Meander (mythology)

Not to be confused with Menander.

"Maiandros" redirects here. For the town of ancient Ionia, see Maiandros (Ionia).

Meander, Maeander, Mæander or Maiandros (Ancient Greek: Μαίανδρος) was a river god in Greek mythology, patron deity of the Meander river (modern Büyük Menderes River) in Caria, southern Asia Minor (modern Turkey).

He was one of the sons of the Titans Oceanus and his sister/wife (incest) Tethys. Meander was the father of Cyanee, Samia (wife of Ancaeus, who begat Perilaus, Enudus, Samus, Alitherses and a daughter Parthenope), Kalamos and Callirhoe.

Mythology

In a story told by Pseudo-Plutarch, Maeander waged war against the Pessinuntines and vowed to the Mother of the Gods that on obtaining victory, he would sacrifice "the first that came to congratulate him for his good success". As it happened, the first people who greeted him on his return were his mother, his son, and his sister. He fulfilled his vow, but was so grief-stricken that he cast himself into the river, and thus the river Maeander got its name. Parallels to this myth are found in Idomeneus and Jephthah.

References

• Hesiod, Theogony from 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. Greek text available from the same website.
• Nonnus of Panopolis, Dionysiaca translated by William Henry Denham Rouse (1863-1950), from the Loeb Classical Library, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 1940. Online version at the Topos Text Project.
• Nonnus of Panopolis, Dionysiaca. 3 Vols. W.H.D. Rouse. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1940–1942. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
• 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.
• Publius Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoses translated by Brookes More (1859-1942). Boston, Cornhill Publishing Co. 1922. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Publius Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoses. Hugo Magnus. Gotha (Germany). Friedr. Andr. Perthes. 1892. Latin 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.