Asopus (/əˈsoʊpəs/;Ancient Greek:Ἀ̄σωπόςĀsōpos) is the name of four differentrivers inGreece and one inTurkey. InGreek mythology, it was also the name of thegods of those rivers.Zeus carried offAegina, Asopus' daughter, andSisyphus, who had witnessed the act, told Asopus that he could reveal the identity of the person who had abducted Aegina, but in return Asopus would have to provide a perennial fountain of water at Corinth, Sisyphus' city. Accordingly, Asopus produced a fountain at Corinth, and pursued Zeus, but had to retreat for fear of Zeus' terriblethunderbolt.
As mythological entities, the Boeotian river Asopus and the Phliasian river Asopus are much confounded. They are duplicated a second time as supposed mortal kings who gave their names to the corresponding rivers. Indeed, logically, since the children fathered by gods on various daughters of either Boeotian or Phliasian Asopus were mortal in these tales, then the daughters themselves must have been mortal, and therefore either the mother of these daughters (often given asMetope daughter of riverLadon) or their father Asopus must have been mortal, or both of them.
TheBibliotheca[5] informs that the river Asopus was a son ofOceanus andTethys or, according toAcusilaus, ofPoseidon byPero (otherwise unknown to us), or according to yet others ofZeus byEurynome; it is uncertain whether he knows there is more than one river named Asopus.
Pausanias[6] writes that during the reign ofAras, the first earth-born king of Sicyonian land, Asopus, said to be son of Poseidon byCelusa (this Celusa otherwise unknown but possibly identical to Pero mentioned above), discovered for him the river called Asopus and gave it his name.Diodorus Siculus[7] similarly presents Asopus (here son of Oceanus and Tethys) as a settler inPhlius and husband of Metope daughter ofLadon, presumably here and elsewhere the Arcadian river Ladon.
Pausanias[8] mentions his daughterNemea, eponym for the region of the same name (possibly the mother ofArchemorus inAeschylus' lost playNemea). Pausanias[9] and Diodorus Siculus[10] also mention a daughterHarpina and state that according to the traditions of theEleans and Phliasians, Ares lay with her in the city ofPisa and they had a son,Oenomaus, who Pausanias[11] says founded the city of Harpina named after her, not far from the river Harpinates.
TheBibliotheca[12] refers toIsmene daughter of Asopus who was wife ofArgus Panoptes to whom she boreIasus, the father ofIo.
We find first inPindar's odes[13] the sisters,Aegina andThebe, here the youngest daughters of Boeotian Asopus by Metope who came fromStymphalia inArcadia. Both are abducted by the god Zeus, one carried to the island ofOenone later to be namedAegina and the other toDirce's water to be queen there.
Corinna, Pindar's contemporary, in a damaged fragment, mentions nine daughters of Boeotian Asopus:Aegina,Thebe, andPlataea abducted by Zeus;Corcyra,Salamis, andEuboea abducted byPoseidon;Sinope andThespia (who has been dealt with above) abducted byApollo; andTanagra abducted byHermes. Asopus cannot discover what has become of them until the seer Acraephen (otherwise unknown) tells him that the godsEros andAphrodite persuaded the four gods to come secretly to his house and steal his nine daughters. He advises Asopus to yield to the immortals and cease grieving since he is father-in-law to gods. This hints that perhaps, for Corinna, Asopus himself is not a god. Asopus accepts Acraephen's advice.
Of these daughters, Thebe, Plataea, Thespia and Tanagra are properly Boeotian. Euboea is near Boeotia, but Salamis and Aegina are regions that would perhaps associate better with the Phliasian Asopus. Korkyra (Corfu) is definitely Corinthian rather than Boeotian. Sinope is surely the colony of Sinope on the Black Sea (founded from Miletus).
It is notable that tradition as it comes down to us does not record any children resulting from a union of gods with Thebe, Plataea, Thespia or Tanagra and only Diodorus[14] mentions the otherwise unknown sonsPhaiax, son of Poseidon by Corcyra, andSyrus sprung from Apollo by Sinope and that this child of Sinope is opposed by a conflicting tradition thatSinope tricked Zeus, Apollo andHalys and remained a virgin.
Later texts mostly indicate Zeus' abduction of Aegina, presented as a solitary abduction. Asopus is often clearly the Phliasian Asopus (so indicated byPherecydes) but not always so. Asopus chases after Zeus and his daughter until Zeus turns upon him and strikes him with a thunderbolt, whence ever after Asopus is lame and flows very slowly, a feature ascribed to both the Boeotian and Phliasian Asopus. In these tales Asopus discovers the truth about the abduction fromSisyphus, King ofCorinth in return for creating a spring on theCorinthianAcropolis. This spring, according to Pausanias[15] was behind the temple ofAphrodite and people said its water was the same as that of the springPeirene, the water in the city flowing from it underground.
Diodorus Siculus[14] who, as mentioned, places his Asopus in Phlius, gives him twelve daughters. Diodorus' list omits the Plataea and Boeotia included by Corinna's list of nine daughters. But it introducesChalcis which was the chief city of Boeotia and may represent Boeotia. To make up the twelve Diodorus' list also addsPeirene (the famous spring in Corinth),Cleone (possible eponym of the small city of Cleonae on the road from Corinth toArgos according to Pausanias),[16]Ornia (possible eponym of the small town ofOrneai south ofPhlius), andAsopis. ButAsopis may meanAsopian and be an epithet for one of the other known daughters.Ovid in his poemMetamorphoses[17] twice calls Aegina by the nameAsopis. Indeed, in his very next section Diodorus discusses Asopus' daughterHarpina who has been discussed above.
Apollodorus[18] claims Asopus had twenty daughters but he does not provide a list.
Pausanias[19] mentions three supposed daughters of Phliasian Asopus named Corcyra, Aegina, and Thebe according to the Phliasians and notes additionally that the Thebans insist that this Thebe was daughter of the Boeotian Asopus. He mentions no dispute about the others which suggests that in his time the assignment of Aegina to the Phliasian Asopus was generally admitted.
Pausanias[9] also describes a group sculpture in the sanctuary ofHippodamia atOlympia donated by the Phliasians. It included Nemea, Zeus seizing Aegina,Harpina, Corcyra, Thebe, and Asopus himself. It seems the Phliasians were insistent that Thebe belonged to their Asopus.
According toPherecydes, Asopus also fatheredPhilyra who became the mother ofHypseus byPeneus.[20] In some sources,Pronoe who was the mother ofPhocus byPoseidon was a daughter of Asopus.[21]
Both Apollodrus and Diodorus also mention two sons of Asopus, the first namedIsmenus and the second namedPelagon (by Apollodorus) orPelasgus (by Diodorus). Nothing else has survived about this Pelagon. Of Ismenus, Diodorus states only that he emigrated to Boeotia and settled near the Boeotian river, which was afterwards named Ismenus from his name. Another son, Hypseus who fought in the war of theSeven against Thebes was killed byCapaneus.[22]
| Relation | Names | Sources | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (Sch) on Hom. | Acu. | Cori. | (Sch.) on Pin. | (Sch.) on Bacc. | Herod. | Apollon. | Dio. | Stat. | Apollod. | Pau. | Hyg. | Anto. | Non. | ||
| Parentage | Poseidon and Pero | ✓ | ✓ | ||||||||||||
| Oceanus and Tethys | ✓ | ✓ | |||||||||||||
| Zeus and Eurynome | ✓ | ||||||||||||||
| Poseidon and Celusa | ✓ | ||||||||||||||
| Wife | Metope | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||||||||||
| Children | Antiope | ✓ | |||||||||||||
| Pronoe | ✓ | ||||||||||||||
| Aegina | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||||
| Euboea | ✓ | ||||||||||||||
| Corcyra | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||||||||
| Plataea | ✓ | ✓ | |||||||||||||
| Salamis | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||||||||||
| Sinope | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||||||||||
| Tanagra | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||||||||||||
| Thebe | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||||||||
| Thespia | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||||||||||||
| Cleone | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||||||||||
| Harpina | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||||||||||
| Nemea | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||||||||||||
| Philyra | ✓ | ||||||||||||||
| Peirene | ✓ | ✓ | |||||||||||||
| Oeroe | ✓ | ✓ | |||||||||||||
| Ismenus | ✓ | ✓ | |||||||||||||
| Chalcis | ✓ | ||||||||||||||
| Asopis | ✓ | ||||||||||||||
| Ornia / Oenia | ✓ | ||||||||||||||
| Pelasgus | ✓ | ||||||||||||||
| Hypseus | ✓ | ||||||||||||||
| Pelegon | ✓ | ||||||||||||||
| Ismene | ✓ | ||||||||||||||
| Number of daughters mentioned | 1 | - | 9 | 7 | 8 | 3 | 2 | 13 | 1 | 3 + 17 others | 11 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
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