Greek mythology Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories conc ...

, Eurotas (;

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

: Εὐρώτας) was a king of

Laconia Laconia or Lakonia (, , ) is a historical and Administrative regions of Greece, administrative region of Greece located on the southeastern part of the Peloponnese peninsula. Its administrative capital is Sparti (municipality), Sparta. The word ...

Family

Eurotas was the son of King Myles of Laconia and grandson of Lelex,

eponym An eponym is a noun after which or for which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. Adjectives derived from the word ''eponym'' include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Eponyms are commonly used for time periods, places, innovati ...

ous ancestor of the

Leleges The Leleges (; ) were an aboriginal people of the Aegean Sea, Aegean region, before the Greek people, Greeks arrived. They were distinct from another pre-Hellenic people of the region, the Pelasgians. The exact areas to which they were native are u ...

. The '' Bibliotheca'' gave a slight variant of the mythological generation of Eurotas, who was described as the son of Lelex, born from the ground, by his wife

Cleocharia In Greek mythology, Cleocharia (; Ancient Greek: Κλεοχαρείας ''Kleokhareia'') was a naiad (water nymph) of Laconia who became the queen-consort of King Lelex of Lelegia. She was the ancestor of the Spartan royal family and gave birth t ...

. In some accounts, his mother was called

Taygete In Classical Greek mythology, Taygete , , ) was a nymph, one of the Pleiades according to the '' Bibliotheca'' (3.10.1) and a companion of Artemis, in her archaic role as '' potnia theron'', "Mistress of the animals", with its likely roots in pr ...

instead. Eurotas had no male heir but he did have two daughters

Sparta Sparta was a prominent city-state in Laconia in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (), while the name Sparta referred to its main settlement in the Evrotas Valley, valley of Evrotas (river), Evrotas rive ...

and Tiasa by Clete.

Mythology

Eurotas bequeathed the kingdom to

Lacedaemon Sparta was a prominent city-state in Laconia in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (), while the name Sparta referred to its main settlement in the valley of Evrotas river in Laconia, in southeastern Pe ...

, the son of Zeus and Taygete, after whom Mount

Taygetus The Taygetus, Taugetus, Taygetos or Taÿgetus () is a mountain range on the Peloponnese peninsula in Southern Greece. The highest mountain of the range is Mount Taygetus, also known as "Profitis Ilias", or "Prophet Elias" (Elijah). The name is o ...

was named, according to Pausanias.Pausanias, 3.1.2 This Lacedaemon married his daughter Sparta and renamed the state after his wife. Pausanias says: "It was Eurotas who channelled away the marsh-water from the plains by cutting through to the sea, and when the land was drained he called the river which was left running there the

Eurotas In Greek mythology, Eurotas (; Ancient Greek: Εὐρώτας) was a king of Laconia. Family Eurotas was the son of King Myles of Laconia and grandson of Lelex, eponymous ancestor of the Leleges. The ''Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus), Bibliothe ...

." The "cutting through" is seen by Pausanias’ translator and commentator, Peter Levy, S.J., as an explanation of Eurotas (or Vrodamas) Canyon, a ravine north of Skala where the river has cut through the foothills of Taygetus after changing direction to the west of the valley.

Eurotas in art

River gods are typically represented in Greek art, such as coin motifs, as figures with the bodies of bulls and the faces of humans. If only the face appears, they might wear horns and have wavy hair or be accompanied by fish.

Claudius Aelianus Claudius Aelianus (; ), commonly Aelian (), born at Praeneste, was a Roman author and teacher of rhetoric who flourished under Septimius Severus and probably outlived Elagabalus, who died in 222. He spoke Greek so fluently that he was called "h ...

states that the Eurotas and other rivers are like bulls. on Aelian, ''Variae Historiae'', 2.33.

Notes

References

* Pausanias, ''Description of Greece'' with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918
Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
* Pausanias, ''Graeciae Descriptio.'' ''3 vols''. Leipzig, Teubner. 1903.
Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library
*

Pseudo-Apollodorus The ''Bibliotheca'' (Ancient Greek: ), is a compendium of Greek myths and heroic legends, genealogical tables and histories arranged in three books, generally dated to the first or second century AD. The work is commonly described as having been ...

, ''The Library'' with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921
Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.Greek text available from the same website

External links

* {{Kings of Sparta Mythological kings of Laconia Mythological Laconians Princes in Greek mythology