Tanais

A river and its god of Scythia (the river Don), a son of Oceanus and Tethys.¹ It turned to steam in mid-water when Phaethon set the world on fire.²

According to Plutarch,³ the river was originally called the Amazonian River because the Amazons bathed themselves therein, but it received its new name upon the following occasion. Tanais, the son of Berossus and Lycippe, one of the Amazons, was a vehement hater of the female sex and looked upon marriage as ignominious and dishonorable, applying himself wholly to martial affairs. This offended Aphrodite and she caused him to fall passionately in love with his own mother. At first he withstood the urges, but finding that he could not overcome the force of his passion, he flung himself into the river, which was afterwards called Tanais.

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