The Arar

The Arar ( join) is a river in Celtic territory. It received its name because it joins the river Rhodanos. It flows down into it through the territory of the Allobroges. It used to be called the Brigoulos but it was renamed for this reason. Arar ventured into a wood to go hunting and found that his brother Celtiberos had been killed by wild animals. Overwhelming grief caused him to mortally stab himself and to throw himself into the Brigoulos river, which was renamed the Arar after him.

There is produced in this river a large fish that the local people call skolopidos ( spike).¹ When the moon is waxing, it is white, but when waning, it becomes completely black. When it has grown unduly large, it impales itself with its own spikes

There is gathered in its head a stone similar to a lump of salt. It does wonders for quartan fever when applied to the left side of the body during a waning moon. Callisthenes of Sybaris recounts this in book 13 of his On Gaul, which Timagenes of Syria took as the basis for his discussion.

Nearby is a mountain called Lougdounon. It was renamed for this reason. Momoros and Atepomaros, after being overthrown by Seseroneus and following a commandment, came to this ridge to found a city. While they were digging the foundations, crows suddenly appeared. They flapped their wings all around and completely filled the trees. Momoros, being an expert in reading bird signs, named the city Lougdounon. For in their dialect they call a crow a lougos and an outcrop a dounon. Cleitophon recounts this in book 13 of his On City Foundings.

De Fluviis. Pseudo-Plutarch. Greta Hawes (Translator), Sonia Pertsinidis (Translator), Charles Delattre (Translator). Washington, DC. 07/06/2022.

Sponsored by Center for Hellenic Studies.

Funding provided by Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación PID2019-108931GB-I00 / SRA 10.13039/501100011033.

Current edition First1KGreek

On the Naming of Rivers, Mountains, and Things Found in Them (English) (Pseudo-Plutarch. On the Naming of Rivers, Mountains, and Things Found in Them. Hawes, Greta, et al., translators. Washington, DC: Center for Hellenic Studies, 2022. (Digital publication).)

Editions (1)

De Fluviis First1KGreek (Pseudo-Plutarch. Geographi graeci minores Volumen Secundum. Müller, Karl, editor. Paris: Ambroise Firmin Didot, 861.) — 6 focus

VI. APAΡ.

[1] 1. Ἄραρ ποταμός ἐστι τῆς Κελτικῆς, τὴν προσηγορίαν εἰληφὼς παρὰ τὸ ἡρμόσθαι τῷ Ῥοδανῷ· καταφέρεται γὰρ εἰς τοῦτον κατὰ τὴν χώραν τῶν Ἀλλοβρόγων. Ἐκαλεῖτο δὲ πρότερον Βρίγουλος· μετωνομάσθη δὲ διʼ αἰτίαν τοιαύτην. Ἄραρ κυνηγεσίας χάριν εἰς ὕλην προχωρήσας καὶ εὑρὼν τὸν ἀδελφὸν Κελτίβηρον ὑπὸ θηρίων ἀνηλωμένον, διὰ λύπης ὑπερβολὴν ἑαυτὸν καιρίως πλήξας ἔβαλεν εἰς τὸν ποταμὸν Βρίγουλον, ὃς ἀπʼ αὐτοῦ μετωνομάσθη Ἄραρ.

[2] 2. Γεννᾶται δὲ ἐν αὐτῷ μέγας ἰχθὺς, σκολοπίας προσαγορευόμενος ὑπὸ τῶν ἐγχωρίων· οὗτος αὐξανομένης τῆς σελήνης λευκός ἐστιν· μειουμένης δὲ μέλας γίνεται παντελῶς ὑπεραυξήσας δὲ ἀναιρεῖται ὑπὸ τῶν ἰδίων ἀκανθῶν.

[3] 3. Εὑρίσκεται δʼ ἐν τῆ κεφαλῇ αὐτοῦ λίθος χόνδρῳ παρόμοιος ἁλὸς, ὃς κάλλιστα ποιεῖ πρὸς τεταρταίας νόσους, τοῖς ἀριστεροῖς μέρεσι τοῦ σώματος προσδεδεμένος τῆς σελήνης μειουμένης, καθὼς ἱστορεῖ Καλλισθένης ὁ Συβαρίτης ἐν ιγ΄ Γαλατικῶν, παρʼ οὗ τὴν ὑπόθεσιν εἴληφεν Τιμαγένης ὁ Σύρος.

[4] 4. Παράκειται δὲ αὐτῷ ὄρος Λούγδουνος καλούμενον· μετωνομάσθη δὲ δʼ αἰτίαντοιαύτην. Μώμορος καὶ Ἀτεπόμαρος, ὑπὸ Σεσηρονέως τῆς ἀρχῆς ἐκβληθέντες, εἰς τοῦτον κατὰ προσταγὴν χρησμοῦ ἦλθον τὸν λόφον πόλιν κτίσαι θέλοντες. Τῶν δὲ θεμελίων ὀρυσσομένων αἰφνιδίως κόρακες ἐπιφανέντες καὶ διαπτερυξάμενοι, τὰ πέριξ ἐπλήρωσαν δένδρα. Μώμορος δὲ οἰωνοσκοπίας ἔμπειρος ὑπάρχων, τὴν πόλιν Λούγδουνον προσηγόρευσεν. Λοῦγον γὰρ τῇ σφῶν διαλέκτῳ τὸν κόρακα καλοῦσι, δοῦνον δὲ τόπον ἐξέχοντα, καθὼς ἱστορεῖ Κλειτοφῶν ἐν ιγ΄ Κτίσεων.

Translations (1)

Of the Names of Rivers and Mountains, and of Such Things as are to be Found Therein Perseus ([Pseudo-]Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals, Vol. 5. Goodwin, William W., editor. White, R., translator. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company; Cambridge, Press of John Wilson and Son, 1874.) — 6 focus

VI. ARAR.

ARAR is a river in Gallia Celtica, deriving the name from its being mixed with the river Rhone. For it falls into the Rhone within the country of the Allobroges. It was formerly called Brigulus, but afterwards changed its name upon this occasion. Arar, as he was a hunting, entering into the wood, and there finding his brother Celtiber torn in pieces by the wild beasts, mortally wounded himself for grief, and fell into the river Brigulus; which from that accident was afterwards called by his own name Arar.

In this river there breeds a certain large fish, which by the natives is called Clupaea. This fish during the increase of the moon is white; but all the while the moon is in the wane, it is altogether black; and when it grows over bulky, it is (as it were) stabbed by its own fins. In the head of it is found a stone like a corn of salt, which, being applied to the left parts of the body when the moon is in the wane, cures quartan agues;—as Callisthenes the Sybarite tells us in the Thirteenth Book of Gallic Relations, from whom Timagenes the Syrian borrowed his argument.

Near to this river stands a mountain called Lugdunum, which changed its name upon this occasion. When Momorus and Atepomarus were dethroned by Seseroneus, in pursuance of the oracle’s command they designed to build a city upon the top of the hill. But when they had laid the foundations, great numbers of crows with their wings expanded covered all the neighboring trees. Upon which Momorus, being a person well skilled in augury, called the city Lugdunum. For lugdon in their language signifies a crow, and dunum¹ any spacious hill.—This Clitophon reports, in his Thirteenth Book of the Building of Cities.

Notes on the current edition

On the Naming of Rivers, Mountains, and Things Found in Them

1. We translate σκολόπιδος as transmitted rather than the several conjectured alternatives. The allusion to a spiked palisade makes sense of the self-impalement described later in the paragraph.

Pseudo-Plutarch De Fluviis 6

Greta Hawes (Translator), Sonia Pertsinidis (Translator), Charles Delattre (Translator)

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

The Arar

Current edition First1KGreek

VI. APAΡ.

VI. ARAR.

Notes on the current edition

Stable identifiers