Argyra (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Argyra (/ˈɑːrdʒɪrə/; Ancient Greek: Ἀργυρᾶ) was one of the Naiads, a nymph who lived in a well. There was a city in ancient Achaea, also named Argyra, that was the site of a spring.

Mythology

According to legend, the nymph Argyra was in love with a shepherd named Selemnus whom she visited frequently.^[1] But when he aged and his youthful beauty vanished, she forsook him. When the boy died of grief, the goddess Aphrodite out of pity changed him into a river. There was a popular belief in Achaia that a forsaken lover who bathes in this river will forget their pain.^[2]

Notes

1. Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio 7.23.1
2. Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio 7.23.2

References

• Pausanias, Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. ISBN 0-674-99328-4. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
• Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio. 3 vols. Leipzig, Teubner. 1903. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.