Eridanos or Eridanus (; grc, Ἠριδανός) was a river in Athens mentioned in

Greek mythology A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the Cosmogony, origin and Cosmology#Metaphysical co ...

and

historiography Historiography is the study of the methods of historians in developing history as an academic discipline, and by extension is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiography of a specific topic covers how historians ha ...

Mythical stream

Eridanus was the 'deep-swirling'

river-god A water deity is a deity in mythology associated with water or various bodies of water. Water deities are common in mythology and were usually more important among civilizations in which the sea or ocean, or a great river was more important. Anoth ...

son of the

Titans In Greek mythology, the Titans ( grc, οἱ Τῑτᾶνες, ''hoi Tītânes'', , ''ho Tītân'') were the pre-Olympian gods. According to the ''Theogony'' of Hesiod, they were the twelve children of the primordial parents Uranus (Sky) and Ga ...

Oceanus In Greek mythology, Oceanus (; grc-gre, , Ancient Greek pronunciation: , also Ὠγενός , Ὤγενος , or Ὠγήν ) was a Titan son of Uranus and Gaia, the husband of his sister the Titan Tethys, and the father of the river gods a ...

and his sister-wife Tethys. He was the father of

Zeuxippe In Greek mythology, Zeuxippe (; Ancient Greek: Ζευξίππη) was the name of several women. The name means "she who yokes horses," from ''zeugos'', "yoke of beasts" / "pair of horses," and ''hippos'', "horse." *Zeuxippe, a naiad nymph of Athen ...

, mother of the

Argonauts The Argonauts (; Ancient Greek: ) were a band of heroes in Greek mythology, who in the years before the Trojan War (around 1300 BC) accompanied Jason to Colchis in his quest to find the Golden Fleece. Their name comes from their ship, '' Argo'', ...

Butes In Greek mythology, the name Butes (; Ancient Greek: Βούτης, ''Boútēs'') referred to several different people. *Butes, an Athenian prince as the son of King Pandion I and the naiad Zeuxippe. He was a priest of Poseidon and Athena and was ...

and

Eribotes In Greek mythology, Eribotes (Ancient Greek: Ἐρυβώτης) was a Locrian who was counted among the Argonauts. He was the son of Teleon. Mythology Eribotes appears to have had skills of a physician: in the ''Argonautica'', he attends on Oile ...

Teleon In Greek mythology, Teleon (Ancient Greek: Τελέων, genitive case, gen. Τελέοντος) may refer to the following two distinct characters: * Teleon, the Attica (region), Attican father of Butes, one of the Argonauts. His wife was called Z ...

. Eridanus may be the same or different with his another river-god

namesake A namesake is a person, geographic location, or other entity bearing the name of another. History The word is first attested around 1635, and probably comes from the phrase "for one's name's sake", which originates in English Bible translations ...

Real river

Eridanus was the small stream that flowed from a source in the foothills of the Lykabettos, through the

Agora The agora (; grc, ἀγορά, romanized: ', meaning "market" in Modern Greek) was a central public space in ancient Greek city-states. It is the best representation of a city-state's response to accommodate the social and political order of t ...

ancient Athens Athens is one of the oldest named cities in the world, having been continuously inhabited for perhaps 5,000 years. Situated in southern Europe, Athens became the leading city of Ancient Greece in the first millennium BC, and its cultural achieve ...

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 ...

to the archaeological site of the

Kerameikos Kerameikos (, ) also known by its Latinized form Ceramicus, is an area of Athens, Greece, located to the northwest of the Acropolis, which includes an extensive area both within and outside the ancient city walls, on both sides of the Dipylon Ga ...

, where its bed is still visible. In this area lives a population of

Greek tortoise The Greek tortoise (''Testudo graeca''), also known commonly as the spur-thighed tortoise, is a species of tortoise in the family Testudinidae. ''Testudo graeca'' is one of five species of Mediterranean tortoises (genera '' Testudo'' and '' Ag ...

. Its course has been for the most part covered since ancient times, and was only visible outside the ancient walls in the district of Kerameikos. The river was rediscovered during the excavations for the

Athens Metro The Athens Metro ( el, Μετρό Αθήνας, Metro Athinas, translit-std=iso) is a rapid-transit system in Greece which serves the Athens urban area and parts of East Attica. Line 1 opened as a conventional steam railway in 1869 and electrif ...

subway in the late 1990s, and its waters caused considerable technical problems at times. Because of the Metro works, its seasonal flow through the Kerameikos cemetery was disrupted, as the waters were apparently and inadvertently redirected to some new underground path. As of April 2007, the stream of the river, as it flows through

Monastiraki Monastiraki (Greek: Μοναστηράκι, ''Monastiráki'', , literally ''little monastery'') is a flea market neighborhood in the old town of Athens, Greece, and is one of the principal shopping districts in Athens. The area is home to cloth ...

Square, has been excavated. It had been covered with a brickwork tunnel since classical times, and the brickwork had been repaired at least twice, in the imperial

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

and early

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

eras. The brick tunnel now forms part of a small open-air museum at Monastiraki Square, next to the

Metro station A metro station or subway station is a station for a rapid transit system, which as a whole is usually called a "metro" or "subway". A station provides a means for passengers to purchase Train ticket, tickets, board trains, and Emergency eva ...

, and the waters of the Eridanos are from inside the tunnel.

Notes

References

* Aken, Dr. A.R.A. van. (1961). ''Elseviers Mythologische Encyclopedie''. Amsterdam: Elsevier. * Bartelink, Dr. G.J.M. (1988). ''Prisma van de mythologie''. Utrecht: Het Spectrum. * ''Eridanos, the river of ancient Athens: Archaeological guide'' (in Greek and English) (Archaeological Receipts Fund). . *

Gaius Julius Hyginus Gaius Julius Hyginus (; 64 BC – AD 17) was a Latin author, a pupil of the scholar Alexander Polyhistor, and a freedman of Caesar Augustus. He was elected superintendent of the Palatine library by Augustus according to Suetonius' ''De Grammatic ...

, ''Fabulae from The Myths of Hyginus'' translated and edited by Mary Grant. University of Kansas Publications in Humanistic Studies
Online version at the Topos Text Project.
*

Hesiod Hesiod (; grc-gre, Ἡσίοδος ''Hēsíodos'') was an ancient Greek poet generally thought to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer. He is generally regarded by western authors as 'the first written poet i ...

, ''Theogony'' from ''The Homeric Hymns and Homerica'' with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, MA.,Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914
Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.Greek text available from the same website
Kerameikos Geography of Athens Rivers of Greece {{Athens-geo-stub Potamoi Characters in Greek mythology