Asopus

Asopus was the name of several rivers in Greece and of the river god of the best known of them. The god is said to have been a son of Oceanus and Tethys. He is the father of many daughters whose names are given to cities, springs and islands, and he is best known as the father of Aegina, whom Zeus carried off, and of Thebe, Antiope and Plataea (Apollodorus, Library 3.12.6; Diodorus Siculus 4.72.1).

The Rivers Called Asopus

The ancient writers speak of more than one Asopus. Pausanias describes a river that rises in the territory of Phlius, flows through Sicyon and empties into the sea near Corinth (Pausanias 2.5.2). A Boeotian Asopus flows between Thebes and Plataea and was fixed by the Athenians as the boundary of the Theban territory (Herodotus 6.108; Pausanias 2.6.1). The Plataeans named their early kings Cithaeron and Asopus, the one after the mountain and the other after the river (Pausanias 9.1.2). Another Asopus runs through a gorge near Trachis, close to Thermopylae (Herodotus 7.199–200). Strabo notes that the rivers share the name (Strabo 9.4.14). The Phliasians and the Thebans each claimed that the Asopus who was the father of Thebe was their own river (Pausanias 2.5.2). The Greek authors do not keep the stories of these rivers fully apart, and the family of the river god is sometimes given with the Phliasian Asopus and sometimes with the Boeotian one.

Family

According to Apollodorus, the river Asopus was a son of Oceanus and Tethys; Acusilaus made him a son of Pero and Poseidon, and some made him a son of Zeus and Eurynome (Library 3.12.6). Diodorus lists him among the children of Oceanus and Tethys who gave their names to rivers, together with Peneius, and says that he made his home in Phlius (Diodorus Siculus 4.72.1). At Phlius Pausanias heard that an Asopus, said to be the son of Poseidon and Celusa, discovered the water of the river for the earth-born king Aras, and that the river was named after him (Pausanias 2.12.4). He married Metope, a daughter of the river Ladon, and had two sons, Ismenus and Pelagon, and many daughters: twenty in Apollodorus, twelve in Diodorus (Apollodorus, Library 3.12.6; Diodorus Siculus 4.72.1).

His Daughters

Diodorus lists the twelve daughters as Corcyra, Salamis, Aegina, Peirene, Cleone, Thebe, Tanagra, Thespeia, Asopis, Sinope, Ornia and Chalcis. Poseidon carried off Corcyra and Salamis, and Apollo carried off Sinope; Zeus carried off Aegina (Diodorus Siculus 4.72.1–5). Corcyra became the mother of Phaeax by Poseidon, and Salamis the mother of Cychreus (Diodorus Siculus 4.72.3–4). Other sources add or change names: the Phliasians gave Asopus the daughters Corcyra, Aegina and Thebe (Pausanias 2.5.2), and Pausanias names Nemea, Harpina, Cleone, Plataea and Thespia as daughters of Asopus (Pausanias 5.22.6, 2.15.1–3, 9.1.1, 9.26.6). Corinna called Tanagra a daughter of Asopus (Pausanias 9.20.1). Herodotus says that Thebe and Aegina were sisters, daughters of Asopus (Herodotus 5.80.1). In the Odyssey, Antiope, daughter of Asopus, boasted that she had slept in the arms of Zeus (Odyssey 11.260–265); in Pausanias, a report made Antiope a daughter of Asopus rather than of Nycteus (Pausanias 2.6.1).

Aegina and Zeus

The best-known story about Asopus is the abduction of his daughter Aegina. Zeus carried her off, and Asopus went in search of her. He came to Corinth, where Sisyphus knew that Zeus was the ravisher but would not tell Asopus until he was given a spring on the Acrocorinth; Asopus gave it, and Sisyphus told him, for which he is said to be punished in Hades (Pausanias 2.5.1; Apollodorus, Library 1.9.3). Asopus pursued Zeus, but Zeus drove him back to his own streams with thunderbolts, and for this reason, Apollodorus says, coals are still fetched from the river (Apollodorus, Library 3.12.6). Zeus took Aegina to the island then called Oenone, now named after her, and she bore him Aeacus (Apollodorus, Library 3.12.6; Diodorus Siculus 4.72.5; Pausanias 2.29.2). At Olympia the Phliasians dedicated a group showing Zeus seizing Aegina, with her sisters and Asopus himself (Pausanias 5.22.6).

His Descendants

Through his daughters Asopus was the ancestor of many heroes. Aegina was the mother of Aeacus, the grandfather of Peleus and Telamon and the great-grandfather of Achilles and Ajax (Apollodorus, Library 3.12.6). Salamis bore Cychreus, who killed the snake that ravaged the island of Salamis and became its king (Diodorus Siculus 4.72.4; Pausanias 1.35.2). Antiope, with Zeus, was the mother of Amphion and Zethus, the founders of Thebes (Odyssey 11.260–265). One of his sons, Ismenus, settled in Boeotia and gave his name to the river there (Diodorus Siculus 4.72.2).

Asopus Sources

Homer, Odyssey 11.260–265; Herodotus 5.80.1, 6.108, 7.199–200; Apollodorus, Library 1.9.3, 3.12.6; Diodorus Siculus 4.72.1–5; Strabo 9.4.14; Pausanias 1.35.2, 2.5.1–2, 2.6.1, 2.12.4, 2.15.1–3, 2.29.2, 5.22.6, 9.1.1–2, 9.20.1, 9.26.6.

See Also: Oceanus, Tethys, Aegina, Zeus, Aeacus, Sisyphus, Thebe, Antiope, Plataea, Salamis