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In Greek mythology, Selemnus (Ancient Greek: Σέλεμνος, romanized: Sélemnos) is a young shepherd boy turned river god from the Peloponnese in southern Greece. He was traditionally the divine personification of the Selemnos, a river which flows in the region of Achaea, northern Peloponnese. Selemnus is notable for his brief and tragic love story with the nymph Argyra, preserved in the Description of Greece, a travel guide by Pausanias, an ancient Greek traveller of the second century AD.

Family

Traditionally, the 3,000 river-gods, also known as the Potamoi, were said to be the children of the Titans Oceanus and his sister-wife Tethys, although in the Achaean tradition Selemnus having been a mortal originally means he would have had different parents, who are not named in the surviving texts.

Mythology

According to a local Patraean myth, the river Selemnus was originally a mortal man, a young and handsome shepherd who used to feed his flock by the Argyra spring near the town of Argyra. The sea-nymph of that spring, Argyra, fell in love with him and would often visit him and sleep by his side. But as the years passed and Selemnus grew older and less handsome, Argyra ceased to visit him with the same frequency as before. Eventually she stopped coming to him altogether and withdrew to her liquid home.

Selemnus was heartbroken over her desertation. In his despair he wasted away and eventually died of grief. Aphrodite, the goddess of love, pitied the unfortunate man so she turned him into a river which took his name, Selemnos. But even in his new aquatic form he still pined for Argyra and missed her terribly, so Aphrodite further helped him out by wiping out all of his memories of Argyra and his love for her.

For that reason, men and women of Achaea would wash themselves in the waters of the Selemnus in order to rid themselves of their passions. Pausanias, who rarely makes remarks on the legends he relates, comments that if true, this would make the river more valuable to mankind than any wealth.

Culture

Due to the scarcity of preserved historical evidence, it cannot be determined with certainty whether Selemnus was a prominent river-god, as merely one mythological tale concerning him survives, and it focuses on his mortal, pre-fluvial life.

Today the Selemnos is all but dried up, only a narrow torrent remains. The exact location of the ancient town near which the story took place remains unidentified. The legend was probably invented to offer an aetiological explanation for the name of the spring and its unique, magical properties.

Selemnus and Argyra's myth seems to have been modelled on the myth of the river-god Alpheus and the nymph-turned-spring Arethusa, to which it is explicitly compared. The myth also serves as a doublet to the story of Tithonus and Eos, as both feature an immortal goddess who falls in love with a mortal man, but ceases to love and visit him the more he ages and loses his beauty, though Selemnus' fate is a bit less grim in the end.

See also

• Echo
• Rhodopis and Euthynicus
• Arethusa of Ithaca

References

1. Hesiod, Theogony 338
2. Bell 1991, p. 64.
3. Pausanias 7.23.1
4. ^ Brewster 1997, p. 65.
5. Grimal 1987, p. 59.
6. Wright, Rosemary M. "A Dictionary of Classical Mythology: Summary of Transformations". mythandreligion.upatras.gr. University of Patras. Retrieved January 3, 2023.
7. ^ Pausanias 7.23.2
8. Smith 1873, s.v. Argyra.
9. ^ Hard 2004, p. 568.
10. ^ Keightley 1838, p. 453.
11. ^ Hutton 2009, pp. 158–159.
12. ^ March 2014, s.v. Selemnus.
13. Pausanias 7.23.3
14. Brewster 1997, p. 58.
15. Talbert 2000, p. 58.
16. Forbes Irving 1990, p. 306.
17. Forbes Irving 1990, p. 305.
18. Potter 1840, p. 609.
19. Hutton 2010, p. 434.

Bibliography

• Bell, Robert E. (1991). Women of Classical Mythology: A Biographical Dictionary. ABC-Clio. ISBN 9780874365818.
• Brewster, Harry (1997). The River Gods of Greece. London, New York: I.B. Tauris Publishers. ISBN 1-86064-207-1.
• Forbes Irving, Paul M. C. (1990). Metamorphosis in Greek Myths. Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-814730-9.
• Grimal, Pierre (1987). The Dictionary of Classical Mythology. Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-13209-0.
• Hard, Robin (2004). The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H. J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology". Routledge. ISBN 9780415186360.
• Hesiod, Theogony, in The Homeric Hymns and Homerica, with an English translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Hutton, William (2010). "Pausanias and the Mysteries of Hellas". Transactions of the American Philological Association (1974-). 140 (2): 423–459. doi:10.1353/apa.2010.a402239. JSTOR 40890985. Retrieved January 6, 2025.
• Hutton, William (May 20, 2009). "Pausanias the Novelist". In Grammatiki, Karla (ed.). Fiction on the Fringe: Novelistic Writing in the Post-Classical Age. doi:10.1163/ej.9789004175471.i-194.45. ISBN 978-90-04-17547-1.
• Keightley, Thomas (1838). The Mythology of Ancient Greece and Italy (2nd ed.). London, UK: Whittaker and Co.
• March, Jennifer R. (May 31, 2014). Dictionary of Classical Mythology. Oxbow Books. ISBN 978-1-78297-635-6.
• 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.
• Potter, John (1840). James Boyd (ed.). Archaeologia Graeca or the Antiquities of Greece. London, UK: T. Tegg.
• Smith, William (1873). A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. London, UK: John Murray, printed by Spottiswoode and Co. Online version at the Perseus.tufts library.
• Talbert, Richard (2000). Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-03169-9.

External links

• SELEMNUS from the Theoi Project.

v t e Metamorphoses in Greek mythology
Animals	Avian Abas Acanthis Acanthus Acmon Aëdon Aegolius Aegypius Aëtos Aesacus Agrius and Oreius Agron Alcander Alcyone Alcyone and Ceyx Alcyonides Alectryon Anthus Antigone Argus Arne Sithonis Artemiche Ascalaphus Asteria Autonous Botres Bulis Byssa Caeneus Celeus Cerberus Chelidon Cinyras Clinis Combe Corone Ctesylla Cycnus of Aetolia Cycnus of Ares Cycnus of Colonae Cycnus of Liguria Daedalion Erinoma Erodius Eumelus Gerana Harmothoë Harpalyce Harpasus Harpe Hierax Hippodamia Hyperippe Hyria Ictinus Idas Ino Itys Iynx Laius Lelante Lycius Lycus Megaletor Meleagrids Memnonides Meropis Merops Minyades Munichus Neophron Nisus Nyctaea Nyctimene Oenoe Oenotropae Ortygius Pandareus Pelia Perdix Periphas Peristera Picus Pierides Phene Philaeus Philomela Pleiades Polyphonte Polytechnus Procne Rhexenor Schoeneus Scylla Tereus Timandra Non-avian Abas Actaeon Arachne Arcas Arge Aristaeus Ascalabus Atalanta Cadmus Calchus Callisto Cephissus Cerambus Cercopes Chelone Circe Curetes Cynosura Galanthis Gale Harmonia Hecuba Helice Hippomenes Io Lycaon Lycian peasants Lyncus Megisto Melanippe Melian nymphs Melissa Minyades Myia Myrmex Naïs Nerites Ocyrhoe Odysseus Pentheus Phalanx Phineus Phoenice Pompilus Taygete Theophane Tiresias Titanis Tithonus Tyrrhenian pirates Aethalides Alcimedon Dictys Epopeus Melas Medon Opheltes
Base appearance	Achilles Antigone Charybdis Lamia Medusa Midas Mulberry fruit Phaon Scylla Sirens White raven
Humanoids	Arne Calliste Cymodoce Cephalus' wife Galatea Leleges Myrmidons Nephele Spartoi Weasel
Inanimate objects	Aconteus Aglaurus Alcmene Anaxarete Ariadne Arsinoë Aspalis Battus Britomartis Calydon Cercopes Cragaleus Daphnis Iodame Laelaps Lethaea Lyco and Orphe Olenus Pallas Pandareus Phineus Polydectes Proetus Propoetides Pyrrhus Teumessian fox Wolf
Landforms	Achelous Acheron Acis Aea Alope Alpheus Arethusa (Boeotia) Arethusa (Elis) Asteria Atlas Aura Byblis Calliste Castalia Chione Cleite Comaetho Cyane Dirce Haemus Lichas Lilaeus Manto Marsyas Menippe and Metioche Niobe Perimele Pirene Pyramus and Thisbe Rhodope Rhodopis Sangas Selemnus Sybaris
Opposite sex	Caeneus Hermaphroditus Iphis Leucippus Salmacis Siproites Sithon Tiresias
Plants	Adonis Agdistis Ajax Amaracus Ambrosia Ampelus Anethus Attis Baucis and Philemon Calamus Carpus Carya Cissus Clytie Crocus Cyparissus Daphne Diopatra Dryope Elaea Elate Eteocleides Heliades Aegle Dioxippe Lampetia Merope Phaethusa Phoebe Hesperides Aegle Erytheia Hyacinthus Leuce Leucothoe Libanus Lotis Lycurgus Mecon Melos Messapians Milk Minthe Myrice Myrina Myrsine Narcissus Oechalides Philyra Phyllis Picolous Pitys Platanus Psalacantha Saliva Side Smilax Smyrna Spear Syceus Syrinx
Voluntary	Greek gods Kobalos Mestra Periclymenus
Other	Cumaean Sibyl Echo Hyades Hylas Milk of Hera Pleiades
False myths	Acantha Amethyste Orchis Rhodanthe
Metamorphoses

• Metamorphoses into bodies of water in Greek mythology
• Deeds of Aphrodite
• Potamoi
• Mythological Achaeans
• Culture in Patras