Iardanos (river in Elis)

This article is about the river in Elis. For the municipality, see Iardanos. For other uses, see Iardanus.

The Iardanos or Iardanus (Greek: Ιάρδανος, Ancient Greek: Ἰάρδανος) is a river in Greece which flows into the Ionian Sea at the Monastery of Skafidia, north of Katakolo, in Elis.[1] It is apparently the same as the river, referred to in Homer's Iliad as being near Pheia in ancient Elis.[2] Homer has Nestor the legendary king of Pylos recall seeing, as a young man, the Pylians and Arcadians fighting by the river Celadon:

beneath the walls of Pheia, about the streams of Iardanus.[3]

Strabo describing the coast of Elis, says:

After Chelonatas comes the long seashore of the Pisatans; and then Cape Pheia. And there was also a small town called Pheia: "beside the walls of Pheia, about the streams of Iardanus,"[4] for there is also a small river near by. According to some, Pheia is the beginning of Pisatis.[5]

While describing the river Anigrus in Elis that descends from Mount Lapithas, the geographer Pausanias, possibly referring to this river, reports having "heard from an Ephesian" that the Acidas, a tributary of the Anigrus, "was called Iardanus in ancient times", adding that "I repeat [this], though I have nowhere found evidence in support of it."[6]

  1. ^ Axis of Katakolo - Ancient Olympia: Monastery of Skafidia.
  2. ^ Autenrieth, s.v. Ἰάρδανος 2; Smith, s.v. Pheia, which says that the Iliad 's Iardanus "is apparently the mountain torrent north of Ichthys [now Cape Katakolo], and which flows into the sea on the northern side of the lofty mountain Skaphídi".
  3. ^ Homer, Iliad 7.132–135.
  4. ^ Here quoting Homer, Iliad 7.135.
  5. ^ Strabo, 8.3.12.
  6. ^ Pausanias, 5.5.8–9.