Editing Alpheus (deity) (section)

== Mythology ==
[[File:La Ninfa Aretusa.PNG|left|thumb|''La Ninfa Aretusa'' by Alexandre Crauk]]
According to [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], Alpheus was a passionate hunter and fell in love with the nymph [[Arethusa (mythology)|Arethusa]], but she fled from him to the island of [[Ortygia]] near [[Syracuse, Sicily|Syracuse]], and metamorphosed herself into a well, after which Alpheus became a river, which flowing from [[Peloponnesus|the Peloponnese]] under the sea to Ortygia, there united its waters with those of the well Arethusa.<ref>Pausanias, ''Graeciae Descriptio'' 5.7.2; [[Scholiast]] on [[Pindar]]'s ''Nemean Odes'' 1.3</ref> The well of Arethusa is a symbol of [[Syracuse, Sicily|Syracuse]].<ref name="Roman, L. 2010">Roman, L., & Roman, M. (2010). {{Google books|tOgWfjNIxoMC|Encyclopedia of Greek and Roman mythology.|page=56}}</ref> This story is related somewhat differently by the Roman writer [[Ovid]]: Arethusa, a beautiful [[nymph]], once while bathing in the river [[Alfeios|Alpheus]] in [[Arcadia (ancient region)|Arcadia]], was surprised and pursued by the river god; but the goddess [[Artemis]] took pity upon her and changed her into a well, which flowed under the earth to the island of Ortygia.<ref>[[Ovid]], ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' 5.572; [[Virgil]], ''[[Aeneid]]'' 3.694; [[Servius Tullius|Servius]] ad Virgil, ''[[Eclogues]]'' 10.4; [[Statius]], ''Silvae'' 1.2, 203, ''[[Thebaid (Latin poem)|Thebaid]]'' 1.271, 4.239; [[Lucian]], ''Dialogi Marini'' 3</ref> Alpheus took on water form jumping into the stream, but the earth opened and the stream flew underground to appear in a bay near Syracuse, near the island [[Ortygia]], a location sacred to Artemis.<ref name="Roman, L. 2010"/>

According to other traditions, [[Artemis]] herself was the object of the love of Alpheus. Once, it is said, when pursued by him she fled to Letrini in [[Ancient Elis|Elis]], and here she covered her face and those of her companions (nymphs) with mud, so that Alpheus could not discover or distinguish her, and was obliged to return.<ref>Pausanias, ''Graeciae Descriptio'' 6.22.5</ref>  This occasioned the building of a temple of [[Artemis Alphaea]] at Letrini.  According to another version, the goddess fled to [[Ortygia]], where she had likewise a temple under the name of Alphaea.<ref>Scholiast on Pindar's ''Pythian Odes'' 2.12</ref>  An allusion to Alpheius' love of Artemis is also contained in the fact that at [[Olympia, Greece|Olympia]] the two divinities had one altar in common.<ref>Pausanias, ''Graeciae Descriptio'' 5.14.5; Scholiast on Pindar's ''Olympian Odes'' 5.10</ref>

In these accounts two or more distinct stories seem to be mixed up together, but they probably originated in the popular belief that there was a natural subterranean communication between the river [[Alpheios]] and the well Arethusa.  It was believed that a cup thrown into the Alpheius would make its reappearance in the well Arethusa in Ortygia.<ref>[[Strabo]], ''[[Geographica]]'' 6, p. 270, 8.343; [[Seneca the Younger]], ''[[Naturales quaestiones]]''  3.26; [[Fabius Planciades Fulgentius|Fulgentius]], ''Mythologiarum libri'' 3.12</ref>  [[Plutarch]] gives an account which is altogether unconnected with those mentioned above.<ref>[[Pseudo-Plutarch]], ''De fluviis'' 19</ref> According to him, Alpheius was a son of [[Helios]], and killed his brother Cercaphus in a contest. Haunted by despair and the [[Erinyes]] he leapt into the river Nyctimus which afterwards received the name Alpheius.<ref name="DGRBM"/>

Alpheus was also the river which [[Heracles]], in the fifth of his [[Labours of Hercules|labours]], rerouted in order to clean the filth from the [[Augean Stables]] in a single day, a task which had been presumed to be impossible.