Eurotas (river)

The riverbed of the Evrotas near the city of Sparta ( Sparti ).

The Evrotas (Greek Ευρώτας, ancient Greek Eurotas Εὐρώτας ) is one of the main rivers of the Greek Peloponnese peninsula. It rises at the Arcadian border in the water- rich region Beleminias and meanders through the plains of Laconia to the south. It flows through, inter alia, the cities and towns Sparta and scale to where it ends after 82 km at Limonas in the Laconian Gulf ( Lakonikos Kólpos ). The river valley is surrounded on the east by PARNON and to the west by Mount Taygetos, the mountains almost all exceed the thousand - meter limit. On his way to the Mediterranean, it is supplemented by numerous small tributaries that make the entire Eurotas valley to a fertile growing area.

Name

The ancient Greek name Eurotas ( Εὐρώτας ) the Quiet - Flowing ( ancient Greek euroeō εὐροέω, well flow ').

Others derive the name of AltGr. Euros ( εὐρώς, mold, ' dirt ' ) from. In the summer the river dries out almost completely, so that only the deep parts remain filled with water. In these pools then thrive algae.

In the Middle Ages the river Vasilipotamos ( Βασιλιποταμός, King River ') and the underflow was called Iris ( gr Ίρις ). Only since the modern era of the ancient name is reused.

After Evrotas the community in 2011 the newly formed Evrotas was named.

History

Due to the fertile landscape and convenient transportation and trade conditions built on the banks of the Eurotas the city of Sparta. Gradually, many other cities whose inhabitants until today, mainly in the plains of Trinasso and Elos, successful living from the operation of agriculture formed.

Mythology

As a river god of Evrotas was in ancient Eurotas, the son of Inachus.

On the Evrotas Zeus is said to have been transformed into a swan to seduce Leda and fathered the goddess with her Helen and Polydeuces.

In the plain of Sparta is said to have formerly dammed the water. The mythical King Eurotas was a channel excavated and dewatered the land. The remaining flow is said to have named after himself Eurotas.

In ancient times it was thought the sources of the rivers Evrotas and Alfios near the village Asea. They imagined that they mingled, flowed about four kilometers together, disappeared into a crevasse and, again came in two different locations, the actual source locations to the fore.

Swell

• Mythographus Hyginus, Fabulae, 77
• Pausanias, traveling in Greece, 8, 44, 3 ​​-4; 8, 54, 2; 3, 1, 1