The Pineiós (, ) is a

river A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside Subterranean river, caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of ...

Peloponnese The Peloponnese ( ), Peloponnesus ( ; , ) or Morea (; ) is a peninsula and geographic region in Southern Greece, and the southernmost region of the Balkans. It is connected to the central part of the country by the Isthmus of Corinth land bridg ...

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

. It is probably not named after the god

Peneus In Greek mythology, Peneus (; Greek: Πηνειός) was a Thessalian river god, one of the three thousand Rivers, a child of Oceanus and Tethys. Family The nymph Creusa bore him one son, Hypseus, who was King of the Lapiths, and three ...

. It is long.Greece in Figures January - March 2018
p. 12 Its source is on the southwestern slope of the mountain Erymanthus, near the village Kryovrysi. It empties into a bay of the

Ionian Sea The Ionian Sea (, ; or , ; , ) is an elongated bay of the Mediterranean Sea. It is connected to the Adriatic Sea to the north, and is bounded by Southern Italy, including Basilicata, Calabria, Sicily, and the Salento peninsula to the west, ...

, southwest of Gastouni. For a part of its upper course, it forms the border between Elis and

Achaea Achaea () or Achaia (), sometimes transliterated from Greek language, Greek as Akhaia (, ''Akhaḯa'', ), is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the modern regions of Greece, region of Western Greece and is situated in the northwest ...

. The river flows through the plain of Elis. The river passes through the following villages: * Kryovrysi * Agia Triada * Kalfas * Kentro * Kalyvia Ilidos * Agia Mavra * Kavasila * Vartholomio

History

In the 1960s, the government began building an earth-shaped dam named the ''Peneus Dam'' (Φράγμα Πηνειού ''Fragma Pineiou'') to supply water for the north and much of Elis. The dam is considered the highest dam in Elis. In

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 ...

, the Peneus and Alpheus were two rivers re-routed by

Heracles Heracles ( ; ), born Alcaeus (, ''Alkaios'') or Alcides (, ''Alkeidēs''), was a Divinity, divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of ZeusApollodorus1.9.16/ref> and Alcmene, and the foster son of Amphitryon.By his adoptive descent through ...

in his fifth labour in order to clean the filth from the Augean Stables in a single day, a task which had been presumed to be impossible.

References

Landforms of Elis Rivers of Greece Rivers of Western Greece Landforms of Achaea Drainage basins of the Ionian Sea {{Greece-river-stub