Peneus

Peneus was the river god of the Peneus, the great river of Thessaly, and a son of Oceanus and Tethys. He is best known from Ovid’s story of his daughter Daphne, whom Apollo pursued until she was turned into a laurel tree, and from Pindar and Diodorus, who give him a family among the early peoples of Thessaly.

Parents and the River

Hesiod lists Peneus among the sons of Oceanus and Tethys, the river gods (Hesiod, Theogony 337–345), and says that there are as many of these rivers as there are Oceanus’ daughters, three thousand of each, too many for any man to name (Theogony 364–370). Diodorus says that Peneus made his home in what is now Thessaly and gave his name to the river there (Diodorus 4.72).

The Peneus rises in the Pindus mountains and runs through Thessaly to the sea. Homer mentions it among the rivers of the Magnetes, beside Mount Pelion, and says that the Titaressus, though it flows into the Peneus, does not mix with it but runs on top of it like oil (Iliad 2.751–759). Ovid describes how the river pours from the foot of Pindus through the wooded Vale of Tempe, where the god sits in a cave and gives judgment to the waters and to the nymphs who live in them (Ovid, Metamorphoses 1.568–576). Herodotus reports that five rivers, the Peneus, Apidanus, Onochonus, Enipeus and Pamisus, meet in Thessaly and flow out together under the name of the Peneus, and that the Thessalians said Poseidon had opened the gorge through which it reaches the sea (Herodotus 7.129).

Family

Pindar says that Creusa, a Naiad and daughter of Gaia, bore Hypseus, king of the Lapiths, after lying with Peneus in the dells of Pindus (Pindar, Pythian 9.13–17). Diodorus agrees that Peneus lay with the nymph Creusa and that their children were Hypseus and Stilbe. Apollo lay with Stilbe, and she bore Lapithes and Centaurus (Diodorus 4.69). Peneus is therefore the grandfather of Cyrene, the daughter of Hypseus, who in turn was loved by Apollo and became the mother of Aristaeus (Diodorus 4.81). Pausanias also calls Andreus, the first settler of the land later named Andreis near Orchomenus, a son of the river Peneius (Pausanias 9.34.6).

Daphne

In Ovid’s account, Apollo, proud after killing the Python, saw Cupid bending his bow and mocked him. Cupid flew to Parnassus and took two arrows from his quiver: a golden, sharp-pointed one that causes love, and a blunt one tipped with lead that drives love away. He shot Apollo with the first and Daphne, the daughter of Peneus, with the second (Ovid, Metamorphoses 1.452–473). Apollo chased her, and when her strength failed she looked to the waters of her father and begged him for help, asking that the earth swallow her or that her shape be changed (Metamorphoses 1.543–547). Her body at once stiffened into a tree: bark closed round her, her hair became leaves and her arms branches. Apollo, who still loved her, declared that she would be his tree, and that the laurel would crown his head, his lyre and his quiver (Metamorphoses 1.548–565).

Ovid then tells how the rivers of Thessaly came to the cave of Peneus, not knowing whether to congratulate or console him; only Inachus stayed away, mourning his own daughter Io (Metamorphoses 1.577–587). Ovid does not say that Peneus himself worked the change, only that the transformation follows her prayer to him.

The Daphne story was told in other places as well. Pausanias knows an Arcadian version set on the river Ladon, in which Leucippus, son of Oenomaus, disguises himself as a girl to be near Daphne, who avoids all men, and is exposed when the women go to bathe (Pausanias 8.20.1–4).

Another Peneus

A second river Peneus flows in Elis, in the Peloponnese; the Ladon runs into it (Pausanias 6.22.5), and Heracles turned it, together with the Alpheus, through the stables of Augeas (Apollodorus, Library 2.5.5). It is a different river from the one in Thessaly.

Peneus Sources

Hesiod, Theogony 337–345, 364–370; Homer, Iliad 2.751–759; Pindar, Pythian 9.13–17; Herodotus 7.129; Diodorus Siculus 4.69, 4.72, 4.81; Ovid, Metamorphoses 1.452–587; Pausanias 6.22.5, 8.20.1–4, 9.34.6; Apollodorus, Library 2.5.5.

See Also: Oceanus, Tethys, Apollo, Daphne, Eros, Poseidon, Heracles, Inachus