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ASO´PUS

ASO´PUS (Ἀσωπός).


1.

A river of Boeotia, flowing through the southern part of this country, in an easterly direction, and falling into the Euripus in the territory of Attica, near Oropus. It is formed by the confluence of several small streams, one rising near Thespiae, and the others in Mount Cithaeron. Its principal sources are at a spot just under the village of Kriakúki, where are two trees, a well, and several, springs. In the upper part of its course it forms the boundary between the territories of Thebes and Plataeae, flowing through a plain called PARASOPIA. (Strab. ix. p.409.) It then forces its way through a rocky ravine of no great length into the plain of Tanagra, after flowing through which it again traverses a rocky defile, and enters the maritime plain of Oropus. In the upper part of its course the river is now called Vuriémi, in the lower Vuriéndi. Homer describes it as “deep grown with rushes, and grassy” (βαθύχοινον, λεχεποίην, Il. 4.383). It is frequently dry in summer, but after heavy rains was not easy to ford. (Thuc. 2.5.) It was on the banks of the Asopus that the memorable battle of Plataeae was fought, B.C. 479. (Hdt. 6.108, 9.51; Strab. ix. p.408, seq.; Paus. 5.14.3 ; Ov. Am. 3.6 33 ; Leake, Northern Greece, vol. ii. pp. 326, 424, 442, 448.)


2.

River of St. George), a river of Peloponnesus, rising in the mountains S. of Phlius, and flowing through Sicyonia into the Corinthian gulf. Hence the plain of Sicyonia was called ASOPIS or ASOPIA Its principal sources are at the foot of Mt. Gavriá. In the upper part of its course it is a clear tranquil stream, but in passing through Sicyonia it becomes rapid, white, and turbid. It flows past the city of Sicyon on the east, and joins the sea a little eastward of a round height in the plain. (Strab. vii. p.271, viii. p. 382, ix. p. 408; Paus. 2.5.2, 15.1; Plin. Nat. 4.5. s. 6; Leake, Morea, vol. iii. pp. 343, 355, seq.; Boblaye, Recherches, p. 31.)

Respecting the river-god Asopus, who frequently occurs in mythology, see Dict. of Biogr. and Myth.


3.

A river of Phthiotis in Thessaly, rising in Mt. Oeta, and flowing into the Malic gulf at the pass of Thermopylae. For details see THERMOPYLAE


4.

A river in Paros, mentioned only by Strabo (viii. p.382).


5.

A town of the Eleuthero-Lacones in Laconia, on the eastern side of the Laconian gulf, and 60 stadia south of Acriae. It possessed a temple of the Roman emperors, and on the citadel a temple of Athena Cyparissia. At the distance of 12 stadia above the town there was a temple of Aselepius. (Strab. viii. p.364; Paus. 3.21.7, 22.9: Ptol. 3.16.9; Ἀσώπολις, Hierocl. p. 647.) Strabo (l.c.) speaks of Cyparissia and Asopus as two separate places; but it appears that Asopus was the later name of Cyparissia. Pausanias (3.22.9) says that at the foot of the acropolis of Asopus were the ruins of the city of the Achaei Paracyparissii. Strabo describes Cyparissia as “a town with a harbour, situated upon a chersonese,” which corresponds to the site of Blitra. The latter is on the high rocky peninsula of Kavo Xylí, east of which there is a deep inlet of the sea and a good harbour. The acropolis of Cyparissia or Asopus must have occupied the summit of Kavo Xylí. (Leake, Morea, vol. i. p. 225, seq., Peloponnesiaca, p. 169.)


6.

[LAODICEA AD LYCUM.]

hide References (11 total)
  • Cross-references from this page (11):
    • Herodotus, Histories, 6.108
    • Herodotus, Histories, 9.51
    • Pausanias, Description of Greece, 2.5.2
    • Pausanias, Description of Greece, 3.21.7
    • Pausanias, Description of Greece, 5.14.3
    • Pausanias, Description of Greece, 2.15.1
    • Pausanias, Description of Greece, 3.22.9
    • Thucydides, Histories, 2.5
    • Homer, Iliad, 4.383
    • Ovid, Amores, 3.6
    • Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia, 4.5
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