Callirrhoe in the ancient sources

Ancient Sources / Figures / Callirrhoe

7 passages from 5 ancient authors that tell of Callirrhoe, in the original with English translation, author by author in the order the Greeks read them. In Greek mythology, Callirrhoe was the name attributed to seven different characters. One of them was an Oceanid or a Naiad, daughter of Oceanus and ... For the story in one place, read our article on Callirrhoe.

Hesiod (1)

Hesiod, Theogony 960–1022Goddesses and mortal men; the end of the poem (960-1022)The Muses are asked to sing of the goddesses who lay with mortal men. Demeter bears Plutus to Iasion, Harmonia bears Ino, Semele, Agave, Autonoe and Polydorus to Cadmus, and Callirrhoe bears Geryon. The list continues with Eos and Tithonus, Aphrodite and Anchises, Thetis and Peleus, and ends with Circe and Calypso bearing sons to Odysseus before the poet turns to the company of women.

Apollodorus (1)

Apollodorus, The Library (Bibliotheca), with the Epitome 3.7.1–7Creon, Antigone, the Epigoni and AlcmaeonCreon takes the kingdom and forbids the burial of the Argive dead; Antigone buries Polynices and is entombed alive, and Theseus's Athenians recover the dead for Adrastus. Ten years later the sons of the fallen, the Epigoni, take Thebes under Alcmaeon, and the Thebans flee after Tiresias's death. Alcmaeon kills his mother Eriphyle, is driven mad, marries Arsinoe and Callirrhoe, and is killed over Harmonia's necklace and robe; his sons by Callirrhoe avenge him and colonize Acarnania.

Ovid (1)

Ovid, Metamorphoses 9.413–571Byblis and CaunusThemis' prophecy ends, and Byblis, a girl of Miletus, falls in love with her twin brother Caunus, and at first tries to deceive herself that it is only sisterly love. She dreams of him, and debates with herself whether she should write to him, and in the end writes a letter confessing her love. As she gives the tablets to a servant, they slip from her hands and fall.

Pausanias (2)

Pausanias, Description of Greece 7.21.1–14Patrae: Coresus and Callirhoe, the harbour sanctuaries and the mirror oraclePausanias tells the story of Coresus, priest of Dionysus at Calydon, whose love for Callirhoe led Dionysus to madden the Calydonians until Coresus sacrificed Callirhoe or someone who would die for her. Coresus killed himself instead of the girl, and Callirhoe then killed herself at the spring that bears her name. He lists the sanctuaries of Patrae: the precinct of the three Dionysus images, the sanctuary of Safety, Poseidon Hippius, Aphrodite, Ares, Apollo and Demeter. Beside Demeter's spring the sick consult a mirror let down on a cord, and there are also two sanctuaries of Serapis and one of Aesculapius.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 8.24.1–14Psophis: the tomb of Alcmaeon and the necklace of EriphylePausanias gives rival accounts of the founder of Psophis, and says she was really a daughter of Eryx of Sicily whose sons by Hercules renamed the city Phegia after her. He describes the rivers Aroanius and Erymanthus, the boar of Hercules, the sanctuary of Aphrodite Erycina and the shrines of Promachus and Echephron. Alcmaeon is buried there under sacred cypresses, after fleeing for killing his mother and being killed by the sons of Phegeus. He ends with a temple of Erymanthus and the story of Aglaus, said never to have known misfortune.

Nonnus of Panopolis (2)

Nonnus of Panopolis, Dionysiaca 40.298–365Book 40: Dionysos in Tyre, the city of CadmosTravelling through Assyria, Dionysos admires the woven and purple-dyed stuffs of the region and comes to Tyre, the country of Cadmos. He sees the palace, the chamber from which Europa was carried off, and the ancient fountains of Abarbarea, Callirhoe and Drosera that spring up in the earth.
Nonnus of Panopolis, Dionysiaca 40.493–580Book 40: The first ship and the founding of Tyre; the nymphs and ErosHeracles tells how the earthborn sacrificed the eagle of the olive on the wandering rocks, which then became fixed, and built Tyre on both. He then explains that Eros, by his shafts, made the fountain-nymphs the brides of the earthborn, from whom Dionysos' family descends. Dionysos accepts a starry robe from Heracles, gives him a golden mixing-bowl and moves on to another part of Assyria.