ABOUT MAIANDROS

Why have we called our site "maiandros"?

What is maiandros? Is it the name of a decorative pattern? The ancient name of a river? A person, perhaps a king? An ancient deity? In truth, it is all these things and more. As with much in Greek mythology, "Maiandros" embodies a deeply symbolic, tragic, and beautiful narrative.

Hesiod provides the earliest mention of Maiandros as the patron deity of a river in Asia Minor. This river, originating in the highlands of southern Phrygia, flows west through Caria before emptying into the Aegean Sea opposite the city of Miletus. The river's winding course has inspired the English word "meandering".

Herodotus also references the same river in his Histories. Later, the geographer Pausanias recounts how King Ancaeus of Samos married Samia, the daughter of the river god Maiandros.

Athanasios Stagirites, in his work Ogygia or Archaeology, tells a different story. According to him, Maiandros was once a warrior king. He vowed to Rhea, the primordial mother of the Greek gods (daughter of Uranus and Gaia, and wife of her brother Cronus), that if she granted him victory over his enemies, he would sacrifice the first person to greet him upon his return. Triumphantly returning home, he was met by his wife and children. Adhering to his promise, he sacrificed them. Overcome with grief, he threw himself into a river, which, due to its unusual path seeming to return to its source, was known as "rising" or "ascending." Thereafter, the river bore the name Maiandros in his memory.

Stagirites also offers another version: King Maiandros, having plundered Rhea's temple, incurred the goddess's wrath. She drove him to madness, leading him to murder his family before he ultimately drowned himself in the river that would carry his name.

Love stories, unlawful murders, suicides... and the gods watching from above! What are we to make of these tales? The river, which still exists today, was well-known in antiquity, and its unique features were widely recognised. Most major rivers, along with other natural phenomena, were associated with deities, and the stories about them and their adventures date back thousands of years. Over time, these narratives retained their core themes, but their details adapted to new stories, events, or phenomena that needed explanation.

With this in mind, let us explore the last and most popular story, one that reveals the profound connection the Ancient Greeks perceived between human beings, nature, and the supernatural. According to this tale, Peleus, the king of the Greek Myrmidons in Thessaly, fell in love with the goddess Thetis. Seeing little chance of realising his feelings, he sought advice from Chiron, the famous centaur who lived on Mount Pelion. The wise centaur advised him that the only way to subdue her was to hold her in a special armlock (known as the "Cheironean armlock") and not let her go, even if she transformed into a deadly snake, a lioness, a sea monster, or even fire or water. One night, the goddess appeared; Peleus saw her dancing, and, following Chiron's advice, leapt forward, grabbed her, and held on through all her metamorphoses until he eventually subdued her. This event is beautifully depicted on a kylix from 500 BC, now in Berlin, where the armlock and the shape of the maiandros are shown where Peleus' hands interlock (see photo above). Peleus married Thetis, and they had seven sons, six of whom died in infancy. The one who survived was the demigod Achilles, who was also taught by Chiron and became a hero in the Trojan War. Ovid, writing much later, names Proteus, the sea god and son of Poseidon, as the one who advised Peleus.

The multitude of plates, vases, kylixes, and other artefacts depicting this story attest to its popularity around 500 BC. While not all depictions show Peleus using the "Cheironean armlock" (interlacing his left hand with his right, forming the shape of the maiandros), they consistently portray him holding the goddess by the waist as she tries to escape by transforming into various forms, such as a lion, a sea monster, or fire; sometimes serpents emerge from her body, attempting to devour Peleus.

What remains unseen is the deep symbolism of a mortal man overcoming a goddess by believing in himself and asserting his willpower. Defeating even a god is possible if fate allows and if one has faith in oneself. This is not hubris, as it does not go against fate: Thetis was destined to marry a mortal to prevent her offspring from overthrowing Zeus, according to prophecy. We cannot help but admire the delicate balance between what mortals can achieve and what the gods and destiny have in store for them. The ever-returning form of the maiandros, like the ever-returning to itself mind ("know thyself"), symbolises the ultimate weapon in the struggle for perfection and fulfilment in this life. The maiandros armlock, representing the ultimate struggle of man against the divine, is also depicted on many vases and tablets of the same period, showing Heracles defeating the sea god Triton.

Considering the shape of the maiandros, we should be careful not to confuse it with the gammadion, a somewhat similar shape. The gammadion is the precursor of the swastika, not maiandros (as has sometimes been falsely claimed). Both symbols ultimately derive from and are related to the ancient Greek theory of physics, which held that the particles that make up the world move in a helical motion. What seems like a spiral, the "returning to itself" motion, guarantees the eternal motion that governs all things (Heraclitus). Maiandros, however, is also meant to represent the "interlocking" of two opposing elements, left and right, to create the whole. There is much more to be said and discovered in these sacred symbols beyond their undeniable decorative appeal, which, since their creation, many have enjoyed.

Last but not least, you may be confused by the spelling of the word "maiandros," which you may have encountered as "meandros." Do not worry though: as far as navigating to our site is concerned, both "maiandros.com" and "meandros.com" will bring you here. The correct spelling of the word in Greek has always been "μαίανδρος," a spelling that wonderfully aligns with the etymology of the word: "μαία" meaning "midwife" and "ἀνήρ" meaning "man," signifying the (symbolic) rebirth of man into a victorious creature who can triumph over everything as long as he treads the right path of self-knowledge. (The Greek language is highly conceptual, making it relatively easy to trace the meaning of a word when one knows the etymology.) The transliteration used in many good translations of ancient texts is "maeander." The -os ending disappears due to Latin phonetics, leading to the simplified form "meandros" when heard and not seen in writing. This form spread to English and beyond, to the point where some Greeks, unaware of the correct spelling, reintroduced it into Greek as an incorrect version of "μαίανδρος."

Below you can find some mentions of “maiandros” by various writers. The texts have been taken from the very informative site “Theoi” (meaning “Gods” in Greek).

Hesiod, Theogony 337 ff (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic circa 800 or 700 B.C.): "Tethys bore to Okeanos (Oceanus) the swirling Potamoi (Rivers)... Strymon and Maiandros (Maeander), Istros (Ister) of the beautiful waters [in a list of rivers]." 

Strabo, Geography 12. 8. 19 (trans. Jones) (Greek geographer circa 100 B.C. to 100 A.D.): "And they say that lawsuits are brought against the god Maiandros (Maeander) for altering the boundaries of the countries on his banks, that is, when the projecting elbows of land are swept away by him; and that when he is convicted the fines are paid from the tolls collected at the ferries." 

Pausanias, Description of Greece 7. 4. 1 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue circa 200 A.D.): "Ankaios (Ancaeus) [first king of Samos] took to wife Samia, the daughter of the river Maiandros (Maeander)." 

Ovid, Metamorphoses 9. 446 ff (trans. Melville) (Roman epic circa 100 B.C. to 100 A.D.): "[Miletos (Miletus)] built the battlements that keep their founder's name [i.e. the town of Miletos]; where, as she strolled beside Maeander's winding banks, her father's stream, that turns so often back upon its course, he joined in love a Nympha of beauty rare, Cyanee."

Pseudo-Hyginus, Preface (trans. Grant) (Roman mythographer circa 200 A.D.): "From Oceanus and Tethys [were born] the Oceanides . . . Of the same descent Rivers : Strymon, Nile, Euphrates, Tanais, Indus, Cephisus, Ismenus, Axenus, Achelous, Simoeis, Inachus, Alpheus, Thermodon, Scamandrus, Tigris, Maeandrus, Orontes."

Propertius, Elegies 2. 34 (trans. Goold) (Roman elegy circa 100 B.C.): "The stream of the Maeandrus (Maeander) wanders deceptively over the Phrygian plain and itself conceals the direction of its flow."

Nonnus, Dionysiaca 11. 379 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic circa 500 A.D.): "His own father called him Kalamos (Calamus): his father Maiandros (Maeander), lurking in the secret places with his water in the lap of earth--who rolls deep through the earth and drags his crooked stream towards the light, crawling unseen and travelling slantwise underground, until he leaps up quickly and lifts his neck above the ground."