{"id":3170,"date":"2010-06-07T10:41:21","date_gmt":"2010-06-07T10:41:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/eridanus\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T07:58:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T07:58:20","slug":"eridanus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/eridanus\/","title":{"rendered":"Eridanus"},"content":{"rendered":"

E<\/strong>ridanus<\/strong> is the name of a constellation in the Southern Hemisphere as well as the name of the\u00a0only Atlantean river named by Plato (C<\/em>rit.<\/em> 112a). It has been identified with a number of waterways(<\/sup>b<\/sup>) <\/sup>including the Nile (Eratosthenes<\/a>), the Eider (Spedicato<\/a>)(d)<\/sup>, the Rhine(f<\/span><\/sup>)<\/sup>, the Istros (Danube) of Hungary(g<\/span><\/sup>)<\/sup>\u00a0and the Po (H. S. Bellamy<\/a>). Mythology has fiery Pha\u00ebton<\/a>\u00a0crashing into the Eridanus, which means \u2018early burnt\u2019.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Adding to the confusion is the existence of the River Eridanos, referred to by\u00a0Plato (Phaedrus<\/em> 229) which is a tributary of the Ilissos and is still partly visible in the centre of modern Athens(e)<\/sup>. (see left image)<\/p>\n

J\u00fcrgen Spanuth<\/a> was convinced that it was either the Elder or the Eider, which flows into the North Sea<\/a> opposite Helgoland<\/a>. Emilio Spedicato<\/a> echoed Spanuth\u2019s views in a number of more recent articles(c)(d)<\/sup> and opted for the Eider as the original Eridanus. The similarity of the two names also adds some credence to this idea.<\/p>\n

The late Walter Baucum <\/a>quoted[183<\/a>.159]<\/sup> the Swiss historian and geographer, Frederic de Rougemont (1808-1876), who, in his 1866 book, L\u2019Age de Bronze, <\/em>\u2018proved\u2019 that originally the Rhine had been known as the Eridanus.<\/p>\n

Apollonius<\/a> of Rhodes in his A<\/em>rgonautica<\/em> refers to the River Eridanus as flowing into the Cronian Sea(<\/sup>a<\/sup>)<\/sup>, generally accepted as the North Atlantic. The Eridanus is frequently referred to in ancient Greek texts as an amber-rich\u00a0river in Northern Europe. Amber was claimed by Spanuth to have been the Orichalcum<\/a> of Plato\u2019s Atlantis.<\/p>\n

Kai Helge Wirth[<\/sup>627<\/sup><\/a>]<\/sup>, a German geographer, has advanced the controversial theory that the configuration of the constellations was chosen to conform with the outlines of various Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts and was used as navigational aids to ancient mariners. As part of this radical idea, Wirth has pointed out that the constellation Eridanus closely follows the meandering Eider rather than the Po.<\/p>\n

Geologists have given the name Eridanus to a river which flowed where the Baltic is now located. Claudius Ptolemy identified the River Duna, which flows into the Gulf of Riga in the Baltic, as the Eridanus.<\/p>\n

(<\/sup>a<\/sup>)<\/sup> h<\/a>ttp:\/\/www.theoi.com\/Text\/ApolloniusRhodius4.html<\/a><\/p>\n

(<\/sup>b<\/sup>)<\/sup> Star Tales \u2013 Eridanus (ianridpath.com)<\/a><\/p>\n

(c) <\/sup>https:\/\/www.2008-paris-conference.org\/mapage13\/phaethon-to-chapamacac.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

(d)<\/sup> Wayback Machine (archive.org)<\/a>\u00a0*<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

(e)<\/sup> https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Eridanos_(Athens)<\/a><\/p>\n

(f)<\/sup> https:\/\/www.bibletools.org\/index.cfm\/fuseaction\/Topical.show\/RTD\/CGG\/ID\/2236\/Danube.htm<\/a><\/p>\n

(g)<\/sup> https:\/\/www.theoi.com\/Potamos\/PotamosEridanos.html<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eridanus is the name of a constellation in the Southern Hemisphere as well as the name of the\u00a0only Atlantean river named by Plato (Crit. 112a). It has been identified with a number of waterways(b) including the Nile (Eratosthenes), the Eider (Spedicato)(d), the Rhine(f), the Istros (Danube) of Hungary(g)\u00a0and the Po (H. S. Bellamy). Mythology has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[493,1524,305,2843,1525,2366,1304,71,1322,492,1305,3958,188,269,437,3957,54,86,270,1303,494,1526,372],"class_list":["post-3170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-amber","tag-apollonius-of-rhodes","tag-athens","tag-claudius-ptolemy","tag-cronian-sea","tag-danube","tag-eider","tag-emilio-spedicato","tag-eratosthenes","tag-eridanus","tag-frederic-de-rougemont","tag-gulf-of-riga","tag-h-s-bellamy","tag-helgoland","tag-juergen-spanuth","tag-kai-helge-wirth","tag-north-sea","tag-orichalcum","tag-phaeton","tag-rhine","tag-river-duna","tag-river-po","tag-walter-baucum"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3170"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3170\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66287,"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3170\/revisions\/66287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}