Editing Achelous (section)

==Mythology==
===Heracles and Deianeira===
[[File:Herakles Achelous Louvre G365.jpg|thumb| Deianeira watches Heracles fighting Achelous, the river-god's broken-off horn lies on the ground; [[Attic]] [[column krater]], [[Louvre]] G365 (c. 460&ndash;450).<ref>Isler 1981, [https://archive.org/details/limc_20210516/Lexicon%20Iconographicum%20Mythologiae%20Classicae/LIMC%20I-1/page/n41/mode/1up p. 25 (Acheloos 218)]; [[Digital LIMC]] [http://ark.dasch.swiss/ark:/72163/080e-73e02cee4e83e-a  4275]; [[Beazley Archive]]  [http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/record/51DC7ACF-5618-47A8-8FDB-9518974EABE0 6911]; ''LIMC'' I.2, [https://archive.org/details/limc_20210516/Lexicon%20Iconographicum%20Mythologiae%20Classicae/LIMC%20I-2/page/n23/mode/1up p. 46 (Acheloos 218)].</ref>]]
Achelous was a suitor for [[Deianeira]], daughter of [[Oeneus]], the king of [[Calydon]]; he transformed himself into a bull and fought Heracles for the right to marry Deianeira, but was defeated, and Heracles married Deianeira.<ref>Gantz, pp. 28&ndash;29, 41&ndash;42, 431&ndash;433; Hard, pp. [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA41 41], [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA279 279&ndash;280]; Fowler 2013, [https://books.google.com/books?id=scd8AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA323 pp. 323&ndash;324]; [[Joseph Fontenrose|Fontenrose]], [https://books.google.com/books?id=wqeVv09Y6hIC&pg=PA350 pp. 350&ndash;356]; [[Sophocles]], ''[[Women of Trachis]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0011.tlg001.perseus-eng1:1-48 9&ndash;26], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0011.tlg001.perseus-eng1:497-506 497&ndash;525]; [[Propertius]], ''Elegies'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/propertius-elegies/1990/pb_LCL018.211.xml 2.34.33&ndash;34]; [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], ''[[Fabulae]]'' 31.7; [[Ovid]], ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/ovid-metamorphoses/1916/pb_LCL043.3.xml 9.1&ndash;100], ''[[Amores (Ovid)|Amores]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0959.phi001.perseus-eng2:3.6 3.6.35&ndash;36], ''[[Heroides]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/ovid-heroides/1914/pb_LCL041.119.xml 9.137&ndash;140], [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/ovid-heroides/1914/pb_LCL041.217.xml 16.263&ndash;268]; [[Seneca the Younger|Seneca]], ''[[Hercules Oetaeus]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/seneca_younger-hercules_oeta/2018/pb_LCL078.365.xml 299&ndash;303], [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/seneca_younger-hercules_oeta/2018/pb_LCL078.385.xml 495&ndash;499]; [[Statius]], ''[[Thebaid (Latin poem)|Thebaid]]'' [https://archive.org/stream/statiusstat01statuoft#page/514/mode/2up 4.106]; [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg001.perseus-eng1:1.8.1 1.8.1], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg001.perseus-eng1:2.7.5 2.7.5]; [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.perseus-eng1:3.18.16 3.18.16], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.perseus-eng1:6.19.12 6.19.12]; [[Philostratus the Younger]], ''[[Imagines (work by Philostratus)|Imagines]]'' [https://archive.org/stream/imagines00philuoft#page/302/mode/2up 4]; [[Nonnus]], ''[[Dionysiaca]]'' [https://archive.org/stream/dionysiaca02nonnuoft#page/48/mode/2up 17.238&ndash;239], [https://archive.org/stream/dionysiaca03nonnuoft#page/268/mode/2up 43.12&ndash;15].</ref> The story of Achelous, in the form of a bull, battling with Heracles for Deianeira, was apparently told as early as the 7th century BC, in a lost poem by the Greek poet [[Archilochus]], while according to a summary of a lost poem by the early 5th-century BC Greek poet [[Pindar]], during the contest, Heracles broke off one of Achelous's bull-horns, and the river-god was able to get his horn back by trading it for a horn from [[Amalthea (mythology)|Amalthea]].<ref>Gantz, pp. 28, 41&ndash;42, 432; Hard, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA280 p. 280]; Jebb, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0027%3Atext%3Dintro%3Asection%3D5 Introduction 5]; [[Archilochus]], [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/archilochus-fragments/1999/pb_LCL259.267.xml fr. 286 West] [= [[Dio Chrysostom]], [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Dio_Chrysostom/Discourses/60*.html 60.1]], [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/archilochus-fragments/1999/pb_LCL259.267.xml fr. 287 West] [= Scholiast on Homer, ''Iliad'' 21.237]. Compare with [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg001.perseus-eng1:2.7.5 2.7.5] [= [[Pherecydes of Athens]] [https://books.google.com/books?id=j0nRE4C2WBgC&pg=PA303 fr. 42 Fowler]], which says that the horn of Amalthea which Achelous traded for his broken-off horn, was also a bull's horn which, "according to Pherecydes, had the power of supplying meat or drink in abundance, whatever one might wish". Amalthea was the owner of a goat (or in later sources the goat itself) that nursed the infant Zeus (see Gantz, p. 41). According to Hard, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA280 p. 280], Apollodorus making Amalthea's horn of plenty a bull's horn was "evidently a misapprehension" arising from the fact that it was traded for the bull-horn of Achelous.</ref>

[[Sophocles]], in his play ''[[Women of Trachis]]'' (c. 450&ndash;425 BC), has Deianeira tell her story, how Achelous wooed her in the shape of a bull, a snake, and a half-man/half-bull:<ref>Gantz, p. 432.</ref>

{{blockquote|For my suitor was a river-god, Achelous, who in three shapes was always asking me from my father—coming now as a bull in visible form, now as a serpent, sheeny and coiled, now ox-faced with human trunk, while from his thick-shaded beard wellheads of fountain-water sprayed. In the expectation that such a suitor would get me, I was always praying in my misery that I might die, before I should ever approach that marriage-bed. But at last, to my joy, the glorious son of Zeus and Alcmena came and closed with him in combat and delivered me.<ref>[[Sophocles]], ''[[Women of Trachis]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0011.tlg001.perseus-eng1:1-48 9&ndash;21]; compare with the Chorus's description of the fight at [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0011.tlg001.perseus-eng1:497-506 497&ndash;525].</ref>|[[Sophocles]]; translation by [[Richard Claverhouse Jebb]]}}

In later accounts, Achelous does not get his horn back, as he does in Pindar's poem. [[Ovid]], in his poem ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' (8 AD), has Achelous tell a different story.<ref>Gantz, p. 433; [[Ovid]], ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/ovid-metamorphoses/1916/pb_LCL043.3.xml 9.1&ndash;100]; compare with [[Ovid]], ''[[Amores (Ovid)|Amores]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0959.phi001.perseus-eng2:3.6 3.6.35&ndash;36].</ref> In this version, Achelous fights Heracles, and loses three times: first in his normal (human?) shape, then as a snake, and finally as a bull. Heracles tore off one of Achelous's bull-horns, and the [[Naiads]] filled the horn with fruit and flowers, transforming it into the "Horn of Plenty" ([[cornucopia]]).<ref>Gantz, p. 42; [[Ovid]], ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/ovid-metamorphoses/1916/pb_LCL043.3.xml 9.85&ndash;88].</ref> According to the ''[[Fabulae]]'' (before 207 AD), by the Latin mythographer [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], Heracles gave the broken-off horn to "the Hesperides (or Nymphs)", and it was "these goddesses" who "filled the horn with fruit and called it "Cornucopia".<ref>[[Joseph Fontenrose|Fontenrose]], [https://books.google.com/books?id=wqeVv09Y6hIC&pg=PA351 p. 351]; [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], ''[[Fabulae]]'' 31.7.</ref> According to [[Strabo]], in some versions of the story Heracles gave  Achelous's horn to Deianeira's father [[Oeneus]] as a wedding gift.<ref>Jebb, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0027%3Atext%3Dcomm%3Acommline%3D518 ln. 518]; [[Strabo]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0099.tlg001.perseus-eng1:10.2.19 10.2.19]. Cf. [[Nonnus]], ''[[Dionysiaca]]'' [https://archive.org/stream/dionysiaca02nonnuoft#page/48/mode/2up 17.238&ndash;239].</ref>  While several sources make Achelous the father, by various mothers, of the [[Siren (mythology)|Siren]]s (see above), according to the 4th-century AD Greek teacher of rhetoric [[Libanius]], they were born from the blood Achelous shed when Heracles broke off his horn.<ref>Grimal, s.v. Sirens; Kerényi  1959, p. 199; Kerényi 1951, p. 56; [[Libanius]], ''[[Progymnasmata]],'' Narration 1: "On Deianira" (Gibson,   [https://books.google.com/books?id=kRi-If9IAOYC&pg=PA10 pp. 10&ndash;11]),  Narration 31: "On Deianira" (Gibson,   [https://books.google.com/books?id=kRi-If9IAOYC&pg=PA32 pp. 32&ndash;33]). Compare with the birth of the [[Erinyes]] (Furies), [[Giants (Greek mythology)|Giants]], and the [[Meliae]], born from the blood shed when [[Uranus]] was castrated by his son, the [[Titans (mythology)|Titan]] [[Cronus]].</ref>

The breaking off of Achelous' horn was rationalized as Heracles' diversion of the Acarnanian river.<ref>Isler 2006, [https://referenceworks-brill-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/display/entries/NPOE/e102080.xml s.v. Achelous 2]; [[Joseph Fontenrose|Fontenrose]], [https://books.google.com/books?id=wqeVv09Y6hIC&pg=PA351 p. 351].</ref> Both [[Diodorus Siculus]] and [[Strabo]] give such accounts.<ref>[[James George Frazer|Frazer]], note 2 to [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]] [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg001.perseus-eng1:2.7.5 2.7.5]; Smith 1873, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0104%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DA%3Aentry+group%3D3%3Aentry%3Dachelous-bio-1 s.v. Achelous]; [[Diodorus Siculus]], [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/4B*.html#35 4.35.3&ndash;4]; [[Strabo]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0099.tlg001.perseus-eng1:10.2.19 10.2.19].</ref> According to Diodorus, Heracles diverted the Achelous River's course, while according to Strabo, some writers "conjecturing the truth from the myths" said that, to please his father-in-law Oeneus, Heracles confined the river by means of "embankments and channels". In this way, Heracles defeated the raging river, and in so doing created a large amount of new fertile land and "certain poets, as we are told, have made this deed into a myth" (Diodorus).  By both accounts, this new bountiful land of the Achelous River delta came to be known as Amaltheia's horn of plenty.

[[Joseph Fontenrose]] saw in this story the possible reflection of an ancient tradition of conflict between Zeus and Achelous.<ref>[[Joseph Fontenrose|Fontenrose]], [https://books.google.com/books?id=wqeVv09Y6hIC&pg=PA233 p. 233].</ref> For the Latin poets during the Roman Imperial period, from [[Propertius]] onward, the story of Heracles and Achelous' contest for Deianeria continued to be popular, with Achelous as "the stereotypical unlucky lover".<ref>Isler 2006, [https://referenceworks-brill-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/display/entries/NPOE/e102080.xml s.v. Achelous 2]; Isler 1981, [https://archive.org/details/limc_20210516/Lexicon%20Iconographicum%20Mythologiae%20Classicae/LIMC%20I-1/page/n35/mode/1up p. 13]; [[Propertius]], ''Elegies'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/propertius-elegies/1990/pb_LCL018.211.xml 2.34.33&ndash;34]; [[Ovid]], ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/ovid-metamorphoses/1916/pb_LCL043.3.xml 9.1&ndash;100], ''[[Amores (Ovid)|Amores]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0959.phi001.perseus-eng2:3.6 3.6.35&ndash;36], ''[[Heroides]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/ovid-heroides/1914/pb_LCL041.119.xml 9.137&ndash;140], [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/ovid-heroides/1914/pb_LCL041.217.xml 16.263&ndash;268]; [[Seneca the Younger|Seneca]], ''[[Hercules Oetaeus]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/seneca_younger-hercules_oeta/2018/pb_LCL078.365.xml 299&ndash;303], [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/seneca_younger-hercules_oeta/2018/pb_LCL078.385.xml 495&ndash;499]; [[Statius]], ''[[Thebaid (Latin poem)|Thebaid]]'' [https://archive.org/stream/statiusstat01statuoft#page/514/mode/2up 4.106]; [[Claudian]], ''In praise of Serena'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/claudian_claudianus-shorter_poems/1922/pb_LCL136.251.xml 171&ndash;176]; [[Sidonius Apollinaris]], ''II. Panegyric on Anthemius'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/sidonius-poems/1936/pb_LCL296.51.xml 497&ndash;498], ''XI. Epithalamium'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/sidonius-poems/1936/pb_LCL296.207.xml 86&ndash;87]. See also the slightly later [[Boethius]], ''The Consolation of Philosophy'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/boethius-consolation_philosophy/1973/pb_LCL074.381.xml 4.7.23&ndash;24].</ref>

=== Alcmaeon===
Achelous played a role in the story of the [[Argos, Peloponnese|Argive]] hero [[Alcmaeon (mythology)|Alcmaeon]], who had killed his mother [[Eriphyle]] because of her treachery against his father [[Amphiaraus]], and needed to be religiously purified.<ref>Hard, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA327 p. 327]; Grimal, s.v. Alcmaeon.</ref> According to Apollodorus, Alcmaeon was first purified by [[Phegeus]] the king of [[Psophis]], but nevertheless the land of Psophis became barren because of the cursed Alcmaeon's presence. As Thucydides tells the story, the oracle of Apollo told Alcmaeon that he needed to find a land to live in that did not yet exist at the time of his mother's death. After long travels, Alcmaeon finally came to the springs of the Achelous River, where he was purified by the river-god, and received Achelous's daughter Callirrhoe as his wife, and at the mouth of the river he discovered a land newly made by deposits of river silt, where he could make his home free of his curse.<ref>[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg001.perseus-eng1:3.7.5 3.7.5]; [[Thucydides]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0003.tlg001.perseus-eng2:2.102 2.102.2&ndash;6]. Compare with [[Ovid]], ''[[Fasti (poem)|Fasti]]'' [https://archive.org/stream/ovidsfasti00oviduoft#page/58/mode/2up 2.43&ndash;46]; [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.perseus-eng1:8.24.8 8.24.8&ndash;9].</ref> Later, according to Apollodorus, Achelous commanded Alcmaeon to dedicate the [[Necklace of Harmonia|necklace]] and robe—the cause of his mother's treachery—at [[Delphi]], which he did.<ref>[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg001.perseus-eng1:3.7.7 3.7.7].</ref>

[[File:Metropolitan Rubens Achelous.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|''The Banquet of Achelous'', by [[Rubens]], c. 1615]]

===Creation of islands===
Ovid, in his ''Metamorphoses'', has the river-god involved in two transformation stories concerning the creation of islands near the mouth of the Achelous River.<ref>Hard, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA42 p. 42]; Tripp,  s.v. Acheloüs.</ref> According to Ovid, the [[Echinades Islands]] were once five local nymphs.<ref>[[Ovid]], ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/ovid-metamorphoses/1916/pb_LCL042.447.xml 8.574&ndash;589].</ref> One day, the nymphs were offering sacrifices to the gods on the banks of the Achelous, but they forgot to include Achelous himself. The river-god became so angry, he overflowed his banks with a raging flood, sweeping the nymphs away into the sea. As Achelous tells the story:

{{blockquote|I tore forests from forests, fields from fields; and with the place they stood on, I swept the nymphs away, who at last remembered me then, into the sea. There my flood and the sea, united, cleft the undivided ground into as many parts as now you see the Echinades yonder amid the waves.<ref>[[Ovid]], ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/ovid-metamorphoses/1916/pb_LCL042.447.xml 8.583&ndash;589].</ref>|[[Ovid]]; translation by James G. Frazer, revised by G. P. Goold.}}

Achelous goes on to describe the creation of another island: "far away beyond the others is one island that I love: the sailors call it [[Perimele]]."<ref>[[Ovid]], ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/ovid-metamorphoses/1916/pb_LCL042.447.xml 8.590&ndash;591].</ref> She was the daughter of [[Hippodamas]], whose virginity Achelous took from her. Her enraged father threw her off a high cliff into the sea. But Achelous prayed to [[Poseidon]] to save her, and in answer Poseidon transformed the girl into an island.<ref>[[Ovid]], ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/ovid-metamorphoses/1916/pb_LCL042.449.xml 8.592&ndash;610].</ref>