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Greek Mythology >> Greek Gods >> Rustic Gods >> River Gods >> Enipeus

ENIPEUS

Greek Name

Ενιπευς

Transliteration

Enipeus

Latin Spelling

Enipeus

Translation

River Enipeus

ENIPEUS was a river-god of Thessalia (Thessaly) in northern Greece. The maiden Tyro fell in love with his streams and was impregnated by the god Poseidon as she poured his waters upon her lap.

The Enipeus river was a tributary of the Peneios (Peneus) which flowed north from Mount Oita (Oeta) in Phthiotis through the southern reaches of Thessalia.

PARENTS

Presumably OKEANOS & TETHYS

ENCYCLOPEDIA

ENI′PEUS (Enipeus), a river-god in Thessaly, who was beloved by Tyro, the daughter of Salmoneus. Poseidon, who was in love with her, assumed the appearance of Enipeus, and thus visited her, and she became by him the mother of twins, Pelias and Neleus. (Apollod. i. 9. § 8.) Ovid (Met. vi. 116) relates that Poseidon, having assumed the form of Enipeus, begot by Iphimedeia two sons, Otus and Ephialtes. Another river-god of the same name occurs in Elis, who is likewise connected with the legend about Tyro. (Strab. viii. p. 356.)

Source: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.

CLASSICAL LITERATURE QUOTES

Homer, Odyssey 11. 236 ff (trans. Shewring) (Greek epic C8th B.C.) :
"Tyro, daughter of great Salmoneos (Salmoneus) . . . She fell in love with the river-god Enipeos (Enipeus), whose waters are the most beautiful of any that flow on earth; and she haunted his beguiling streams. But in place of Enipeos, and in his likeness, there came the god [Poseidon] who sustains and who shakes the earth. He lay with her at the mouth of the eddying river, and a surging wave, mountain-high, curled over them and concealed the god and the mortal girl."

Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1. 90 (trans. Aldrich) (Greek mythographer C2nd A.D.) :
"Tyro was the daughter of Salmoneus and Alkidike (Alcidice) . . . She was struck with love for the river Enipeus, to whose stream she would go constantly to lament. Poseidon, taking the form of Enipeus, slept with her."

Strabo, Geography 8. 3. 32 (trans. Jones) (Greek geographer C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) :
"[The town of] Salmone [in Triphylia, Elis] is situated near the spring of that name from which flows the Enipeus River. The river empties into the Alpheios (Alpheus), and is now called the Barnikhios (Barnichius). It is said that Tyro fell in love with Enipeus : ‘She loved a river, the divine Enipeus.’ For there [in southern Elis], it is said, her father Salmoneus reigned, just as Euripides also says in his Aiolos. Some write the name of the river in Thessalia (Thessaly) ‘Eniseus’; it flows from Mount Othrys, and receives the Apidanos, which flows down out of Pharsalos."

Philostratus the Elder, Imagines 2. 8 (trans. Fairbanks) (Greek rhetorician C3rd A.D.) :
"The story of Enipeus and of Tyro's love for the river has been told by Homer, and he tells of Poseidon's deception of her and of the splendid colour of the cave beneath which was their couch."

Propertius, Elegies 1. 13 (trans. Goold) (Roman elegy C1st B.C.) :
"The god of Taenarum [Poseidon], in the disguise of Haemonian Enipeus, embrace Salmoneus' child [Tyro], the willing victim of his love."

Propertius, Elegies 3. 19 :
"Salmoneus' daughter [Tyro], who, afire for Thessalian Enipeus, was ready to yield totally to the watery god."

Nonnus, Dionysiaca 1. 118 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic C5th A.D.) :
"Do bulls also go mad with love, and ravish women? Has Poseidon played a trick, and ravished a girl under the shape of a horned bull like a river-god? Has he woven another plot to follow the bedding of Tyro, just as he did the other day, when the watery paramour came trickling up with counterfeit ripples like a bastard Enipeus?"

Nonnus, Dionysiaca 42. 118 ff :
"You know the love of Thessalian Tyro and her wedding in the waters; then you too take care of the crafty flood, lest the deceiver loose your girdle just as the wedding-thief Enipeus did. O that I also might become a flood, like Earthshaker [Poseidon], and murmuring might embrace my own Tyro of Lebanon, thirsty and careless beside the lovestricken spring!"

SOURCES

GREEK

ROMAN

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A complete bibliography of the translations quoted on this page.