Myth Library · Local Land Dispute
Hera and Poseidon Contest Argos
1 source witness · 1 source-scoped variant · reviewed 2026-08-30
Pausanias says the river gods Inachus, Cephisus, and Asterion judge Argos to belong to Hera. Poseidon punishes the judgment by taking away their water, while another local passage remembers his flood at Argos.
Canonical narrative
Pausanias approaches the Heraion through a landscape already marked by judgment. The river gods Inachus, Cephisus, and Asterion are made arbiters between Hera and Poseidon. They decide that Argos belongs to Hera. This is a local contest for land and divine precedence, not another telling of the olive and sea sign at Athens.
Poseidon answers the loss through water. Pausanias says that he makes the rivers disappear after the judges award the country to Hera. Elsewhere in the Argive account, the people preserve the memory of a flood sent by Poseidon. Drought and inundation stand beside one another as local punishments tied to the same defeated claim.
The two passages do not supply a single continuous eyewitness narrative. Pausanias reports what different Argive places and traditions explained. Hera keeps the land, Poseidon remains powerful within its water stories, and the river judges pay for choosing between them.
Episodes in this myth
Episode 1
The rivers judge for Hera
Inachus, Cephisus, and Asterion award Argos to Hera over Poseidon.
Episode 2
Poseidon punishes the judgment
The defeated god takes away the rivers’ water, while another Argive passage remembers his flood.
Participants and roles
Hera
goddess awarded Argos by the river judges
goddess awarded Argos by the river judges.Poseidon
rival claimant who punishes the judgment through lost water and flood
rival claimant who punishes the judgment through lost water and flood.Inachus, Cephisus, and Asterion
three river gods who judge the land to belong to Hera
three river gods who judge the land to belong to Hera.Source-scoped variants
Pausanias Argive land dispute
River gods award Argos to Hera, and Poseidon answers through the local waters.
What differs: The two Pausanian passages preserve both vanished river water and an Argive flood. They are retained side by side rather than collapsed into one physical event.
Greek Roman Imperial · ArgosSource witnesses
EXPLICIT PRIMARY · Reviewed
Description of Greece
Pausanias; Spiro Greek edition and Jones/Ormerod translation volumes · 1935
Entry Description of Greece · Book 2 · Section 15.5; 22.4
Description of Greece 2.15.5 names the river judges and lost water; 2.22.4 preserves the Argive flood.
Open reviewed source