In Greek mythology

Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...

, Spercheus or Spercheios was the name of a river in Thessaly

Thessaly

Thessaly is a traditional geographical region and an administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient region of the same name. Before the Greek Dark Ages, Thessaly was known as Aeolia, and appears thus in Homer's Odyssey....

 (present Spercheios River

Spercheios River

The Spercheios is a river in the Central Greece geographical region, of Greece. The river begins in Eurytania Prefecture in the Panaitoliko mountains and flows northeast from near Megalo Chorio and into Karpenisi and flows within GR-38 and through Agios Georgios Tymfistos south of the Tymfistos...

), and of the god of that river. According to Antoninus Liberalis

Antoninus Liberalis

Antoninus Liberalis was an Ancient Greek grammarian who probably flourished between AD 100 and 300.His only surviving work is the Metamorphoses, , a collection of forty-one very briefly summarised tales about mythical metamorphoses effected by offended deities, unique in that they are...

, Cerambus

Cerambus

In Greek mythology, Cerambus, son of Eusiros and the nymph Eidothea, was a survivor of Deucalion's flood: he was said to have been raised above the water by the nymphs, thus escaping death...

 was punished for claiming that the nymphs of Mount Othrys were daughters of Spercheus by Deino. (Whether this was the same Deino elsewhere named as one of the Graeae

Graeae

The Graeae , were three sisters who shared one eye and one tooth among them. They are one of several trios of archaic goddesses in Greek mythology. The Graeae were daughters of Phorcys and Ceto...

, or another, is not said.) Liberalis also says that King Dryops

Dryops (Oeta)

In Greek mythology, Dryops was a son of the river god Spercheus and the Danaid Polydora. He reigned in the neighborhood of Mount Oeta and was believed to have given his name to the people Dryopes; the people, original inhabitants of the banks of River Spercheios, retained the name after having...

 of Oeta was son of Spercheus by Polydora

Polydora

Polydora may refer to:*In Greek mythology:**Polydora, Danaid, mother of King Dryops of Oeta by Spercheus**Polydora, daughter of Peleus**Polydora, possible wife of Protesilaus**Polydora, one of the Oceanids**Polydora, one of the Amazons...

, daughter of Danaus

Danaus

In Greek mythology Danaus, or Danaos , was the twin brother of Aegyptus and son of Achiroe and Belus, a mythical king of Egypt. The myth of Danaus is a foundation legend of Argos, one of the foremost Mycenaean cities of the Peloponnesus...

; this Dryops was also father of Dryope

Dryope

In Greek mythology, Dryope is the name attributed to several distinct figures.-Dryope, lover of Apollo:The most prominent Dryope was the daughter of Dryops, king of Oeta or of Eurytus . She was sometimes thought of as one of the Pleiades . There are two stories of her metamorphosis into a black...

.

In Homer

Homer

In the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...

's Iliad

Iliad

The Iliad is an epic poem in dactylic hexameters, traditionally attributed to Homer. Set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Greek states, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles...

, Spercheus was the father, by Achilles' half-sister Polydora

Polydora

Polydora may refer to:*In Greek mythology:**Polydora, Danaid, mother of King Dryops of Oeta by Spercheus**Polydora, daughter of Peleus**Polydora, possible wife of Protesilaus**Polydora, one of the Oceanids**Polydora, one of the Amazons...

, of Menesthius

Menesthius

In Greek mythology, the name Menesthius may refer to:*Menesthius, son of Spercheus and Polydora, one of the Myrmidonian leaders in the Trojan War*Menesthius, son of Areithous and Phylomedusa, from Arnae, Boeotia, killed by Paris in the Trojan War...

, one of Achilles

Achilles

In Greek mythology, Achilles was a Greek hero of the Trojan War, the central character and the greatest warrior of Homer's Iliad.Plato named Achilles the handsomest of the heroes assembled against Troy....

's commanders.