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Greek Mythology >> Greek Gods >> Rustic Gods >> River Gods >> Maeander (Maiandros)

MAIANDROS

Greek Name

Μαιανδρος

Transliteration

Maiandros

Latin Spelling

Maeandrus, Maeander

Translation

River Meander

MAIANDROS (Maeander) was a river-god of Karia (Caria) in Anatolia (modern Turkey).

The River Maiandros had its headwaters the highlands of southern Phrygia and, flowing west through Karia, entered the Aegean Sea opposite the town of Miletos (Miletus). The major neighbouring rivers were the Kaystros (Cayster) to the north and the Indos to the south.

PARENTS

[1] OKEANOS & TETHYS (Hesiod Theogony 339, Hyginus Preface)

OFFSPRING

[1] SAMIA (Pausanias 7.4.1)
[2] KYANEE (Ovid Metamorphoses 9.446, Nonnus Dionysiaca 11.449)
[3] KALAMOS (Nonnus Dionysiaca 11.379)
[4] Perhaps SALMAKIS, THE NYMPHAI KARIAI , THE MYKALESSIDES

ENCYCLOPEDIA

MAEANDRUS (Maiandros), a son of Oceanus and Tethys, and the god of the winding river Maeander in Phrygia. He was the father of Cyanea and Canaus, who is hence called Maeandrius. (Hes. Theog. 339; Ov. Met. ix. 450, 473.)

Source: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.

CLASSICAL LITERATURE QUOTES

Hesiod, Theogony 337 ff (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C8th or 7th B.C.) :
"Tethys bore to Okeanos (Oceanus) the swirling Potamoi (Rivers) . . . Strymon and Maiandros (Maeander), Istros (Ister) of the beautiful waters [in a list of rivers]."

Strabo, Geography 12. 8. 19 (trans. Jones) (Greek geographer C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) :
"And they say that lawsuits are brought against the god Maiandros (Maeander) for altering the boundaries of the countries on his banks, that is, when the projecting elbows of land are swept away by him; and that when he is convicted the fines are paid from the tolls collected at the ferries."

Pausanias, Description of Greece 7. 4. 1 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) :
"Ankaios (Ancaeus) [first king of Samos] took to wife Samia, the daughter of the river Maiandros (Maeander)."

Ovid, Metamorphoses 9. 446 ff (trans. Melville) (Roman epic C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) :
"[Miletos (Miletus)] built the battlements that keep their founder's name [i.e. the town of MIletos]; where, as she strolled beside Maeander's winding banks, her father's stream, that turns so often back upon its course, he joined in love a Nympha of beauty rare, Cyanee."

Pseudo-Hyginus, Preface (trans. Grant) (Roman mythographer C2nd A.D.) :
"From Oceanus and Tethys [were born] the Oceanides . . . Of the same descent Rivers : Strymon, Nile, Euphrates, Tanais, Indus, Cephisus, Ismenus, Axenus, Achelous, Simoeis, Inachus, Alpheus, Thermodon, Scamandrus, Tigris, Maeandrus, Orontes."

Propertius, Elegies 2. 34 (trans. Goold) (Roman elegy C1st B.C.) :
"The stream of the Maeandrus (Maeander) wanders deceptively over the Phrygian plain and itself conceals the direction of its flow."

Nonnus, Dionysiaca 11. 379 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic C5th A.D.) :
"His own father called him Kalamos (Calamus) : his father Maiandros (Maeander), lurking in the secret places with his water in the lap of earth--who rolls deep through the earth and drags his crooked stream towards the light, crawling unseen and travelling slantwise underground, until he leaps up quickly and lifts his neck above the ground."

SOURCES

GREEK

ROMAN

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A complete bibliography of the translations quoted on this page.