kal vvv eVi
irepl Tcts Trrjyas TctUTas lepbv ayiov tt}s Qeov TauTijs, ev ai Toirta ti}v
yeveaw auT^s uirdp^ai. pudoXoyovcn.
40 Scholiast on Atollon. Rhod. iv. 1311. Mueller, Orcho-
menos, p. 213. and p. 355. A temple was erected to her at Alalcomenae,
the place where she was said to have been born: Strabo, ix. p. 413.
Pausanias, ix. p. 777- Sir William Gell, Itinerary of Greece, p. 151.
supposes that he found the site of both the town and temple: compare Colonel
Leake, Travels in Northern Greece, Vol. n. p. 135, fol.
41 Mueller, Orchomenos, 1. c. Voelcker, Homerische Geographic,
§• 68-
42 Herodotus, iv. 180. Pausanias, i. p. 36. Eustathius, on
Dionysius Perieget. 267 . 43 Aeschylus, Eumen. 292.
44 At Aliphera in Arcadia, where there was a celebrated colossal statue of
her. Pausanias, viii. p. 653. Polybius, iv. 78. Leake's Travels in
tj o the