Spercheios

Coordinates: 38°51′50″N 22°34′35″E

The Spercheios (Greek: Σπερχειός, Sperkheiós), also known

as the Spercheus from its Latin name, is a river in Phthiotis
Spercheios
in central Greece. It is 80 km (50 mi) long,[1] and its drainage
area is 1,830 km2 (710 sq mi).[2] It was worshipped as a god in
the ancient Greek religion and appears in some collections of
Greek mythology. In antiquity, its upper valley was known as
Ainis. In AD 997, its valley was the site of the Battle of
Spercheios, which ended Bulgarian incursions into the
Byzantine Empire.

It is referenced in a surviving fragment of Aeschylus' play

The river Spercheios at Vitoli,
Philoctetes, quoted in The Frogs, as a place for cattle.[3]
Makrakomi

River Location
Country Greece
The river begins in the Tymfristos mountains on the border Physical characteristics
with Evrytania and flows to the east through the village Agios Source
Georgios Tymfristou, entering a wide plain. It flows along the
• location Tymfristos
towns Makrakomi and Leianokladi, and south of the
Phthiotidan capital Lamia. The river flows through an area of Mouth
former wetlands, that have been reclaimed for agriculture. It • location Malian Gulf, Aegean
empties into the Malian Gulf of the Aegean Sea 13 kilometers Sea
(8 mi) southeast of Lamia. In antiquity, the mouth of the river • coordinates 38°51′50″N 22°34′35″E
was the site of Antikyra, which was famed for its black and Length 80 km (50 mi)
white hellebore. Basin size 1,830 km2 (710 sq mi)
Several studies have been conducted regarding the river's
hydrological regime.[4] Its silt has slowly filled the Malian Gulf, turning Thermopylae from a narrow
pass into a wide plain.

God
Homer's Iliad names the river as the father (by Achilles's half-sister Polydora) of Menesthius, one of
Achilles's lieutenants. Antoninus Liberalis notes the tradition that Cerambus was punished for
claiming that the nymphs of Mount Othrys, the Spercheides, were the daughters of Spercheios by the
naiad Deino. Antoninus Liberalis also relates the account that Spercheios and Polydora's son was
Dryops, king of Oeta, who fathered Dryope.[5]

References

Citations
1. Greece in Figures January - March 2018 (http://www.statistics.gr/documents/20181/1515741/Gree
ceInFigures_2018Q1_EN.pdf/e90e9c60-ed92-40a7-a1e0-9a58d542d596), p. 12
2. "Preliminary Flood Risk Assessment" (https://web.archive.org/web/20200215192049/http://www.yp
eka.gr/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=T4DDG1hqQMY%3D&tabid=252&language=el-GR) (in Greek).
Ministry of Environment, Energy and Climate Change. p. 61. Archived from the original (http://ww
w.ypeka.gr/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=T4DDG1hqQMY%3D&tabid=252&language=el-GR) on 15
February 2020.
3. Aristophanes. The Frogs.
4. 1 (http://paparrizos.blogspot.de/p/blog-page.html).
5. Antoninus Liberalis, Metamorphoses, 32

Bibliography
Béquignon, Yves (1937). La vallée du Spercheios des origines au IVe siècle. Études d'archéologie
et de topographie (http://cefael.efa.gr/detail.php?site_id=1&actionID=page&serie_id=BefarA&volu
me_number=144&issue_number=0) (in French). Paris: De Boccard.

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