Cephissus- Greek GodDeity
Also known as: Κηφισός and Kephisos
Domains
Description
His waters curl around the nymph Liriope in the shallows of the Boeotian stream, and from that embrace Narcissus is born, the boy who will love only his own reflection.
Mythology & Lore
The River and Its Son
Hesiod counts Cephissus among the rivers born to Oceanus and Tethys in the Theogony. His stream runs through Boeotia and into the marshes of Lake Copais, and it was in those waters that Ovid sets the beginning of the Narcissus story. The river-god enclosed the naiad Liriope in the winding current of his stream. From that embrace she bore Narcissus, the boy so beautiful that Tiresias, asked whether the child would live to old age, answered: "If he never knows himself."
Pausanias records that altars stood beside the Cephissus, and that those who lived along its banks honored the river as a god. The water kept flowing whether anyone prayed or not, but the altars were there.