Callirrhoe

Callirrhoe (“Beautiful Flow”) is the name of several figures in Greek mythology, most of them connected with water. The most important are the Oceanid Callirrhoe, mother of the giant Geryon, and Callirrhoe, the daughter of the river god Achelous, who was the second wife of Alcmaeon.

Callirrhoe the Oceanid

This Callirrhoe was a daughter of Oceanus. Hesiod includes her among the Oceanids, the daughters of Oceanus and Tethys (Theogony 351), and in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter she is one of the companions who were playing with Persephone in the meadow when the girl was abducted (Hymn to Demeter 417–423). By Chrysaor, the son of Poseidon and Medusa, she had a son, the three-headed Geryon, “the strongest of all men”, who lived on the island of Erytheia and was killed there by Heracles when he came for his cattle (Hesiod, Theogony 287–294, 979–983). Apollodorus likewise says that Geryon was the son of Chrysaor and Callirrhoe, a daughter of Ocean, and that he had the body of three men grown together at the waist and separate from the flanks and thighs (Library 2.5.10).

Callirrhoe, Daughter of Achelous

Another Callirrhoe was a daughter of the river god Achelous. According to Apollodorus, Alcmaeon killed his mother Eriphyle on the order of an oracle of Apollo, and was visited by the Fury of her murder and went mad. After wandering to Oicles in Arcadia and to Phegeus at Psophis, and after the ground became barren on his account, he came to the springs of Achelous and was purified by the river god, who gave him his daughter Callirrhoe to be his wife (Library 3.7.5).

Callirrhoe wanted the necklace and robe of Harmonia, which Alcmaeon had once given to his first wife, Arsinoe, the daughter of Phegeus, and refused to live with him unless she got them. Alcmaeon went to Psophis and recovered them from Phegeus by saying that he needed to dedicate them at Delphi to be cured of his madness. When Phegeus learned the truth from a servant, he had his sons waylay and kill Alcmaeon (Library 3.7.5).

When Callirrhoe heard of the murder, she was courted by Zeus. She asked that her sons by Alcmaeon, Amphoterus and Acarnan, might suddenly become fully grown men so that they could avenge their father. The sons killed the sons of Phegeus at the house of Agapenor, then went to Psophis, entered the palace and killed Phegeus and his wife (Library 3.7.6). In Ovid, Themis foretells that Callirrhoe will beg Jupiter to add years to her infant sons, and Jupiter later grants it (Metamorphoses 9.413–432).

Callirrhoe, Daughter of Scamander

A third Callirrhoe was the daughter of the river Scamander at Troy. She married Tros, the king who gave his name to Troy, and bore him a daughter, Cleopatra, and three sons, Ilus, Assaracus and Ganymede (Apollodorus, Library 3.12.2).

Other Callirrhoes

Callirrhoe was also the name of a spring at Athens. Thucydides says that the fountain later called Enneacrunus (“Nine Conduits”), after the tyrants gave it that form, was called Callirrhoe when the springs were uncovered, and was used for the most important ceremonies, such as preparations for weddings (Thucydides 2.15.5). Plutarch’s collection of parallel stories tells of another Callirrhoe, a daughter of Lycus, king of Libya, who fell in love with Diomedes and freed him when her father wished to sacrifice him, but killed herself when he sailed away without her (Parallel Stories 23).

Callirrhoe Sources

Hesiod, Theogony 287–294, 351, 979–983; Homeric Hymn to Demeter 417–423; Apollodorus, Library 2.5.10, 3.7.5–6, 3.12.2; Ovid, Metamorphoses 9.413–432; Thucydides 2.15.5; Plutarch (attributed), Parallel Stories 23.

See Also: Oceanus, Tethys, Achelous, Alcmaeon, Geryon, Chrysaor, Persephone, Tros