Maeander River
The
Meander or
Maeander (
Greek: Μαίανδρος) is the classical Greek and
Latin name for the
Büyük Menderes River in southwestern
Turkey. It rises in west central Turkey, near
Dinar, flowing west into the
Aegean Sea near the ancient
Ionian city of
Miletus. Its winding back and forth course gave rise to English word
meander.
The Maeander was a celebrated river in ancient
Asia Minor. It has its sources not far from
Celaenae in
Phrygia (now
Dinar) (
Xenoph. Anab. i. 2. § 7), where it gushed forth in a park of
Cyrus. According to some (
Strabo xii. p. 578; Maxim. Tyr. viii. 38) its sources were the same as those of the river
Marsyas; but this is irreconcilable with Xenophon, according to whom the sources of the two rivers were only near each other, the Marsyas rising in a royal palace. Others, again, as
Pliny (v. 31),
Solinus (40. § 7), and
Martianus Capella (6. p. 221), state that the Maeander flowed out of a lake on
Mount Aulocrene. Col. Leake (
Asia Minor, p. 158, &c.) reconciles all these apparently different statements by the remark that both the Maeander and the Marsyas have their origin in the lake on Mount Aulocrene, above Celaenae, but that they issue at different parts of the mountain below the lake.
The Maeander was so celebrated in antiquity for its numerous windings, that its name became, and still is, proverbial. (
Hom. Il. ii. 869;
Hesiod,
Theog. 339;
Herod. vii. 26, 30; Strab. xii. p. 577;
Paus. viii. 41. § 3;
Ov. Met. viii. 162, &c.;
Liv. xxxviii. 13;
Senec. Herc. Fur. 683, &c.,
Phoen. 605.) Its whole course has a southwesterly direction on the south of the range of
Mount Messogis. South of
Tripolis it receives the waters of the
Lycus, whereby it becomes a river of some importance. Near
Carura it passes from Phrygia into
Caria, where it flows in its tortuous course through the Maeandrian plain (comp. Strab. xiv. p. 648, xv. p. 691), and finally discharges itself in the
Gulf of Icaros (an arm of the
Aegean Sea), between
Priene and
Myus, opposite to the
Ionian city of
Miletus, from which its mouth is only 10 stadia distant. (Plin. l. c.; Paus. ii. 5. § 2.) The tributaries of the Maeander include the
Orgyas, Marsyas,
Cludrus,
Lethaeus, and
Gaeson, in the north; and the
Obrimas, Lycus,
Harpasus, and a second
Marsyas in the south. The Maeander is everywhere a very deep river (Nic. Chonat. p. 125; Liv. l. c.), but not very broad, so that in many parts its depth equals its breadth. As moreover it carried in its waters a great quantity of mud, it was navigable only for small craft. (Strab. xii. p. 579, xiv. p. 636.) It frequently overflowed its banks; and, in consequence of the quantity of its deposits at its mouth, the coast has been pushed about 20 or 30 stadia further into the sea, so that several small islands off the coast have become united with the mainland. (Paus. viii. 24. § 5;
Thucyd. viii. 17.) There was a story about a subterraneous connection between the Maeander and the
Alpheius in
Elis. (Paus. il. 5. § 2; comp. Hamilton,
Researches, vol. i. p. 525, foll., ii. p. 161, foll.)
