Greek PantheonStrait
Symplegades (Clashing Rocks)
The Clashing Rocks at the entrance to the Black Sea, which crushed anything passing between them until the Argo, following Phineus's advice and a dove, slipped through and fixed them in place.
About Symplegades (Clashing Rocks)
Clashing rocks at the Bosporus
The Symplegades (Planctae in some naming muddles) are living cliffs that smash what passes. In Argonautica 2 Phineus tells the crew to send a dove; if it lives, row. Athena shoves the Argo through; the rocks freeze apart thereafter. Pindar already knows the feat. There is no cult of the rocks. Later sailors pointed at the Bosporus. The episode is a one-time opening of the Black Sea.
On the map
Symplegades (Clashing Rocks) among other places of the Greek Pantheon.
Sources and further reading
Source notes
These references are recorded in the catalog. Their passage wording and translation have not been checked, so quotations are not displayed here.
- Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 2
About this entry
By Elizabeth Stein for Mythos Atlas. About the author. Editorial notes are grounded in the site's cited sources and can be challenged through the contact page.
Coordinates mark where the myths place a site, or where the tradition locates it today. Mythic realms are left off the map or marked as symbolic placements.
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