Peirene

Drawing of the interior of the Peirene spring on acrocorinth (by Karl Wilhelm Göttling , 1843)

Peirene (Πειρήνη) is a Naiad in the Greek mythology .

The river Acheloos , the Peloponnesian river Asopos or the Spartan king Oibalos are named as the father . When Zeus kidnapped Aigina , the daughter of Asopos, Sisyphus observed this from his place of residence on Acrocorinth . In search of his daughter, Asopos also came to Sisyphus. He only wanted to release his knowledge if Asopos would give him a source and so he received the source Peirene on Acrocorinth, which is also called Upper Peirene .

Poseidon gave her two sons, Leches and Kenchrias, the eponymous heroes of Lechaion and Kenchreai . When Kenchrias was accidentally killed by an arrow from Artemis , Peirene wept so much that the Peirene spring in Corinth arose from her tears . According to another representation, the Upper Peirene flowed underground and fed the source Peirene, which is also called Lower Peirene , at the foot of the mountain in Corinth . At this spring Bellerophon caught the winged horse Pegasus while it was drinking there.

According to another version of the legend, the source was created by the stamping of Asopus or the hoofbeat of Pegasus .

Artistic representations

In 2003 the Polish composer Zbigniew Bujarski composed an orchestral work entitled Peirene.

literature

• Johannes Ilberg : Peirene 1 . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 3.2, Leipzig 1909, Sp. 1755-1757 ( digitized version ).
• Ernst Meyer : Peirene . In: Konrat Ziegler , Walther Sontheimer (eds.): Der Kleine Pauly . Fourth volume. Alfred Druckermüller Verlag, Munich 1972, Sp. 585 f .
• Karl Wilhelm Göttling: The source Pirene on the Akrokorinth and the Kraneion below Corinth . In: Eduard Gerhard (ed.): Archäologische Zeitung . Vol. 1. Verlag Georg Reimer , Berlin 1843, Sp. 326-330 ( archive.org ).

Individual evidence

1. ^ Pausanias : Travels in Greece , 2, 2, 3; Hesiod : The Great Eoien , fragment 258
2. ^ Pausanias: Travels in Greece , 2, 5, 1
3. ^ Pausanias: Travels in Greece , 2, 2, 3
4. ^ Pausanias: Travels in Greece , 2, 3, 2
5. ↑ Pindar , Olympic Odes 13, 60-87; Strabo : Geography , 8, 6, 21
6. ^ Publius Papinius Statius : Silvae , 2, 7, 4; Publius Papinius Statius: Thebais , 4, 60; Dion Chrysostomos : Reden , 36, 450, 25–30 ( Johann Jacob Reiske ): Dionis Chrysostomi Orationes , Volume 2, p. 95 ( online )