Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Ilissus.
The gallery
Ilissus
John Edward Burrow, 1837
Burrow’s romantic view of the Athenian Ilissus — the stream Hyginus lists among Oceanus’ river-sons and beside which Boreas seized Orithyia. Landscape art keeps the river-god’s watercourse when his human face is rare.
Boreas and Oreithyia
Unknown (Attic red-figure), c. 5th century BC
Louvre K35: Boreas abducts Orithyia — the myth Apollodorus and Apollonius set on the banks of the Ilissus. The vase stages the river’s most famous story even when the water-god himself stays off the clay.
Boreas Abducting Oreithyia
Peter Paul Rubens, c. 1615
Rubens’ Baroque storm of the north wind carrying Erechtheus’ daughter — the Ilissus abduction as European salon myth. The Athenian river remains the named stage of the rape that links Boreas to Attica.