Phoenix (river)

The Phoenix River [1][2][3] (Ancient Greek: Φοῖνιξ; also Phoinix)[2][4] was a river of ancient Greece.

Geographical context

The Phoenix River is located in south-eastern Thessaly,[5][6] and within the Malis region specifically south of Trachis (Τραχίς)[7][8] which is at the base of Mount Oeta.[9] The Phoenix originates in the Trachinian cliffs and flows into the Asopus near to Thermopylae.[7][5] From the Phoenix to Thermopylae was determined by Herodotus to be fifteen furlongs distance.[a] In this land there was a village named Anthela.[10]

Historical significance

See also: Histories (Herodotus) § Book VII (Polymnia)

The Phoenix River is described by Herodotus in reference to Xerxes [1] (βασιλεὺς Ξέρξης: King Xerxes) [4] who had invaded mainland Greece [11] during 480 BC. [12][13] Xerxes fought the Battle of Thermopylae commencing in August of 480. [14]

In the account of the landing of Xerxes in Greece Herodotus states before arriving in Malis Xerxes and his army were in Thessaly [15] which is where C. Plinius Secundus locates a river named Phoenix in The Historie of the World. [6]

Cultural significance

Phoenix was son of Amyntor [16] basileus [17] of Hellas [16] which before Thucydides was the geographical region south [18] Thessaly. [18][16] Strabo (in Γεωγραφικά) states the river is named after Amyntor's son and that his tomb is near to it. [19] [b]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ 1 furlong is about 201 meters, which makes the distance about 3.0 kilometers
  2. ^ According to a [20] Νόστοι [21]attributed to Agias of Trozen (recounted by Proclus) Phoenix died near or in Thrace [20]

References

  1. ^ a b Herodotus. "Book 7 Polymnia". Histories. Translated by George Rawlinson. [7.200] Further to the south, another river, called the Phoenix
  2. ^ a b Liddell, Henry; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry (1940). Spiros Doikas (ed.). "Φοῖνιξ". Liddell, Scott, Jones Ancient Greek Lexicon.
  3. ^ Herodotus. "Book VII (Polymnia)". The Persian Wars. Loeb Classical Library. Translated by A. D. Godley (1920 ed.). Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA. 200. There is another river south of the Asopus, the Phoenix, a little stream, that flows from those mountains into the Asopus.
  4. ^ a b Herodotus. "Book 7 Polymnia". Histories. Translated by G. C. Macaulay (1890 ed.). ἔστι δὲ ἄλλος Φοῖνιξ ποταμὸς οὐ μέγας πρὸς μεσαμβρίην τοῦ Ἀσωποῦ,
  5. ^ a b William Smith (1858). "Phoenician phormion". A Classical Dictionary Of Biography, Mythology, And Geography, Based On The Larger Dictionaries. London: Walton and Maberly, Upper Gower Street and Ivy Lane, Paternoster Row; John Murray, Albemarle Street. p. 571.
  6. ^ a b C. Plinius Secundus (1601). "Chap. VIII Theſſalie K". The Historie of the World. Translated by Philemon Holland. Adam Islip.
  7. ^ a b Herodotus (Rawlinson - ibid.) [7.198] a range of lofty hills, impossible to climb, enclosing all Malis within them, and called the Trachinian cliffs - [7.200] the Phoenix, which has no great body of water, flows from the same hills
  8. ^ Strabo. Geographica. Vol. ix. p.428. Page numbers refer to those of Isaac Casaubon's edition.
  9. ^ William Smith, LLD, ed. (1854). "TRACHIS". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, illustrated by numerous engravings on wood. London: Walton and Maberly, Upper Gower Street and Ivy Lane, Paternoster Row; John Murray, Albemarle Street.
  10. ^ Herodotus (Rawlinson - ibid.) [7.200] From the river Phoenix to Thermopylae is a distance of fifteen furlongs; and in this space is situate the village called Anthela
  11. ^ Paul Halsall (2000). "Ancient History Sourcebook Herodotus: Xerxes Invades Greece, from The Histories". Fordham University. 484 Archived 29 September 2016 at the Wayback Machine
  12. ^ Richard Stoneman (October 2015). "Five Invasion (I): The Cornerstone of Greek Freedom: Abstract". Xerxes: A Persian Life. New Haven, CT: Yale Scholarship Online: Oxford Academic (published 19 May 2016). doi:10.12987/yale/9780300180077.003.0005. This chapter focuses on Xerxes's invasion of Greece in 480 B.C.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
  13. ^ F. Maurice (1930). "The Size of the Army of Xerxes in the Invasion of Greece 480 B. C." The Journal of Hellenic Studies. 50, Part 2. The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies.
  14. ^ Philip Chrysopoulos (August 7, 2025). "Battle of Thermopylae: When Greece Fought to Defend Western Civilization". Greek Reporter. Archived 7 August 2025 at the Wayback Machine
  15. ^ Herodotus (Rawlinson - ibid.) [7.198] Such were the doing of Xerxes in Thessaly and in Achaea, From hence he passed on into Malis, along the shores of a bay, in which there is an ebb and flow of the tide daily.
  16. ^ a b c Wendy Doniger (1999). "Phoenix". Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of World Religions. Merriam-Webster. p. 855. ISBN 9780877790440. Amyntor, king of Thessalian Hellas
  17. ^ Günther Hölbl (February 2013). "Chapter 3 Royal ideology and religious policy from Alexander the Great to Ptolemy III - Basileus, Hellenistic ruler cult and the Greek gods". A History of the Ptolemaic Empire. Translated by Tina Saavedra. Taylor & Francis. p. 90 - The idealogy of the basileus. ISBN 9781135119836. the king as Hellenistic basileus
  18. ^ a b Ioannis Xydopoulos (2007). "The Concept and Representation of Northern Communities in Ancient Greek Histiography: the Case of Thucydides". In Francesca Petrucci; Eleonora Lollini; Francesca Verdiani (eds.). Communities in European History Representations, Jurisdictions, Conflicts. Aristotle University of Thessaloniki: Pisa University Press. p. 13 - Thucydides view. ISBN 9788884924629. Unfortunately, the identification of the geographical are of Hellas is problematic. In my opinion, it was still limited to the south of Thessaly
  19. ^ Strabo. "Chapter 4". In H. L. Jones (ed.). Geography - Book 9. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924: perseus.tufts.edu. To the south of Trachin, according to Herodotus, there is a deep gorge through which the Asopus, bearing the same name as the aforesaid Asopus Rivers, empties into the sea outside Pylae after receiving the Phoenix River, which meets it from the south and bears the name of the hero Phoenix, whose tomb is to be seen near it.
  20. ^ a b Proclus. "The Epic Cycle: Proclus' Summary of the Nostoi, attributed to Agias of Trozen". Translated by Gregory Nagy. uh.edu – via pantheon.org/articles/p/phoenix3.html (Encyclopedia Mythica March 1997): "Tzetzes on Lycophron, 417; Strabo. Geography ix, p. 428". Then the storm at the rocks called Kapherides is described, and the destruction of Lokrian Aias. Neoptolemos, warned by Thetis, makes his journey by land, and, coming to Thrace, meets Odysseus at Maroneia, and then finishes the rest of his journey, after arranging a funeral for Phoinix [Phoenix], who dies along the way.
  21. ^ Peter Jackson (2006). "Chapter III Returning Heroes". The Transformations of Helen Indo-European Myth and the Roots of the Trojan Cycle. Münchener Studien zur Sprachwissenschaft. Beiheft. Vol. 23. Verlag J.H. Röll GmbH, Dettelbach. p. 95. ISBN 3897542609. ISSN 0580-1354.
  22. ^ Pausanias. "Book 7, Achaia". Description of Greece. Translated by W.H.S. Jones; H.A. Ormerod. Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA) 1918; Humanities Computing and Media Centre, University of Victoria, Canada, September 06 2022. Aegium is about thirty stades distant from Rhypes.§ The territory of Aegium is crossed by a river Phoenix, and by another called Meiganitas, both of which flow into the sea. A portico near the city was made for Straton, an athlete who won at Olympia on the same day victories in the pancratium and in wrestling. The portico was built that this man might exercise himself in it. At Aegium is an ancient sanctuary of Eileithyia
  • Har Bilas Sarda (2007) [1st pub. 1906]. "The Hyperboreans". In Ravi Prakash Arya (ed.). Hindu superiority: an attempt to determine the position of the Hindu race in the scale of nations. Ajmer: Rajputana Printing Press. p. 175. ISBN 9788187710448. Another Khyber settlement will be seen in Thessaly on the Eastern branch of Phoenix river. Its name is tolerably well preserved as Khyphara or Khyphera
  • Edward Pococke (1852). "Chapter XI. Dodona and the Hyperboreans". India in Greece; or, Truth in Mythology: Containing the Sources of the Hellenic Race, the Colonization of Egypt and Palestine, the Wars of the Grand Lama, and the Bud'histic Propoganda in Greece. John J. Griffin and Company. p. 129. as I have already shown, the 'Khyber-Pooreans', or 'people of Khyber-Poor' i.e. the city and district of the Khyber. Another Khyber settlement will be seen in Thessaly on the eastern branch of the Phœnix river. Its name is tolerably well preserved as 'Khyphara' and 'Khyphæra'
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