The Asopos ( el, Ασωπός, referred to in Latin sources as ''Asopus'') is a
river
A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...
in
Boeotia
Boeotia ( ), sometimes Latinized as Boiotia or Beotia ( el, Βοιωτία; modern: ; ancient: ), formerly known as Cadmeis, is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of Central Greece. Its capital is Livadeia, and its lar ...
and northern
Attica
Attica ( el, Αττική, Ancient Greek ''Attikḗ'' or , or ), or the Attic Peninsula, is a historical region that encompasses the city of Athens, the capital of Greece and its countryside. It is a peninsula projecting into the Aegean Se ...
,
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...
. In antiquity, it formed the border between the cities of Thebes and
Plataea
Plataea or Plataia (; grc, Πλάταια), also Plataeae or Plataiai (; grc, Πλαταιαί), was an ancient city, located in Greece in southeastern Boeotia, south of Thebes.Mish, Frederick C., Editor in Chief. “Plataea.” '' Webst ...
. The
Battle of Plataea
The Battle of Plataea was the final land battle during the second Persian invasion of Greece. It took place in 479 BC near the city of Plataea in Boeotia, and was fought between an alliance of the Greek city-states (including Sparta, Athens, C ...
was fought on its banks. According to
Pausanias Pausanias ( el, Παυσανίας) may refer to:
*Pausanias of Athens, lover of the poet Agathon and a character in Plato's ''Symposium''
*Pausanias the Regent, Spartan general and regent of the 5th century BC
*Pausanias of Sicily, physician of th ...
(5.14.3) the Boeotian Asopus can produce the tallest reeds of any river.
Its source is on the northern slope of the
Cithaeron
Cithaeron or Kithairon (Κιθαιρών, -ῶνος) is a mountain and mountain range about sixteen kilometres (ten miles) long in Central Greece. The range is the physical boundary between Boeotia in the north and Attica in the south. It is mai ...
mountain, southwest of Thebes. It empties into the
South Euboean Gulf
The South Euboean Gulf ( el, Νότιος Ευβοϊκός Κόλπος, ''Notios Evvoïkos Kolpos'') is a gulf in Central Greece, between the island of Euboea and the Greek mainland (Boeotia and Attica). With a total length of approximately 50&n ...
, near
Skala Oropou
Skala may refer to:
Places Greece
* Skala, Patmos, the main port on the island of Patmos in Greece
* Skala, Laconia, a municipality in southern Greece
* Skala, Xanthi, a settlement in north-eastern Greece
* Skala, Cephalonia, a resort in the Ion ...
. Its total length is 57 km. Its basin is 718 km2. The Asopos flows along the following places, from the source downstream:
Lefktra
Lefktra ( el, Λεύκτρα, Léfktra, ) is a village in the regional unit of Boeotia, Greece, and a part of the municipality of Thebes. Before 1915, its name was ''Parapoungia'' ( el, Παραπούγγια).Agios Thomas,
Oinofyta
Oinofyta (Greek: Οινόφυτα) is a village and former municipality in eastern Boeotia, Greece. Following the local government reform of 2011 it is now part of the municipality of Tanagra, of which it is a municipal unit. The municipal unit ha ...
,
Sykamino
Sykamino (Greek: Συκάμινο meaning mulberry) is a town and former community of Attica, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Oropos, of which it is a municipal unit.
Sykamino has historically been an ...
,
Skala Oropou
Skala may refer to:
Places Greece
* Skala, Patmos, the main port on the island of Patmos in Greece
* Skala, Laconia, a municipality in southern Greece
* Skala, Xanthi, a settlement in north-eastern Greece
* Skala, Cephalonia, a resort in the Ion ...
. The river is polluted with hexavalent
chromium
Chromium is a chemical element with the symbol Cr and atomic number 24. It is the first element in group 6. It is a steely-grey, lustrous, hard, and brittle transition metal.
Chromium metal is valued for its high corrosion resistance and hardne ...
due to industrial activity.
Mythology
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 Plataea was named after
Plataea
Plataea or Plataia (; grc, Πλάταια), also Plataeae or Plataiai (; grc, Πλαταιαί), was an ancient city, located in Greece in southeastern Boeotia, south of Thebes.Mish, Frederick C., Editor in Chief. “Plataea.” '' Webst ...
daughter of the river Asopus. Pausanias then comments oddly that he thinks that this eponymous Plataea was daughter of King Asopus rather than of the river Asopus.
Oroe, a tributary river of Boeotian Asopus is termed by
Herodotus
Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus, part of the Persian Empire (now Bodrum, Turkey) and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria ( Italy). He is known f ...
(9.51.2) and Pausanias (9.4.4) daughter of Asopus. Pausanias says that the Boeotian city of Thespiae was named either from Thespia, daughter of Asopus or from
Thespius In Greek mythology, Thespius (; Ancient Greek: Θέσπιος ''Théspios'') or Thestius (; Ancient Greek: Θέστιος)Pausanias, 9.27.7 was a legendary founder and king of Thespiae, Boeotia. His life account is considered part of Greek mythology ...
, a descendant of
Erechtheus
Erechtheus (; grc, Ἐρεχθεύς) in Greek mythology was the name of an archaic king of Athens, the founder of the ''polis'' and, in his role as god, attached to Poseidon, as "Poseidon Erechtheus". The mythic Erechtheus and the historical Ere ...
who came there from
Athens
Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...
. This Thespius is otherwise unknown to us. Finally Antiope mother of
Amphion and Zethus
Amphion ( ()) and Zethus (; Ζῆθος ''Zēthos'') were, in ancient Greek mythology, the twin sons of Zeus (or Theobus) by Antiope. They are important characters in one of the two founding myths of the city of Thebes, because they constructed ...
by
Zeus
Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label=Genitive case, genitive Aeolic Greek, Boeotian Aeolic and Doric Greek#Laconian, Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label=Genitive case, genitive el, Δίας, ''D ...
is sometimes a daughter of Asopus.
Statius
Publius Papinius Statius (Greek: Πόπλιος Παπίνιος Στάτιος; ; ) was a Greco-Roman poet of the 1st century CE. His surviving Latin poetry includes an epic in twelve books, the ''Thebaid''; a collection of occasional poetry, ...
's ''Thebaid'' tells of the warrior
Hypseus
In Greek mythology, the name Hypseus (; grc, Ὑψεύς "one on high", derived from ''hypsos'' "height") may refer to:
*Hypseus, King of the Lapiths, son of the river god Peneus by the naiad Creusa, daughter of Gaia, or by Philyra, a daughter o ...
, mortal son of Asopus, who leads the men of Alalcomene, Itone,
Midea Midea may refer to:
* Midea Group (美的集团), a Chinese electrical appliance manufacturer
* Midea, Greece, a Greek town
* Midea (Argolid), a citadel in the town of the same name
* Midea or Mideia, name of four figures in Greek mythology
* '' ...
,
Arne
Arne may refer to:
Places
* Arne, Dorset, England, a village
** Arne RSPB reserve, a nature reserve adjacent to the village
* Arné, Hautes-Pyrénées, Midi-Pyrénées, France
* Arne (Boeotia), an ancient city in Boeotia, Greece
* Arne (Thessa ...
Graea
Graea or Graia ( grc, Γραῖα, Graîa) was a city on the coast of Boeotia in ancient Greece. Its site is located near modern Dramesi in Paralia Avlidas.
History
Graea is listed under Boeotia in Homer's Catalogue of Ships in the ''Iliad''. ...
,
Plataea
Plataea or Plataia (; grc, Πλάταια), also Plataeae or Plataiai (; grc, Πλαταιαί), was an ancient city, located in Greece in southeastern Boeotia, south of Thebes.Mish, Frederick C., Editor in Chief. “Plataea.” '' Webst ...
Capaneus
In Greek mythology, Capaneus (; Ancient Greek: Καπανεύς ''Kapaneús'') was a son of Hipponous and either Astynome (daughter of Talaus) or Laodice (daughter of Iphis), and husband of Evadne, with whom he fathered Sthenelus. Some call his w ...