Cephissus was a son of
Pontus and
Thalassa.[1] The daughters of Cephissus were (1) the
naiadLilaea, the eponym of Lilaea,[2] (2)
Daulis, the eponym of the city of
Daulis[3] and (3)
Melaeno mother of
Delphus by
Apollo, though he also gives two other accounts of Delphus' mother.[4] However, one of these alternate versions is that
Thyia daughter of the aboriginal
Castalius was Delphus' mother, almost certainly the same Thyia whom
Herodotus claims was daughter of Cephissus to whom the Delphians built an altar to the winds and who was eponym of the
Thyiades.[5]
A mortal son of Cephissus was
Eteocles by
Euippe, daughter of
Leucon, son of
Athamas. This Euippe later on became the wife of King
Andreus of
Orchomenus and Eteocles inherited Andreus' throne.[6] Eteocles or Eteoclus, son of Cephissus, was confirmed from
Hesiod's and Pindar's accounts.[7] He was the first made offering to the
Charites by the side of the river Cephissus.
This Cephisus may also be the Argive river-god of the same name who together with two other river-gods,
Inachus and
Asterion, judged that the land of Argolis to be belonged to Hera instead of Poseidon. Thus, the sea god made their waters disappear and for this reason neither of the three rivers provide water to the land except after rain.[10] In an obscure myth, Cephissus greatly lamented his grandson being turned into a seal by Apollo.[11]
Pindar, The Odes of Pindar including the Principal Fragments with an Introduction and an English Translation by Sir John Sandys, Litt.D., FBA. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1937.
Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
Stephanus of Byzantium, Stephani Byzantii Ethnicorum quae supersunt, edited by August Meineike (1790-1870), published 1849. A few entries from this important ancient handbook of place names have been translated by Brady Kiesling.
Online version at the Topos Text Project.