River-god born to Oceanus and Tethys, the deep-swirling stream far from Greece where Phaethon fell from Helios' chariot — received by the river in Ovid and Apollonius, and named among the Potamoi in Hesiod's first genealogy of waters.1
Hesiod names Eridanus among the eddying rivers Tethys bore to Ocean — in one breath with Nilus and Alpheus, Strymon and Meander, set in the first family of waters that ring the mortal world.2
Apollonius sends the Argonauts past the sacred isle of Electra near the river Eridanus, then deep into its stream where Phaethon, smitten on the breast by the blazing bolt, half-consumed fell from the chariot of Helios into the opening of that deep lake — and even then it belcheth up heavy steam clouds from the smouldering wound, and no bird spreads its light wings over the water.3
Ovid tells the fall at fullest length: far distant from his home the deep Eridanus received the lad and bathed his foaming face. Hesperian Naiads bore his body, still smoking, to a tomb, and on the stone they engraved that here lie Phaethon's remains — he who drove his father's car and fell, though he did not hold the reins.4
Hyginus gives the genealogy of the catastrophe: Phaethon, son of Sol and Clymene, secretly mounted his father's car, was borne too high, and from fear fell into the river Eridanus; when Jupiter struck him with a thunderbolt everything started to burn. Some call the river Padus, Pherecydes being the first to name it — the Greek Eridanus and the Italian Po sharing one mythic grave.5
Hyginus counts Eridanus among the Rivers born of Oceanus and Tethys in his genealogical preface — the western stream set in the same divine brood as Strymon, Scamander, and Inachus.6
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the spine ignites as you read · hover a bond on the card — every mention of them lights in the story