Dictionary:

Eridanus

  (ĭ-rĭd'n-əs)

A constellation in the Southern Hemisphere near Fornax and Cetus.

[Greek Ēridanos, mythical river associated with the myth of Phaeton.]

1. Legendary amber-bearing river, vaguely located by the Greeks in the far north-west, into which Phaethon supposedly fell, the amber being the tears wept by his sisters who were transformed into poplar trees. Herodotus reported that he had heard of it as the source of amber but did not believe it existed. Later Greeks identified it with the river Po (Lat. Padus) in north Italy, and the Roman poets and occasionally prose writers adopted the name.

2. Name of a small tributary of the river Ilissus at Athens.

The name "Eridanus" can refer to:

• Eridanos (mythology) (or Eridanus), a river in Greek mythology, associated by Herodotus with the Po
• Eridanus (geology), a large river that flowed in prehistoric times in what is now the Baltic Sea
• Eridanus (constellation), a southern constellation
• Eridanus Supervoid
• Eridanos (Athens), a former river near Athens

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