Phasis (mythology)

In Greek and Roman mythology, Phasis (Ancient Greek: Φᾶσις, romanized: Phâsis) is one of the numerous river-gods, deities presiding over rivers. He is the personification of the river Phasis, now known as the Rioni, the principal river of the kingdom of Colchis in the southeastern Caucasus. Tales related to Phasis survive in the works of late-antiquity authors.

Family and attributes

In Hesiod's Theogony, Phasis is one of the three hundred divine river-gods,^[1] sons of the Titans Oceanus and Tethys,^[2] although in other authors he is the son of the sun-god Helios by the Oceanid Ocyrrhoë.^[3][4] The third-century BC Greek historian Mnaseas wrote that Phasis was the father of Colchus, who gave his name to the Colchians.^[5]

The Phasis, now called Rioni, flows in Georgia in the south Caucasus. Philostratus the Younger described Phasis as grim-looking, with thick hair, a beard and glaring eyes.^[6]

Mythology

In a pseudo-Plutarchic work^[7] that might have been paradoxographical or parodic in nature,^[8] Phasis the son of Helios caught his mother Ocyrrhoë in bed with another man, and in anger he killed her.^[9] He was then pursued by the Furies for his matricide, and driven mad by their persuit, he flung himself into the river Arcturus (“bear-guard”), which was called Phasis after him thereafter.^[3]

As a river, at some point he was strongly infatuated with a Colchian huntress, Aea. He chased the girl relentlessly in frenzied desire as she shot arrows against him in vain, but her stamina soon failed her. Phasis caught up with her and bound her beneath his waves.^[10] The implication is that Aea eventually turned into Aea, the mythic island where Aeëtes lived.^[11][12] The incident was later depicted in the halls of Aeëtes's palace in Colchis.^[13]

Once they reached the northeastern coast of Asia Minor and the Caucasus, the Argonauts rowed up the river Phasis to reach their destination of Colchis and the Golden fleece.^[14]

Symbolism

Aea was seen as a mythical island to the east, where Aeëtes' city Colchis stood. Better understanding of the Black Sea geography resulted in Aea (and the town Phasis, on the banks of the homonymous river, and seat of king Aeëtes^[15]) being shifted to the river Phasis, and thus connecting it with the sea.^[16]

In a way, Phasis' rape of Aea invokes parallels with the encounter of Medea and Jason themselves, as Jason takes Medea away from her father and they consumate their union in the same island as another nymph was raped by a river god.^[17] Furthermore, Jason's speech to Medea parallelises Ovid's rendition of the Hermaphroditus and Salmacis story, which involved the imagery of violence in the water.^[17]

See also

• Mythology portal
• Ancient Greece portal

• Daphne
• Alpheus
• Phaethon