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CAMERON G. PEARSON

University of Warsaw

The major river in southern Boeotia that flows from below Mt. CITHAERON eastward into the southern Euboean Gulf (Müller I, 455–56; RIVERS of the same name are found in TRACHIS, THESSALY, the PELOPONNESE, and PHRYGIA). In Greek mythology, Asopus had many daughters (Bowra 1938), including AEGINA and THEBE, who are the answer to a typically enigmatic oracle which tells the Thebans to ask “their nearest” for aid (5.80). Because the nymphs connect their eponymous CITIES genealogically, THEBES asks AEGINA for support in fighting ATHENS. There are many varying traditions (e.g., Hom. Od. 11.260–65), and the Peloponnesian Asopus and Boeotian Asopus vie for the same offspring (Bacchyl. 9.39–56; Paus. 2.5.2). Herodotus generally seems to agree with PINDAR that by ZEUS, Aegina bore AEACUS, who begets PELEUS and TELAMON, the respective fathers of Achilles and AJAX (Pind. Pyth. 8.98–100, Isthm. 8.16–20; Hdt. 6.35.1). At 9.51.2 OËROË, a tributary of Asopus, is also his daughter (as in Paus. 9.4.4). Herodotus tells us that the Asopus is the border between Plataean and Hysiaean territory and that of Thebes (6.108). It is also frequently mentioned in the topography of the Battle of PLATAEA in Book 9. (For the river in inscriptions see CEG 114 = SEG 41‐53 and Matthaiou 2014, 218.)

SEE ALSO: Boeotians; Myth; Oracles