Selemnos (

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...

: Σέλεμνος, la, Selemnus) is a river in the northern part of

Achaea Achaea () or Achaia (), sometimes transliterated from Greek as Akhaia (, ''Akhaïa'' ), is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of Western Greece and is situated in the northwestern part of the Peloponnese peninsula. T ...

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 wit ...

. The river flows entirely in the municipal unit of Rio and empties into the

Gulf of Corinth The Gulf of Corinth or the Corinthian Gulf ( el, Κορινθιακός Kόλπος, ''Korinthiakόs Kόlpos'', ) is a deep inlet of the Ionian Sea, separating the Peloponnese from western mainland Greece. It is bounded in the east by the Ist ...

Geography

The river begins on the northwest side of the

Panachaiko The Panachaiko ( el, Παναχαϊκό, "Panachaean"), also known as Vodias (Βοδιάς) mainly at the Middle Ages, is a mountain range in Achaea, Peloponnese, Greece. It spans about 20 km in length from north to south, and 15–20 k ...

mountain. It passes along the villages

Ano Kastritsi Ano Kastritsi ( el, Άνω Καστρίτσι) is a village in the municipal unit of Rio, Achaea, Greece. It is situated at about 500 m elevation in the forested northwestern foothills of the Panachaiko The Panachaiko ( el, Παναχαϊκό, ...

and

Kato Kastritsi Kato Kastritsi ( el, Κάτω Καστρίτσι) is a village and a community in the municipal unit of Rio, Achaea, Greece. The community consists of the villages Kato Kastritsi and Magoula. It is situated at about 100 m elevation in the northwe ...

. It empties into the

, east of the Rio-Antirrio bridge. The lower course of the river is also called ''Kastritsianiko'' (Καστριτσιάνικο).

Mythology

Greek mythology A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities of ...

, Selemnus was a shepherd who loved the

nymph A nymph ( grc, νύμφη, nýmphē, el, script=Latn, nímfi, label=Modern Greek; , ) in ancient Greek folklore is a minor female nature deity. Different from Greek goddesses, nymphs are generally regarded as personifications of nature, are ty ...

Argyra, who eventually abandoned him and Selemnus died of grief. That time, the goddess

Aphrodite Aphrodite ( ; grc-gre, Ἀφροδίτη, Aphrodítē; , , ) is an ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek goddess associated with love, lust, beauty, pleasure, passion (emotion), passion, and procreation. She was syncretized with the Roman god ...

made him a river, the waters of which were believed to cure of unrequited love. Pausanias, ''Description of Greece'', 7. 23. 1 - 3 The story of Selemnus is referenced in a tale by Rena Galanaki in ''Mnimi tou erota, lithi tou erota'' (''Μνήμη του έρωτα, λήθη του έρωτα'') in the book ''Ena schedon galazio cheri'' ('' σχεδόν γαλάζιο χέρι'') (Kastaniotis, 2004) and one poem ''Sto Kastritsianiko potami'' (''Στο Καστριτσιάνικο ποτάμι'' = ''By The Kastritsianiko River'') by Thodoris Gkonia and Nikos Xydakis.

References

External links

Selemnos on theoi.com
:''The first version of this article has been based on the text of :el:Σέλεμνος of the

Greek Wikipedia The Greek Wikipedia (also Hellenic Wikipedia, Elliniki Vikipedia, el, Ελληνική Βικιπαίδεια) is the Greek language, Greek-language edition of Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia. It was started on December 1, 2002. It surpa ...

published under

GFDL The GNU Free Documentation License (GNU FDL or simply GFDL) is a copyleft license for free documentation, designed by the Free Software Foundation (FSF) for the GNU Project. It is similar to the GNU General Public License, giving readers the r ...

.'' {{Metamorphoses in Greco-Roman mythology Rivers of Greece Metamorphoses into bodies of water in Greek mythology Landforms of Achaea Rivers of Western Greece Drainage basins of the Gulf of Corinth Deeds of Aphrodite