Alpheus

In Greek mythology, Alpheus was the god of the river Alpheus, the river of the western Peloponnese that flows past Olympia. He was a son of Oceanus and Tethys. His best-known story tells how he loved the huntress Arethusa and followed her under the sea to Syracuse.

Family

Hesiod lists Alpheus among the rivers born to Tethys and Oceanus, together with the Nile and Eridanus (Hesiod, Theogony 337–338). In the Messenian account preserved by Pausanias, Telegone, the daughter of Pharis, bore Orsilochus to Alpheus (Pausanias 4.30.2). Homer knows Orsilochus as the son of Alpheus, whose broad stream flows through the land of the Pylians, and as the father of Diocles; Diocles was the host of Telemachus at Pherae and father of the twins Crethon and Orsilochus, killed by Aeneas at Troy (Homer, Iliad 5.541–560; Odyssey 3.488–489).

Alpheus and Arethusa

Pausanias tells that Alpheus was a hunter who fell in love with Arethusa, who was a huntress herself. She was unwilling to marry and crossed to the island of Ortygia opposite Syracuse, where she turned from a woman into a spring; Alpheus too was changed by his love into the river (Pausanias 5.7.2).

Ovid tells the story in the voice of Arethusa. She was a nymph of Achaea and a huntress who had never sought fame for her beauty. One hot day she undressed and bathed in a clear stream, and heard a murmur from the middle of the water: it was the river Alpheus, calling to her. She fled unclothed, and he pursued her through Arcadia and Elis; when she could run no further she prayed to Diana, who covered her with a cloud. The river searched around it, and she melted into water in her fear. Alpheus then put aside the human form he had taken and turned back into his own waters, to mingle with her, but Diana split the earth, and Arethusa passed through dark caverns and came up again at Ortygia (Ovid, Metamorphoses 5.572–641).

The belief that the two waters were one explained a Sicilian marvel. Strabo reports that people said that the Alpheus flowed underground through the sea to the fountain of Arethusa at Syracuse, and brought as proof that a cup thrown into the river at Olympia came out in the fountain, and that the fountain was discoloured by the sacrifice of oxen at Olympia (Strabo 6.2.4). Pindar calls Ortygia the “sacred breathing-place of Alpheus”, and the “bed of Artemis” (Pindar, Nemean 1.1–3).

Alpheus and Artemis

Pausanias gives a different love story in which Artemis is the object. Alpheus fell in love with the goddess and, seeing that persuasion would not win her, plotted to take her by force. Artemis was holding an all-night revel with her nymphs at Letrini when he came, but she suspected the plot and smeared her own face and those of the nymphs with mud. Alpheus could not tell her from the others and went away without carrying out his attempt (Pausanias 6.22.9). The people of Letrini therefore called the goddess Alpheian, and at Olympia an altar was shared by Alpheus and Artemis (Pausanias 6.22.10, 5.14.6).

Heracles and the Augean Stables

In the labour of the stables of Augeas, Heracles promised Eurystheus to clear the dung of the cattle in a single day. He made a breach in the foundations of the cattle-yard, diverted the courses of the Alpheus and the Peneus, which flowed near each other, and turned them into the yard, having first made an outlet for the water through another opening (Apollodorus, Library 2.5.5). See Twelve Labours for the whole series.

Alpheus at Olympia

By the time it reaches Olympia the Alpheus is a large river, fed by several tributaries; its source is in Arcadia (Pausanias 5.7.1). The Eleans honoured it above all other rivers, ranking the Cladeus next after it, and both rivers were carved on the east pediment of the temple of Zeus (Pausanias 5.10.7). Pausanias lists images of Pelops and of the river Alpheus on either side of the great statue of Zeus dedicated by the Chersonesians of Cnidus (Pausanias 5.24.7).

Alpheus Sources

Ancient sources: Hesiod, Theogony 337–338; Homer, Iliad 5.541–560 and Odyssey 3.488–489; Pindar, Nemean 1.1–3; Apollodorus, Library 2.5.5; Ovid, Metamorphoses 5.572–641; Strabo 6.2.4; Pausanias 4.30.2, 5.7.1–2, 5.10.7, 5.14.6, 5.24.7, 6.22.9–10.

See Also: Oceanus, Tethys, Artemis, Twelve Labours, Heracles