In Greek mythology, Asterion (; Ancient Greek: , gen.: , literally "starry") was a river-god of Argos.
Family Asterion was presumably one of the sons of Oceanus and Tethys. He had three daughters, Euboea, Prosymna, and Acraea, who were the nurses of Hera.Pausanias, 2.17.2.
Mythology Asterion was one of the three river-gods (the other two being Inachus and Cephisus) who awarded the territory of Argolis to Hera over Poseidon. Poseidon, in anger, made the waters of all three rivers disappear so that they don't flow unless it rains, and are dry in summer.Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio 2.15.5
The River Asterion in Argos is mentioned in the Dionysiaca of Nonnus, who couples the reference with a rite in which young men dedicate locks of their hair.Nonnus, Dionysiaca 47.493.
Asterion in the herbal of Dioscurides, is Silene linifolia.Charles Singer, "The Herbal in Antiquity and Its Transmission to Later Ages", The Journal of Hellenic Studies 47.1 (1927):1–52), illus. p. 16, fig. 12, naturalistic drawing of the first or second century CE, redrawn for the Vienna Dioscurides made for Julia Anicia. Of this herb, found near the Heraion of the Argolid, Pausanias noted "On its banks grows a plant, which also is called asterion. They offer the plant itself to Hera, and from its leaves weave her garlands."
Notes
References Pausanias, Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. . Online version at the Perseus Digital Library Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio. 3 vols. Leipzig, Teubner. 1903. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.