Ladon (river)

Course

The Ladon rises on the western slope of the Aroania mountain, near the village Kastriá, Kleitoria municipal unit, Achaea. It flows south, receives its left tributary Aroanios, flows along Kleitoria and turns southwest near the Arcadian border. It flows through the artificial Ladon Lake, and turns south again near Dimitra. It flows into the Alfeios 3 km southeast of the village Tripotamia. It joins the Tragus near Zevgolatio.

Mythology

The river was among those mentioned by Hesiod in Theogony; they were "all sons of Oceanus and queenly Tethys" for, according to the image of world hydrography common to the ancients, the fresh water that welled up in springs came from the underworld caverns and pools, and was connected with the salt sea. Rain fertilized crops, but the sense that its runoff filled the rivers did not figure in the Greek mythic picture.

Rivers were personified and credited with wooing nymphs and human maidens and fathering children. By Stymphalis, Ladon became the father of the Arcadian nymph Metope who wed another river god, Asopus. The naiad Daphne, who rejected Apollo’s advances, was the daughter of Ladon and Ge (Earth). The river god’s other progeny were the naiads Telphusa and Syrinx

Rivers have cleansing effects in Greek mythology. When Poseidon assaulted Demeter, she washed away the insult in the waters of the River Ladon. Apparently this was the source of the Arcadian expression that to "giv[e] way to anger is to be furious."

References

References

1. [http://www.statistics.gr/documents/20181/1515741/GreeceInFigures_2018Q1_EN.pdf/e90e9c60-ed92-40a7-a1e0-9a58d542d596 Greece in Figures January - March 2018], p. 12
2. "Mythography | the River Gods in Greek Myth and Art".
3. [[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hes.+Th.+337&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0130:boo=0:chapter=0&highlight=Ladon 344] & [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hes.+Th.+337 366–370]
4. [[Scholia]]st ad [[Pindar]], ''Olympian Ode'' [https://archive.org/details/scholiaveterain00dracgoog/page/184/mode/1up?view=theater 6.144]
5. [[Diodorus Siculus]], [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/4D*.html#72.1 4.72.1]; [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)
6. [[Pausanias (geographer). Philostrarus]], ''[[Life of Apollonius of Tyana]]'' [https://topostext.org/work/223#1.16 1.16]; [[Statius]], ''[[Thebaid (Latin poem). Thebaid]]'' [https://topostext.org/work/149#4.824 4.289]; [[Nonnus]], [https://topostext.org/work/529#42.365 42.386]
7. [[John Tzetzes. Tzetzes]] ad [[Lycophron]], [https://topostext.org/work/860#6 6]; [[Vatican Mythographer. First Vatican Mythographer]] 2.216
8. [[Pausanias (geographer). Pausanias]], 8.52.2; Tzetzes ad Lycophron, [https://topostext.org/work/860#1040 1040]
9. [[Ovid]], ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' 1.689
10. Pausanias, active approximately c. 160-180 BCE. (1984). "Guide to Greece, volume 2 : Southern Greece". Penguin.