#inachos

[pigeons-and-the-like]

no context but this comment on my draft is basically what im writing rn

[deathlessathanasia]

A relationship that I think has the potential to be very interesting is that between Hera and Inachos. Sometimes he is considered the first king of Argolis who had named the river after himself and offered sacrifice to Hera (Pausanias, Description of Greece 2.15.4), but this same source mentions a different tradition in which Inachos was in fact the river and instead Phoroneus, his son, was the first inhabitant of the land and (according to Pseudo-Hyginus (Fabulae 143)) also the first mortal to rule and first to make offerings to Hera.

The river Inachos, together with Asterion (the father of Hera's nurses) and Kephisos but sometimes Inachos is mentioned alone) chose Hera to preside over the Argolid even though her rival was the god of waters, who indeed took revenge for this decision: "They decided that it belonged to Hera, and so Poseidon made their waters disappear. For this reason neither Inachos nor either of the other rivers I have mentioned provides any water except after rain. In summer their streams are dry except those at Lerna." (Pausanias, Description of Greece 2.15.4)

And then there is the fact that Io (who was also Hera's priestess) is frequently called the daughter of Inachos and he is portrayed as a loving father to her, which raises the question of how Zeus' involvement with Io and Hera's subsequent reaction affected the relationship between Hera and this river of her land.

[deathlessathanasia]

"The Inachos is a river in the territory of Argos. … It was named Inachos for the following reason. Inachos son of Okeanos , after his daughter Io had been raped by Zeus, followed along behind bombarding the god with profane abuse. Zeus was furious at this insulting treatment and sent one of the Furies, Tisiphone, against him. Driven mad by her he threw himself into the river Haliakmon, which was renamed Inachos after him." - Pseudo-Plutarch, On Rivers 18

"In search of her [his daughter Aigina] Asopus came to Corinth, and learned from Sisyphus that the ravisher was Zeus. Asopus pursued him, but Zeus, by hurling thunderbolts, sent him away back to his own streams; hence coals are fetched to this day from the streams of that river." - Pseudo-Apollodoros, Library 3.12.6