River-god of Attica and Phocia — born to Oceanus and Tethys in Hesiod's catalogue, father of Narcissus in Ovid and Hyginus, and ancestor through Diogenia of Praxithea and the Athenian royal house; with Inachus and Asterion he judged the dispute between Hera and Poseidon for Argos.1
Hesiod names no story for Cephisus, but counts him among the eddying rivers Tethys bore to Ocean — the Attic stream enrolled in the first family of waters.2
Ovid opens the tale of Narcissus on his banks. The river Cephisus entwined the nymph Liriope in his winding stream and got her with child; she bore a boy so beautiful the nymphs could love him even then, and named him Narcissus. When Tiresias was asked whether the child would live to old age, he answered: 'If he does not know himself.'3
Hyginus likewise makes Narcissus son of the river Cephisus — one among Apollo's doomed beloveds — and counts Cephisus among the Rivers born of Oceanus and Tethys.4
Apollodorus hangs the Athenian royal line on the river's granddaughter. Erechtheus married Praxithea, daughter of Phrasimus by Diogenia, daughter of Cephisus — so the Cephisus is grandfather-in-law to the king whose daughters include Orithyia, carried off by Boreas.5
Pausanias makes Cephisus one of the river-judges of Argos. When Poseidon and Hera disputed possession of the land, Inachus, Cephisus, and Asterion decided that it belonged to Hera — and Poseidon in anger dried up their waters, so that the Cephisus flows only after rain.6
Homer knows the Phocian Cephisus in the catalogue of ships: the Phocians who held Lilaea by the springs of Cephisus followed forty black ships to Troy — the Boeotian stream distinct from, yet sharing the name of, its Attic brother.7
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the spine ignites as you read · hover a bond on the card — every mention of them lights in the story