a river celebrated in Mythology for the fall of Phaethon, and the metamorphosis of his sisters into long and slender poplars. Astronomers placed Eridanus in the heavens, and made it one of the southern constellations. It was supposed to be the ancient name of the river Po, but the difficulty of explaining the tradition of amber being gathered on its banks has excited doubts respecting the correctness of this information. Cluverius has suggested that the Eridanus of Herodotus may be the Rhodane, a tributary of the Vistula; whilst others, knowing that amber was the staple product of the Baltic, are inclined to believe it the name of that sea, applied to it by mythologists, who were little acquainted with geography. (Virg. Georg. i. 412; En. vi. 659.)

Astronomy, a constellation of the southern hemisphere, supposed to have the form of a river.