river god

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɹɪvə ˌɡɒd/

river god (plural river gods)

1. (mythology) The tutelary deity of a river.
   • 1859, George Eliot, Adam Bede:

     It was as if she had been wooed by a river-god, who might any time take her to his wondrous halls below a watery heaven.

   • 1995, Jeannete Faurot, Asian-Pacific Folktales and Legends, Touchstone 1995, p. 219:

     From then on the people of Ye never again dared speak of the River God taking a wife.

   • 2011, Tom Meltzer, The Guardian, 13 Oct 2011:

     Some weeks, alas, we return to camp with six dead minnows and a dripping hemp bag full of dodgy clams, but this week, praise be, the river god has smiled on us [...].

• naiad

• overgird