Cephissus

Cephissus (Kephissos) was the name of several river gods in Greek mythology, each the spirit of a river that bore the name. The best known is the Cephissus of Phocis and Boeotia, which Homer places by Lilaea, and which the Greeks made the father of the Orchomenian king Eteocles, of Narcissus and of several nymphs (Homer, Iliad 2.522–523; Pausanias 9.34.9).

The Rivers Called Cephissus

Greek writers name more than one river Cephissus, and the stories told of the god depend on which river is meant.

• The river of Phocis and Boeotia rises at Lilaea in Phocis, runs past Panopeus and Orchomenus, and flows into Lake Copais. Homer already names it, with Lilaea “by the springs of Cephisus” (Iliad 2.522–523); Pausanias (9.24.1) and Strabo (9.2.19) describe its course. Pindar calls the Graces of Orchomenus the dwellers by the waters of Cephissus (Olympian 14.1–4).
• The river of Attica rises at Trinemeis and flows through the plain between Athens and the Piraeus (Strabo 9.1.24). Pausanias passes it on the Sacred Way and records a votive statue of a boy cutting his hair as a gift for the river (Pausanias 1.37.3). In Euripides’ Medea (835–837) the Athenian chorus sings of Aphrodite drawing water from its streams.
• Pausanias also knows a second, more violent Cephissus at Eleusis, near the place called Erineus (1.38.5), and an Argive Cephissus with a sanctuary at Argos (2.20.6).

Family of Cephissus

No ancient source names the parents of Cephissus. Hesiod lists the rivers that Tethys bore to Ocean (Theogony 337–370) but does not name Cephissus among them, and says it is hard for a mortal to name them all (Theogony 369).

A Cephissus is the father of Diogenia, whose daughter Praxithea married Erechtheus of Athens (Apollodorus, Library 3.15.1).

Children of Cephissus

Narcissus

In Ovid’s account the river Cephisus embraced the nymph Liriope in his winding stream and, holding her shut in his waters, took her by force; she bore Narcissus, whose fate the seer Tiresias foretold (Ovid, Metamorphoses 3.342–350). Ovid calls the boy “Cephisius” (Metamorphoses 3.351).

Eteocles of Orchomenus

The people of Orchomenus said that Eteocles, who became king there, was the son of the river Cephisus, so that some poets called him Cephisiades. He divided the people into two tribes, one named Cephisias after the river and the other after himself, and he gave land to Almus, son of Sisyphus (Pausanias 9.34.9–10). He was the first to sacrifice to the Graces, and the Boeotians credited him with fixing their number at three (Pausanias 9.35.1).

Lilaea, Daulis and Melaena

Three nymphs of Phocis are called daughters of the Cephissus. Lilaea was a Naiad who gave her name to the city at the river’s source (Pausanias 10.33.4); Daulis gave her name to the city of Daulis (Pausanias 10.4.7); and Melaena is named by some as the mother of Delphus by Apollo, though others make Thyia his mother (Pausanias 10.6.4). Herodotus mentions a precinct of Thyia, daughter of Cephisus, at Delphi, where the Delphians sacrificed to the winds (Herodotus 7.178.2).

Cult and Other Stories

Pausanias reports that the Cephissus, the Inachus and the Asterion judged the dispute between Poseidon and Hera over the land of Argos and decided for Hera; Poseidon in anger dried up their streams, and the Argive Cephissus is said to be heard flowing under the earth beside its sanctuary (Pausanias 2.15.5, 2.20.6). At Oropus the Cephissus shared an altar with the Nymphs, Pan and the river Achelous (Pausanias 1.34.3).

The poet Alcaeus said that the water of the Castalian spring at Delphi was a gift of the river Cephissus. Pausanias supports this with a custom of the Lilaeans, who on set days threw local cakes and other offerings into the spring of the Cephissus, and these were said to reappear in the Castalian spring (Pausanias 10.8.10). In Ovid’s story of the flood, Deucalion and Pyrrha go to the Cephisus and sprinkle themselves and their clothes with its water before they pray at the temple of Themis (Metamorphoses 1.367–372).

Cephissus Sources

Homer, Iliad 2.522–523; Hesiod, Theogony 337–370; Pindar, Olympian 14.1–4; Euripides, Medea 835–837; Herodotus 7.178.2; Apollodorus, Library 3.15.1; Strabo 9.1.24, 9.2.19; Ovid, Metamorphoses 1.367–372, 3.342–351; Pausanias 1.34.3, 1.37.3, 1.38.5, 2.15.5, 2.20.6, 9.24.1, 9.34.9–10, 9.35.1, 10.4.7, 10.6.4, 10.8.10, 10.33.4.

See Also: Narcissus, Eteocles, Orchomenus, Graces, Oceanus, Tethys, Delphi