[1] The Ladon rises on the western slope of the Aroania mountain, near the village Kastriá, Kleitoria municipal unit, Achaea.

The river was among those mentioned by Hesiod in Theogony; they were "all sons of Oceanus and queenly Tethys" [2][3] for, according to the image of world hydrography common to the ancients, the fresh water that welled up in springs came from the underworld caverns and pools, and was connected with the salt sea.

Rain fertilized crops, but the sense that its runoff filled the rivers did not figure in the Greek mythic picture.

By Stymphalis,[4] Ladon became the father of the Arcadian nymph Metope who wed another river god, Asopus.

[5] The naiad Daphne, who rejected Apollo’s advances, was the daughter of Ladon[6] and Ge (Earth).