Jump to content

Achelous

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, seeAchelous (disambiguation).
Achelous floor mosaic,Zeugma,Turkey.

Inancient Greek religionandmythology,Achelous(alsoAcheloosorAcheloios) (/ˌækɪˈloʊ.əs/;Ancient Greek:Ἀχελώϊος, and laterἈχελῷος,Akhelôios) was the god associated with theAchelous River,the largest river in Greece. According toHesiod,he was the son of the TitansOceanusandTethys.He was also said to be the father of theSirens,several nymphs, and other offspring.

Achelous was able to change his shape, and in the form of a bull, he wrestledHeraclesfor the right to marryDeianeira,but lost. He was also involved in the legend of theArgiveheroAlcmaeon.

Etymology[edit]

The name Ἀχελώϊος is possibly pre-Greek, its meaning is not entirely certain. Recent arguments suggest it isSemiticin origin, with the initial Αχ- stemming from theAkkadianaḫu( "bank of the river" ), oraḫû( "seashore" ) and the suffix -ελώἴος, from the Akkadianillu( "watercourse" or "water of the river invading land" ).[1]According to linguistIvan Duridanov[bg],theThracianriver nameAchelōos(alternatively,AchēlonandAchelon), located near Anchialo, in the Black Sea, is cognate to the Greek word, both deriving from aProto-Indo-Europeanstem*ɘku̯el,meaning 'water'.[2]

Genealogy[edit]

Hercules and Achelous in a Roman wall painting from theHall of the Augustales.

According toHesiod,Achelous, along with all the otherriver gods,was the son of the TitansOceanusandTethys.[3]According to the sixth-centurymythographerAcusilaus,Achelous was the "oldest and most honoured" of the river-god offspring of Oceanus.[4]Serviusrelating a tradition of unknown origin, reports that Achelous was said to have been the son of Earth (i.e. Gaia).[5]The Renaissance mythographerNatalis Comeswrote thatAlcaeusunderstood Achelous to be the son of Ocean and Earth.[6][7]

Achelous had various offspring.[8]He was said to be the father of theSirens.[9]According to the 3rd-century BC poetLycophron,the Sirens were the daughters of Achelous, by an unnamed "melodious mother" (perhaps meaning the mother was aMuse).[10]Another 3rd-century BC, poetApollonius of Rhodes,makes the mother the MuseTerpsichore,[11]while according to other accounts, she was the MuseMelpomene,[12]or theCalydonianprincessSterope.[13]Ovidcalls the Sirens simply daughters of Achelous, with no mention of their mother.[14]ByPerimede,the daughter ofAeolus,Achelous was said to have fatheredHippodamasandOrestes.[15]

Achelous was also said to be the father (with no mothers mentioned) of severalnymphsassociated with various springs.[16]These includedPirene,the nymph of a spring atCorinth,[17]Castalia,the nymph of a spring atDelphi,[18]and Dirce, the nymph of a spring (and the stream that flowed from it) atThebes,which became associated with theDircewho wasAntiope's aunt.[19]Plato has "the nymphs" as daughters of Achelous,[20]and the 5th-century BC poetPanyassisseems also to have referred to "Achelesian nymphs".[21]He was also the father (again with no mother mentioned) ofAlcmeon's second wifeCallirrhoe,whose name means "the lovely spring".[22]Such examples suggest the possibility of a tradition in which Achelous was considered to be the father of all springs or, at least, the nymphs associated with them.[23]

Mythology[edit]

Heracles and Deianeira[edit]

Herakles standing, vanquishing Acheloos who is held kneeling at his feet. Temple of the Oxus,Takht-i Sangin,Bactria,4th century BCE.National Museum of Antiquities of Tajikistan(M 7249).[24]

Achelous was a suitor forDeianeira,daughter ofOeneus,the king ofCalydon;he transformed himself into a bull and fought Heracles for the right to marry Deianeira, but was defeated, and Heracles married Deianeira.[25]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 poetArchilochus,while according to a summary of a lost poem by the early 5th-century BC Greek poetPindar,during the battle, 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 fromAmalthea.[26]

Sophocles,in his playWomen of Trachis(c. 450–425 BC), has Deianeira tell her story, how Achelous wooed her in the shape of a bull, a snake, and a half-man/half-bull:[27]

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.[28]

In later accounts, Achelous does not get his horn back, as he did in Pindar's poem.Ovid,in his poemMetamorphoses(8 AD), has Achelous tell the story.[29]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 theNaiadsfilled the horn with fruit and flowers, transforming it into the "Horn of Plenty" (cornucopia).[30]According to theFabulae(before 207 AD), by the Latin mythographerHyginus,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 ".[31]According toStrabo,in some versions of the story Heracles gave Achelous's horn to Deianeira's fatherOeneusas a wedding gift.[32]While several sources make Achelous the father, by various mothers, of theSirens(see above), according to the 4th-century AD Greek teacher of rhetoricLibanius,they were born from the blood Achelous shed when Heracles broke off his horn.[33]

BothDiodorus SiculusandStraboprovide rationalized accounts of the story.[34]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 Fontenrosesaw in this story the possible reflection of an ancient tradition of conflict between Zeus and Achelous.[35]

Other stories[edit]

Achelous played a role in the story of theArgiveheroAlcmaeon,who had killed his motherEriphylebecause of her treachery against his fatherAmphiaraus,and needed to be religiously purified.[36]According to Apollodorus, Alcmaeon was first purified byPhegeusthe king ofPsophis,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.[37]Later, according to Apollodorus, Achelous commanded Alcmaeon to dedicate thenecklaceand robe—the cause of his mother's treachery—atDelphi,which he did.[38]

The Banquet of Achelous,byRubens,c. 1615

Ovid, in hisMetamorphoses,has the river-god involved in two transformation stories concerning the creation of islands near the mouth of the Achelous River.[39]According to Ovid, theEchinades Islandswere once five local nymphs.[40]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:

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.[41]

Achelous goes on to describe the creation of another island: "far away beyond the others is one island that I love: the sailors call itPerimele."[42]She was the daughter ofHippodamas,whose virginity Achelous took from her. Her enraged father threw her off a high cliff into the sea. But Achelous prayed toPoseidonto save her, and in answer Poseidon transformed the girl into an island.[43]

Cult[edit]

From at least as early asHomer,Achelous was apparently considered to be an important divinity throughout Greece.[44]Calling Achelous "king",Homermentions Achelous (along with Oceanus) as a mighty river, using him as a measure of the strength of (the even mightier) Zeus:[45]

With [Zeus] doth not even king Achelous vie, nor the great might of deep-flowing Ocean, from whom all rivers flow and every sea, and all the springs and deep wells; howbeit even he hath fear of the lightning of great Zeus, and his dread thunder, whenso it crasheth from heaven.[46]

The clear implication is that Achelous is the mightiest of the rivers (save perhaps for Oceanus himself), which would be in accord with Acusilaus' making Achelous the "oldest and most honoured" of the river-god offspring of Oceanus.[47]However some ancient scholars thought that the line: "nor the great might of deep-flowing Ocean", was spurious, which would in fact make Achelous—rather than Oceanus—the source of all other waters.[48]A commentary onIliad21.195, preserved onOxyrhynchus Papyrus 221,contains a fragment of a poem, possibly from theEpic tradition,which mentions "the waters of silver-eddying Achelous" being the source of "the whole sea".[49]A late-5th-century BC commentary onOrphictheogony, preserved by theDerveni Papyrus,quotes a poetic fragment calling the rivers the "sinews of Achelous".[50]The same Oxyrhynchus Papyrus also quotes ancient verses which apparently equated Achelous and Oceanus,[51]and that "many people sacrifice to Achelois before sacrificing to Demeter, since Acheloios is the name of all rivers and the crop comes from water".[52]

According to the early 4th-century BC Greek historianEphorus,the oracle atDodonausually added to his pronouncements the command to offer sacrifices to Achelous, and that, while people would offer sacrifices to their local river, only the Achelous river was honoured everywhere, with Achelous's name often being invoked in oaths, prayers and sacrifices, "all the things that concern the gods".[53]

His name was often used to mean "water".[54]ThusEuripidescan have a house, far from the Achelous river, being sprinkled with "Achelous' water".[55]Ephorus explained this "puzzle" by saying that, because of the frequent oracular command at Dodona to offer sacrifices to Achelous, it came to be thought that by "Achelous" the oracle meant, not the river but "water" in general.[56]

PlatohasSocrates,walking in the countryside, come across a "sacred place of some nymphs and of Achelous, judging by the figurines and statues".[57]The 2nd-century geographerPausanias,mentions a part of the altar at theAmphiareion of Oroposdedicated to "the nymphs and to Pan, and to the rivers Achelous and Cephisus",[58]as well as an altar to Achelous nearMegara,[59]and theMegarian TreasuryatOlympia,which contained a dedication representing the fight of Heracles with Achelous.[60]

Iconography[edit]

Heracles wrestling with Achelous. Illustration from aStamnosattributed toOltos,c. 525–475 BC, London,British MuseumE437.[61]

Achelous' wrestling bout with Heracles was the subject of several vase-paintings, from as early as the second quarter of the sixth century BC, and in most of these vases, Heracles can be seen grabbing Achelous by his single horn.[62]Possibly the earliest version of the scene (c. 600–560 BC) appears on the figure frieze of aMiddle Corinthiankylixcup (Brussels A1374), which depicts Heracles wrestling with a hornedcentaur-like Achelous, with a human torso and a bull's or horse's body, watched by the figure of an old man (Oineus?) and a woman (Deiaeira?).[63]The earliestAtticversions (c. 570 BC) depict Achelous as a bull with a man's face and beard.[64]

Heracles fighting Achelous, with his broken-off horn lying on the ground. AnAtticcolumn krater,LouvreG365 (c. 475–425).[65]

On one later example (c. 525–475 BC), an Atticred-figurestamnosfromCerveteriattributed toOltos(London E437), Achelous (identified by inscription) is shown with a bearded human upper torso, attached to a long serpentine body, with a fish's tail. This is similar to the depictions of the sea-godTritonwhich appear on many other Attic vases. Heracles (also identified by inscription) appears about to break off the river-god's single horn.[66]On a somewhat later (c. 475–425 BC) red-figure Atticcolumn krater(LouvreG365), Achelous's broken-off horn lies on the ground, while Heracles holds Achelous by his other horn, and threatens him with a club held overhead.[67]Figures depicting Oineus and Deiaeira (as presumably on the Corinthian cup) and alsoAthenaandHermesare sometimes included in the scene.[68]

Pausaniasreports seeing the scene represented on the throne ofAmyclae,[69]and also in theMegarian TreasuryatOlympia,where he describes seeing "small cedar-wood figures inlaid with gold" which, besides Achelous, includedZeus,Deianeira,Heracles,andAresaiding Achelous.[70]

The river-god is depicted on severalAcarnaniancoins as a bull with the head of an old man.[71]The most common depiction of Achelous in Archaic and Classical times was this man-faced bull.[72]Often a city would feature a man-faced bull on its coinage to represent a local variant of Achelous, such as Achelous Gelas ofGela,Sicily, or Achelous Sebethos ofNeapolis,Campania.[73]

Possible origins[edit]

That Achelous, rather than Oceanus, was perhaps, in some earlier version of theIliad,the source of "all rivers... and every sea", and that his name was often used to mean "water", have (along with other evidence from ancient sources), suggested the possibility to modern scholars that Achelous may have predated Oceanus as the original Greek water-god.[74]

Bronzecoin struck inOiniadai,c. 215 BC, depicting theriver-godAchelous as man-facedbullon reverse.

A recent study has tried to show that both the form and substance of Achelous, as a god of water primarily depicted as a man-faced bull, have roots inOld Europein theBronze Age.After the disappearance of many Old European cultures, the traditions traveled to the Near East at the beginning of 4th millennium BC (Ubaid period),[75]and finally migrated to Greece, Italy, Sicily, and Sardinia with itinerant sea-folk during the Late Bronze Age through theOrientalizing period.[76]Although no single cult of Achelous persisted throughout all of these generations, the iconography and generalmythoseasily spread from one culture to another, and all examples of man-faced bulls are found around the area of the Mediterraneanan, suggesting some intercultural continuity.[77]

Achelous was also an important deity in theEtruscan religion,[78][79]intimately related to water as in the Greek tradition but also carrying significantchthonicassociations. Man-faced bull iconography was first adapted to represent Achelous by the Etruscans in the 8th century BC, and the Greeks later adopted this same tradition.[80]

The leading exponents into the Greek and Etruscan worlds were seer-healers and mercenaries during theIron Age,and Achelous as a man-faced bull becomes an emblem employed by mercenaries in the Greek world for centuries.[81]These earlier figures probably adapted the mythological and iconographic traditions of Asallúhi (also Asarlúhi orAsaruludu),[82][83]the "princely bison" of Near Eastern traditions that "rises to the surface of the earth in springs and marshes, ultimately flowing as rivers".[84]

The Achelous River[edit]

Main article:Achelous River

TheAchelous Riverrises in thePindus mountains,flows into theIonian Seanear theEchinades Islandsin westernGreece,and divided ancientAcarnaniaandAetolia.Serviusgives a story of the origin of the river. He says that one day Achelous, who was said to be the son of Earth, lost his daughters the Sirens, and in his grief he called upon his mother, who received him into her bosom, and on that spot, Earth caused a river, bearing his name, to gush forth.[85]

Pseudo-Plutarchgives a different story for how the river acquired its name. He says it was formerly called Thestius, after a son ofMarsandPisidice,who jumped into the river after discovering he had killed his son Calydon by mistake. In a similar fashion the river acquired the name Achelous, after a son of Oceanus and the nymphNaïs,who jumped into the river after he discovered he had slept with his daughter Cletoria by mistake.[86]

Strabo reports that in "earlier times" the river was called the Thoas.[87]According to Strabo, some writers "conjecturing the truth from the myths" attributed various legends concerning the river-god, to features of the Achelous River itself. These writers said that, like other rivers, the Achelous was called "like a bull", because of the river's roaring waters and its meanders (which he says were called horns). Likewise the Achelous was called "like a serpent" because of the river's great length and many serpentine turnings.[88]

Homer locates another Achelous river in Lydia, near Mount Sipylos,[89]and there were several other rivers with the name Achelous in ancient times.[90]The multiplicity of rivers with the same name, perhaps due to the river-god's equation with water,[91]has also been seen as suggesting the possibility that Achelous was originally "the primal source of all water".[92]

In theMetamorphoses[edit]

Ovid,in hisMetamorphoses,provided a descriptive interlude whenTheseusis the guest of Achelous, waiting for the river's raging flood to subside: "He entered the dark building, made of spongy pumice, and rough tuff. The floor was moist with soft moss, and the ceiling banded with freshwater mussel and oyster shells."[93]

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^Molinari and Sisci, pp. 93–95.
  2. ^Duridanov, Ivan[in Bulgarian](1985).Die Sprache der Thraker.Bulgarische Sammlung (in German). Vol. 5. Hieronymus Verlag. p. 20.ISBN3-88893-031-6.
  3. ^Hesiod,Theogony340,366–370;so alsoHyginus,FabulaeTheogony.6.
  4. ^Fowler 2103,pp. 12–13;Gantz, p. 28; Andolfi, fr. 1;Jebb,note on line 9;Freeman, p. 16;Acusilausfr. 1 Fowler[=FGrHist2 1 =Vorsokr.9 B 21 =Macrobius,Saturnalia5.18.9–10]. Compare withHesiodTheogony361,777,andAristotle,Metaphysics1.983bwhere the riverStyxis said to be the eldest (daughter) and most honored (Fowler 2013,p. 13).
  5. ^Fowler,p. 12;Fontenrose,p. 351;ServiusonVirgil'sGeorgics1.8.
  6. ^Alcaeusfr. 450 Campbell.
  7. ^Conti, Natale (1976).Mythologiae: Venice, 1567.New York: Garland Pub. p. 212.ISBN0-8240-2060-X.OCLC2118573.Acaeus (sic) Oceani et Terrae filium esse sensit
  8. ^Parada, s.v. Achelous, p. 3.
  9. ^Grimal, s.v. Sirens p. 421; Kerényi 1951, pp. 56, 58.
  10. ^Lycophron,Alexandra712–716,with Mair's notes.
  11. ^Apollonius of Rhodes,Argonautica4.893;Nonnus,Dionysiaca13.313–315.
  12. ^Apollodorus,1.3.4,E 7.18;Hyginus,FabulaeTheogony.30, 125.13.
  13. ^Apollodorus,1.7.10.
  14. ^Ovid,Metamorphoses5.552–555,14.87–88.
  15. ^Hard,p. 410;Apollodorus,1.7.3;Hesiod,fr. 10.34–45 Most (pp. 54–55).
  16. ^Grimal, s.v. Achelous, p. 4.
  17. ^Pausanias,2.2.3.
  18. ^Panyassisfr. 2 West=Pausanias,10.8.9.
  19. ^Hard,p. 304;Euripides,Bacchae519–520.
  20. ^Plato,Phaedrus263d.
  21. ^D'Alessio, p. 30;Panyassisfr. 23 West.
  22. ^Hard,p. 327;Grimal, s.v. Achelous, p. 4;Apollodorus,3.7.5;Pausanias,8.24.9.
  23. ^See D'Alessio, p. 30, which attributes toPanyassis,and "other fifth-century authors the idea that all springs derive" from Achelous.
  24. ^Kurbanov, Sharofiddin (2021).Tadjikistan: au pays des fleuves d'or.Paris, Gand: Musée Guimet, Editions Snoeck. p. 152.ISBN978-9461616272.
  25. ^Gantz, pp. 28–29, 41–42, 431–433; Hard, pp.41,279–280;Fowler 2013,pp. 323–324;Fontenrose,pp. 350–356;Sophocles,Women of Trachis9–26,497–525;Ovid,Metamorphoses9.1–100,Amores3.6.35–36,Heroides9.137–140,16.263–268;Hyginus,Fabulae31.7;Apollodorus,1.8.1,2.7.5;Propertius,Elegies2.34.33–34;Pausanias,3.18.16,6.19.12;Statius,Thebaid4.106;Philostratus the Younger,Imagines4;Nonnus,Dionysiaca17.238–239,43.12–15.
  26. ^Gantz, pp. 28, 41–42, 432; Hard,p. 280;Jebb,Introduction 5;Archilochus,fr. 286 West[=Dio Chrysostom,60.1],fr. 287 West[= Scholiast on Homer,Iliad21.237]. Compare withApollodorus,2.7.5[=Pherecydes of Athensfr. 42 Fowler], which says that the horn of Amalthea which Acelous 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,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. According to Fowler 2013,pp. 323–324:"We are dealing here with different traditions, one a folktale about a magical cornucopia, the other a story about the goat that nursed the infant Zeus. By the time of Pherekydes these have become entangled with each other."
  27. ^Gantz, p. 432.
  28. ^Sophocles,Women of Trachis9–21;compare with the Chorus's description of the fight at497–525.
  29. ^Gantz, p. 433;Ovid,Metamorphoses9.1–100;compare withOvid,Amores3.6.35–36.
  30. ^Gantz, p. 42;Ovid,Metamorphoses9.85–88.
  31. ^Fontenrose,p. 351;Hyginus,Fabulae31.7.
  32. ^Jebb,note on line 518;Strabo,10.2.19.Cf.Nonnus,Dionysiaca17.238–239.
  33. ^Grimal, s.v. Sirens p. 421; Kerényi 1959, p. 199; Kerényi 1951, p. 56;Libanius,Progymnasmata,Narration 1: "On Deianira" (Gibson,pp. 10–11), Narration 31: "On Deianira" (Gibson,pp. 32–33). Compare with the birth of theErinyes(Furies),Giants,and theMeliae,born from the blood shed whenUranuswas castrated by his son, theTitanCronus.
  34. ^Fontenrose,p. 351;Frazer,note 2 toApollodorus2.7.5;Smith 1873,s.v. Achelous;Diodorus Siculus,4.35.3–4;Strabo,10.2.19.
  35. ^Fontenrose,p. 233.
  36. ^Hard,p. 327;Grimal, s.v. Alcmaeon, p. 31.
  37. ^Apollodorus,3.7.5;Thucydides,2.102.2–6.Compare withOvid,Fasti2.43–46;Pausanias,8.24.8–9.
  38. ^Apollodorus,3.7.7.
  39. ^Hard,p. 42;Tripp, s.v. Acheloüs, p. 5.
  40. ^Ovid,Metamorphoses8.574–589.
  41. ^Ovid,Metamorphoses8.583–589.
  42. ^Ovid,Metamorphoses8.590–591.
  43. ^Ovid,Metamorphoses8.592–610.
  44. ^Fowler,p. 12;Jebb,note on line 9;Smith 1873,s.v. Achelous.
  45. ^Gantz, p. 28.
  46. ^Homer,Iliad21.194–199;comparePausanias,8.38.10.
  47. ^Andolfi, fr. 1.
  48. ^Fowler 2013,p. 12;Andolfi, fr. 1. For a detailed discussion of this issue, arguing that the version of theIliadwith line 21.195 omitted "represents the earlier textual stage", see D'Alessio, pp. 16–23. This would of course account for the possible tradition (mentioned above) of Achelous being the source of all springs. As noted by Andolfi, "the insertion of l. 195 was functional to restore consistency within Homeric mythology and to eliminate an unorthodox peculiarity that did not match the cosmogonic account in book fourteen of theIliad,where Oceanus' predominance is unquestionable. "
  49. ^West 2003,fr. 12, pp. 292, 293;D'Alessio, p. 18;P.Oxy.221ix 1; 5.93 Erbse.
  50. ^West 1983, pp. 92,115. According to D'Alessio, pp. 20–23, this poetic fragment may be from the same poem (or near contemporary versions of the same poem) as the fragment quoted inOxyrhynchus Papyrus221. For a discussion of the translation ofἶναςas "sinews" see D'Alessio, pp. 23ff.
  51. ^Fowler 2013,p. 12;Schironi,p. 319;D'Alessio, pp. 30–31 (which discusses the probable attribution of these quotes to the 5th-century BC poetPanyassis);Panyassisfr. 13 West;P.Oxy.221ix 8-11; 5.93–94 Erbse.Fontenrose,p. 232,reads the Iliad passage itself, as appearing to identify Achelous and Oceanus.
  52. ^D'Alessio, pp. 18, 31;P.Oxy.221ix 18–20.
  53. ^Fowler 2013,p. 12,D'Alessio, p. 32; Andolfi, fr. 1;EphorusFGrHist70 20a =Macrobius,Saturnalia5.18.6–8.
  54. ^Fowler 2013,p. 12;Molinari and Sisci, p. 60; D'Alessio, pp. 20, 32; Andolfi, fr. 1; West 1983, p. 92 n. 39;Macrobius,Saturnalia5.18.1–12;Servius,On Virgil'sGeorgics1.8(which ascribes the usage toOrpheus,see Orphicfr. 344 Kern);Ephorus,FGrHist70 20a =Macrobius,Saturnalia5.18.6–8.See for example:Sophoclesfr. 5 Lloyd-Jones;Euripides,Bacchae625,Hypsipyle,fr. 753[=Macrobius,Saturnalia5.18.12];Aristophanesfr. 365 Henderson= fr. 365PCG=Macrobius,Saturnalia5.18.5.For a discussion of Achelous as a water-deity see Molinari and Sisci, pp. 60–62.
  55. ^Euripides,Andromache165–168.
  56. ^D'Alessio, p. 18; Andolfi, fr. 1;Ephorus,FGrHist70 20a =Macrobius,Saturnalia5.18.6–8.
  57. ^Plato,Phaedrus230b.
  58. ^Pausanias,1.34.3.
  59. ^Pausanias,1.41.2.
  60. ^Pausanias,6.19.12.
  61. ^LIMC9321 Acheloos 245;Beazley Archive200437.
  62. ^Gantz, p. 433.
  63. ^Gantz, p. 433; Stafford, pp. 75–76; Boardman,p. 2;Luce,pp. 430–431;LIMC4267 Acheloos 246;Beazley Archive1011067.The cited sources give various date ranges, Stafford: c. 590–580 BC, Boardman: c. 570–560 BC,LIMC:600–575 BC.
  64. ^Gantz, p. 433; New York 50.64 (LIMC4268 Acheloos 214;Beazley Archive350203;Metropolitan Museum of Art59.64); Boston 99.519 (Luce,pp. 425–437;LIMC15049 Acheloos 215;Beazley Archive300620).
  65. ^LIMC4275 Acheloos 218;Beazley Archive6911.
  66. ^Schefold,p. 159;Stafford, p. 76;Fontenrose,pp. 233–234;LIMC9321 Acheloos 245;Beazley Archive200437;AVI4590.
  67. ^Gantz, p. 433;LIMC4275 Acheloos 218;Beazley Archive6911.As Gantz notes, the depiction of a broken-off horn lying on the ground, may also have been depicted already on an Archaic scarab (London 489).
  68. ^Gantz, p. 433.
  69. ^Gantz, p. 433; Stafford, p. 75;Pausanias,3.18.16.
  70. ^Gantz, p. 433; Stafford, pp. 75–76;Pausanias,6.19.12.
  71. ^Smith 1873,s.v. Achelous.
  72. ^Molinari and Sisci, pp. 91–96.
  73. ^Molinari and Sisci, pp. 97ff.
  74. ^Fowler 2013,p. 12.
  75. ^Molinari and Sisci, pp. 1–6.
  76. ^Molinari and Sisci, pp. 22–30.
  77. ^Molinari and Sisci, pp. 97ff.
  78. ^Isler, Hans Peter (1970).Acheloos: Eine Monographie.Bern: Verlag.
  79. ^Jannot, Jean-Rene. "Acheloos, le taureau androcephale et les masques cornus dans l'Etrurie archaique".Latomus.33, 4.
  80. ^Molinari and Sisci, pp. 48–68.
  81. ^Molinari and Sisci, pp. 22–30.
  82. ^Molinari and Sisci, p. 14.
  83. ^Heffron, Yaǧmur; Brisch, Nicole (2016)."Asalluhi (god)".Ancient Mesopotamian Gods and Goddesses.University of Pennsylvania.Retrieved20 October2016.
  84. ^Whittaker, Gordon (2009). "Milking the Udder of Heaven: A Note on Mesopotamian and Indo-Iranian Religious Imagery".From Daena to Din. Religion, Kultur und Sprache in der iranischen Welt: Festschrift fuer Philip Kreyenbroek zum 60. Geburstag.Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag. p. 131.
  85. ^Smith 1873,s.v. Achelous;Servius,ad Virg. Georg.i. 9.
  86. ^Fontenrose, p. 352;Smith 1873,s.v. Achelous;Pseudo-Plutarch,De fluviis22.
  87. ^Fontenrose, p. 352;Strabo,10.2.1.
  88. ^Smith 1873,s.v. Achelous;Strabo,10.2.19.Compare withDiodorus Siculus,4.35.3–4.
  89. ^Homer,Iliad24.614–617;cf.Pausanias,8.38.10
  90. ^Molinari and Sisci, p. 61, says there were at least six such rivers.Strabomentions two: one inThessalynearLamia(9.5.10,10.2.1;Smith 1854s.v. Achelous 2.), the other inAchaianearDyme,also called thePeiros(8.3.11,10.2.1;Smith 1854s.v. Achelous 4.).Pausanias,8.38.9–10,mentions one more: a tributary of theAlpheiusin thePeloponnese,nearMount LycaeusinArcadia(Smith 1854s.v. Achelous 3.).
  91. ^Andolfi, fr. 1.
  92. ^Molinari and Sisci, p. 61.
  93. ^Ovid,MetamorphosesVIII, 547ff.

References[edit]

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related toAchelous.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Achelous&oldid=1229700224"