RHESOS

RHESOS was a river-god of the Troad in northern Mysia, Anatolia (modern Turkey).

The River Rhesos was probably a tributary of the Skamandros (Scamander). Its headwaters were located on the slopes of Mount Ida.

PARENTS

OKEANOS & TETHYS (Hesiod Theogony 340)

ENCYCLOPEDIA

RHESUS (Rhêsos). A river-god in Bithynia, one of the sons of Oceanus and Thetys. (Hes. Theog. 340; Hom. Il. xii. 21; comp. Strab. xiii. p. 590.)

Source: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.

CLASSICAL LITERATURE QUOTES

Homer, Iliad 12. 18 ff (trans. Lattimore) (Greek epic C8th B.C.) :
"[After the Greeks had departed from Troy :] Poseidon and Apollon took counsel to wreck the wall [of the Greeks], letting loose the strenght of rivers upon it, all the rivers that run to the sea from the mountains of Ida, Rhesos (Rhesus) and Heptaporos, Karesos (Caresus) and Rhodios, Grenikos (Granicus) and Aisepos (Aesepus), and immortal Skamandros (Scamander) and Simoeis . . . Phoibos (Phoebus) Apollon turned the mouths of these waters together and nine days long threw the flood against the wall, and Zeus rained incessantly, to break the wall faster and wash it seaward. And the shaker of the earth himself holding in his hands the trident guided them, and hurled into the waves all the bastions' strengthening of logs and stones . . . and turned the rivers again to make their way down the same channel where before they had run the bright stream of their water."

Hesiod, Theogony 337 ff (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C8th or 7th B.C.) :
"Tethys bore to Okeanos (Oceanus) the swirling Potamoi (Rivers), Neilos (the Nile) . . . Phasis and Rhesos (Rhesus) and silver-swirling Akheloios (Achelous), Nessos and Rhodios, Heptaporos and Haliakmon (Haliacmon), Grenikos (Granicus) and Aisepos (Aesepus), and Simoeis [in a list of rivers]."

SOURCES

GREEK

• Homer, The Iliad - Greek Epic C8th B.C.
• Hesiod, Theogony - Greek Epic C8th - 7th B.C.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A complete bibliography of the translations quoted on this page.