View source for Achelous

{{Short description|Ancient Greek river god}}
{{Other uses}}
[[File:Louvre-Lens - Les Étrusques et la Méditerranée - 290 - Londres, British Museum, inv. 1839.0214.70 (Stamnos attique à figures rouges) (A).JPG|thumb|Heracles wrestling with Achelous; [[Stamnos]] attributed to [[Oltos]], c. 525&ndash;475 BC, London, [[British Museum]] E437.<ref>[[Digital LIMC]] [http://ark.dasch.swiss/ark:/72163/080e-7427a884d97e6-f 9321], [https://app.dasch.swiss/resource/080E/LwAF-v27V3yNa40eB1etVA scene 9523]; [[Beazley Archive]] [http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/record/34CF8453-D951-4A26-83EB-B504853B7D0E 200437]; [[British Museum]] [https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/G_1839-0214-70 1839,0214.70].</ref>]]

In [[ancient Greek religion]] and [[Greek mythology|mythology]], '''Achelous''' (also '''Acheloos''' or '''Acheloios''') ({{IPAc-en|ˌ|æ|k|ᵻ|ˈ|l|oʊ|.|ə|s}}; [[Ancient Greek]]: Ἀχελώϊος, and later {{lang|grc|Ἀχελῷος}}, ''Akhelôios'') was the god associated with the [[Achelous River]], the largest river in Greece. According to [[Hesiod]], he was the son of the Titans [[Oceanus]] and [[Tethys (mythology)|Tethys]]. He was also said to be the father of the [[Siren (mythology)|Siren]]s, several nymphs, and other offspring.

Achelous was able to change his shape, and in the form of a bull, he wrestled [[Heracles]] for the right to marry [[Deianeira]], but lost. He was also involved in the legend of the [[Argos, Peloponnese|Argive]] hero [[Alcmaeon (mythology)|Alcmaeon]].<ref>Isler 2006, [https://referenceworks-brill-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/display/entries/NPOE/e102080.xml s.v. Achelous 2]; Grimal, s.v. Achelous; Smith 1873, [http://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].</ref>

==Etymology==
The name Ἀχελώϊος is possibly pre-Greek,<ref>Isler 1981, [https://archive.org/details/limc_20210516/Lexicon%20Iconographicum%20Mythologiae%20Classicae/LIMC%20I-1/page/n35/mode/1up p. 12] (citing Isler 1970).</ref> its meaning is not entirely certain. Recent arguments suggest it is [[Semitic languages|Semitic]] in origin, with the initial Αχ- stemming from the [[Akkadian (language)|Akkadian]] ''aḫu'' ("bank of the river"), or ''aḫû'' ("seashore") and the suffix -ελώἴος, from the Akkadian ''illu'' ("watercourse" or "water of the river invading land").<ref>Molinari and Sisci, pp. 93&ndash;95.</ref> According to linguist {{ill|Ivan Duridanov|bg|Иван Дуриданов}}, the [[Thracian language|Thracian]] river name ''Achelōos'' (alternatively, ''Achēlon'' and ''Achelon''), located near Anchialo, in the Black Sea, is cognate to the Greek word, both deriving from a [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]] stem ''*ɘku̯el'', meaning 'water'.<ref>{{cite book |first=Ivan |last=Duridanov |author-link=:bg:Иван Дуриданов | title=Die Sprache der Thraker | series=Bulgarische Sammlung | volume= 5 | publisher=Hieronymus Verlag | year=1985 | page = 20 | isbn=3-88893-031-6 | language= de}}</ref>

==Family==
[[File:Hall of the Augustals.jpg|thumb|Hercules and Achelous in a Roman wall painting from the [[Augustales|Hall of the Augustales]].]]

According to [[Hesiod]], Achelous, along with all the other [[River gods (Greek mythology)|river gods]], was the son of the Titans [[Oceanus]] and [[Tethys (mythology)|Tethys]].<ref>[[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hes.+Th.+337&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0130:boo=0:chapter=0&highlight=Achelous 340], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hes.+Th.+337 366–370]; so also [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], ''[[Fabulae]]'' Theogony.6.</ref> According to the sixth-century [[mythographer]] [[Acusilaus]], Achelous was the "oldest and most honoured" of the river-god offspring of Oceanus.<ref>Fowler 2013, [https://books.google.com/books?id=scd8AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA12 pp. 12&ndash;13]; Gantz, p. 28; Andolfi, fr. 1; Jebb, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0027%3Atext%3Dcomm%3Acommline%3D9 ln. 9]; Freeman, p. 16; [[Acusilaus]] [https://books.google.com/books?id=j0nRE4C2WBgC&pg=PA4 fr. 1 Fowler] [= ''[[FGrHist]]'' 2 1 = ''[[Vorsokr.]]'' 9 B 21 = [[Macrobius]], ''[[Saturnalia (Macrobius)|Saturnalia]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/macrobius-saturnalia/2011/pb_LCL511.425.xml 5.18.9&ndash;10]. Compare with [[Hesiod]] ''[[Theogony]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0020.tlg001.perseus-eng1:337-370 361], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0020.tlg001.perseus-eng1:767-806 777], and [[Aristotle]], ''[[Metaphysics]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0086.tlg025.perseus-eng1:1.983b 1.983b] where the river [[Styx]] is said to be the eldest (daughter) and most honored (Fowler 2013, [https://books.google.com/books?id=scd8AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA13 p. 13]).</ref> [[Maurus Servius Honoratus|Servius]], relating a tradition of unknown origin, reports that Achelous was said to have been the son of Earth (i.e. Gaia).<ref>Fowler, [https://books.google.com/books?id=scd8AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA12 p. 12]; [[Joseph Fontenrose|Fontenrose]], [https://books.google.com/books?id=wqeVv09Y6hIC&pg=PA351 p. 351]; [[Maurus Servius Honoratus|Servius]] on [[Virgil]]'s ''[[Georgics]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2007.01.0092%3Abook%3D1%3Acommline%3D8 1.8]. Isler 1981, [https://archive.org/details/limc_20210516/Lexicon%20Iconographicum%20Mythologiae%20Classicae/LIMC%20I-1/page/n35/mode/1up p. 12], describes this tradition as probably older ("wohl urspriinglicherer") than the Hesiodic tradition. However Fowler, [https://books.google.com/books?id=scd8AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA12 p. 12], does not speculate on the age of the tradition being reported by Servius, saying rather "one would like to know how old" it is. In the 16th century, [[Natalis Comes]] claimed that the [[Archaic Greece|archaic]] poet [[Alcaeus]] understood Achelous to be the son of Ocean and Earth, see [[Natalis Comes]], ''Mythologiae'' [https://archive.org/details/mythologiaevenic0000cont/page/415/mode/2up 7.2 (p. 212)] [= [[Alcaeus]], [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/alcaeus-fragments/1982/pb_LCL142.437.xml fr. 450 Campbell]]; on the reliability of Comes' attributions to classical writers, see Fowler 2013, [https://books.google.com/books?id=scd8AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA735 pp. 735–7].</ref>

Achelous had various offspring.<ref>Parada, s.v. Achelous, p. 3.</ref> He was said to be the father of the [[Siren (mythology)|Siren]]s.<ref>Grimal, s.vv. Achelous, Sirens; Kerényi 1951, pp. 56, 58.</ref> According to the 3rd-century BC poet [[Lycophron]], the Sirens were the daughters of Achelous, by an unnamed "melodious mother" (perhaps meaning the mother was a [[Muse]]),  while [[Ovid]] calls the Sirens simply daughters of Achelous, with no mention of their mother.<ref>[[Lycophron]], ''Alexandra'' [https://archive.org/stream/callimachuslycop00calluoft#page/552/mode/2up 712&ndash;716], with Mair's notes; [[Ovid]], ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/ovid-metamorphoses/1916/pb_LCL042.277.xml 5.552&ndash;555], [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/ovid-metamorphoses/1916/pb_LCL043.307.xml 14.87&ndash;88].</ref> Another 3rd-century BC, poet [[Apollonius of Rhodes]], makes the mother the Muse [[Terpsichore]],<ref>[[Apollonius of Rhodes]], ''[[Argonautica]]'' [http://www.archive.org/stream/argonautica00apoluoft#page/354/mode/2up 4.893]; [[Nonnus]], ''[[Dionysiaca]]'' [https://archive.org/stream/dionysiaca01nonnuoft#page/452/mode/2up 13.313&ndash;315].</ref> while according to other accounts, she was the Muse [[Melpomene]],<ref>[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg001.perseus-eng1:1.3.4 1.3.4], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg002.perseus-eng1:e.7.18 E 7.18]; [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], ''[[Fabulae]]'' Theogony.30, 125.13, 141.</ref> or the [[Calydon]]ian princess [[Sterope]].<ref>[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg001.perseus-eng1:1.7.10 1.7.10].</ref> By [[Perimede (mythology)|Perimede]], the daughter of [[Aeolus (son of Hellen)|Aeolus]], Achelous was said to have fathered [[Hippodamas]] and [[Orestes (Greek myth)|Orestes]].<ref>Hard, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA410 p. 410]; [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg001.perseus-eng1:1.1.7.3 1.7.3]; [[Hesiod]], fr. 10.34–45 Most (pp. 54&ndash;55).</ref>

Achelous was also said to be the father (with no mothers mentioned) of several [[nymphs]] associated with various famous springs.<ref>Isler 1981, [https://archive.org/details/limc_20210516/Lexicon%20Iconographicum%20Mythologiae%20Classicae/LIMC%20I-1/page/n35/mode/2up p. 12]; Grimal, s.v. Achelous.</ref> These included [[Pirene (mythology)|Pirene]], the nymph of a spring at [[Corinth]],<ref>[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.perseus-eng1:2.2.3 2.2.3].</ref> [[Castalia]], the nymph of a spring at [[Delphi]],<ref>[[Panyassis]] [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/panyassis-heraclea/2003/pb_LCL497.193.xml fr. 2 West] = [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.perseus-eng1:10.8.9 10.8.9].</ref> and Dirce, the nymph of a spring (and the stream that flowed from it) at [[Thebes, Greece|Thebes]], which became associated with the [[Dirce]] who was [[Antiope (mother of Amphion)|Antiope]]'s aunt.<ref>Hard, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA304 p. 304]; [[Euripides]], ''[[Bacchae]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-bacchae/2003/pb_LCL495.61.xml?result=3&rskey=k7OCry 519&ndash;520].</ref> Plato has "the nymphs" as daughters of Achelous,<ref>[[Plato]], ''[[Phaedrus (dialogue)|Phaedrus]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0059.tlg012.perseus-eng1:263d 263d].</ref> and the 5th-century BC poet [[Panyassis]] seems also to have referred to "Achelesian nymphs".<ref>D'Alessio, p. 30; [[Panyassis]] [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/panyassis-heraclea/2003/pb_LCL497.211.xml fr. 23 West].</ref> He was also the father (again with no mother mentioned) of [[Alcmaeon (mythology)|Alcmeon]]'s second wife [[Callirrhoe (daughter of Achelous)|Callirrhoe]], whose name means "the lovely spring".<ref>Hard, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA327 p. 327]; Grimal, s.v. Achelous; [[Ovid]], ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/ovid-metamorphoses/1916/pb_LCL043.33.xml 9.413&ndash;414]; [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg001.perseus-eng1:1.3.7.5 3.7.5]; [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.perseus-eng1:8.24.9 8.24.9].</ref> 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.<ref>See D'Alessio, p. 30, which attributes to [[Panyassis]], and "many other fifth-century authors the idea that all springs derive" from Achelous, and Isler 1981, [https://archive.org/details/limc_20210516/Lexicon%20Iconographicum%20Mythologiae%20Classicae/LIMC%20I-1/page/n35/mode/2up p. 12], which says Achelous was considered generally the father of all spring nymphs ("überhaupt als Vater aller Quellnymphen").</ref>

==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>

==Water and wine==
Achelous's name could be used to refer to water in general.<ref>West 1983, p. 92 with n. 39; D'Alessio, pp. 20, 32; Fowler 2013, [https://books.google.com/books?id=scd8AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA12 p. 12]; Andolfi, commentary on Acusilaus fr. 1; [[Macrobius]], ''[[Saturnalia (Macrobius)|Saturnalia]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/macrobius-saturnalia/2011/pb_LCL511.421.xml 5.18.1&ndash;12]; [[Maurus Servius Honoratus|Servius]], On Virgil's ''Georgics'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2007.01.0092%3Abook%3D1%3Acommline%3D8 1.8] (which ascribes the usage to [[Orpheus]], see Orphic [https://archive.org/stream/orphicorumfragme00orphuoft#page/336/mode/2up fr. 344 Kern]); [[Ephorus]], ''[[FGrHist]]'' 70 20a [= [[Macrobius]], ''[[Saturnalia (Macrobius)|Saturnalia]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/macrobius-saturnalia/2011/pb_LCL511.423.xml 5.18.6&ndash;8]].</ref> Thus [[Euripides]] can have a house, far from the Achelous river itself, being sprinkled with "Achelous' water",<ref>[[Euripides]], ''[[Andromache (play)|Andromache]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0006.tlg006.perseus-eng1:147-182 165&ndash;168].</ref> or have servants "bring Achelous" [''Ἀχελῷον φέρειν''] to douse a fire,<ref>[[Euripides]], ''[[Bacchae]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-bacchae/2003/pb_LCL495.71.xml 625].</ref> while the comic playwright [[Aristophanes]], in his ''[[Lysistrata]]'', has the Woman's chorus leader, while pouring water on the Men's chorus, say "Achelous, you’re on!".<ref>[[Aristophanes]], ''[[Lysistrata]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/aristophanes-lysistrata/2000/pb_LCL179.319.xml 381].</ref>

In particular, his name was used to refer to the water that was mixed with wine for drinking. Examples include three fragments from now lost fifth-century BC Attic plays. A [[Sophocles]] fragment has the single line: "So Achelous runs with wine in our place",<ref>[[Sophocles]] [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/sophocles-fragments_known_plays/1996/pb_LCL483.13.xml fr. 5 Lloyd-Jones].</ref> and a fragment from a satyr play by [[Achaeus of Eretria|Achaeus]] has unhappy satyrs complaining about too much "of Achelous" being mixed with the wine they are being given to drink.<ref>[[Achaeus of Eretria|Achaeus]] ''[[TrGF]]'' 20 F 9 [= [[Athenaeus]], [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/atheneus_grammarian-learned_banqueters/2007/pb_LCL274.39.xml 10.427c]].</ref> An Aristophanes fragment has a character complain about the aftereffects of drinking unwatered wine:<ref>[[Aristophanes]] [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/aristophanes-attributed_fragments/2008/pb_LCL502.285.xml fr. 365 Henderson] [= fr. 365 ''PCG'' = [[Macrobius]], ''[[Saturnalia (Macrobius)|Saturnalia]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/macrobius-saturnalia/2011/pb_LCL511.423.xml 5.18.5]].</ref>
{{blockquote|I had a savage fit
of vomiting, for the wine stirred me up,
having no admixture of Achelous|[[Aristophanes]]; translation by Jeffrey Henderson.}}

Ovid, in his ''Fasti'', uses Achelous' name as a stand in for water when he connects wine drinking with  the wearing of flowers in the hair:
{{blockquote|No serious business does he do whose brow is garlanded; no water of the running brook is quaffed by such as twine their hair with flowers: so long as thy stream, Achelous, was dashed with no juice of grapes, none cared to pluck the rose.<ref>[[Ovid]], ''[[Fasti (poem)|Fasti]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/ovid-fasti/1931/pb_LCL253.285.xml 5.341&ndash;344].</ref>|[[Ovid]]; translation by James G. Frazer, revised by G. P. Goold.}}

[[Virgil]] has Liber (Dionysus) responsible for the mixing of the "draughts of Achelous" with wine.<ref>[[Virgil]], ''[[Georgics]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0690.phi002.perseus-eng1:1.1-1.42 1.7&ndash;9].</ref>
While according to Hyginus, a man named Cerasus was the first to mix wine with "the Achelous river in Aetolia", explaining that this is why the word for "mixing" in Greek is ''cerasai''.<ref>[[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], ''[[Fabulae]]'' 274.</ref> Achelous is also mythologicaly linked with Dionysus and wine, through his connection with [[Deianeira]], and her father [[Oeneus]].<ref>Wilkins, [https://books.google.com/books?id=TY0l2i1mOFsC&pg=PA120 p. 120].</ref> There are various stories involving Oeneus (whose name means "Wine-man") Dionysus, and the origins of wine.<ref>Hard, pp. 413&ndash;414.</ref> According to [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], Oeneus was the first mortal given the grape vine by Dionysus.<ref>[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg001.perseus-eng1:1.8.1 1.8.1]; compare Nicander fr. 86 Schneider [= [[Athenaeus]], ''[[The Learned Banqueters]]'' (''Deipnosophistae'') [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/atheneus_grammarian-learned_banqueters/2007/pb_LCL204.199.xml 2.35a]].</ref> Hyginus explains that Oeneus was given the grape vine and instruction on viticulture by the wine-god, as a reward for his "generous hospitality" in having turned a blind eye to the god seducing his wife and fathering Deianeira.<ref>[[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], ''[[Fabulae]]'' 129.</ref>

==Cult==
{{multiple image
 | direction = vertical
 | width = 217
 | footer = Two [[Votive offering|votive]] reliefs from the [[Phyle Cave|Cave of Pan]], on [[Parnitha|Mount Parnes]] in [[Attica]]. Each is in the form of a cave, with four central figures, a male leading three nymphs, all holding hands gathered around a small stone altar (dancing?). Achelous is represented as being carved into the cave wall (bottom left). [[National Archaeological Museum, Athens]] 1448<ref>Kaltsas, [https://books.google.com/books?id=s4glewvbsakC&pg=PA219 p. 219]; Isler 1981, [https://archive.org/details/limc_20210516/Lexicon%20Iconographicum%20Mythologiae%20Classicae/LIMC%20I-1/page/n40/mode/1up p. 23]; ''LIMC'' I.2, [https://archive.org/details/limc_20210516/Lexicon%20Iconographicum%20Mythologiae%20Classicae/LIMC%20I-2/page/n20/mode/1up 9. 40 (Acheloos 188)].</ref> (top), and 1859<ref>Kaltsas, [https://books.google.com/books?id=s4glewvbsakC&pg=PA221 p. 221]; Isler 1981, [https://archive.org/details/limc_20210516/Lexicon%20Iconographicum%20Mythologiae%20Classicae/LIMC%20I-1/page/n40/mode/1up p. 23]; ''LIMC'' I.2, [https://archive.org/details/limc_20210516/Lexicon%20Iconographicum%20Mythologiae%20Classicae/LIMC%20I-2/page/n19/mode/1up p. 39 (Acheloos 186)].</ref> (bottom).
 | image1 = Votive relief from Mount Parnes NAMA 1448.jpg
 | image2 = Votive relief from Mount Parnes NAMA 1859.jpg
}}
Achelous was a rural-agricultural water god whose importance was a reflection of the agricultural importance of rivers and their fertile river deltas. This relationship is also reflected in the association of Achelous' broken-off horn with the [[cornucopia]] or horn of plenty.<ref>Isler 2006, [https://referenceworks-brill-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/display/entries/NPOE/e102080.xml s.v. Achelous 2]; Wilkins, [https://books.google.com/books?id=TY0l2i1mOFsC&pg=PA120 p. 120]; Isler 1981, pp. [https://archive.org/details/limc_20210516/Lexicon%20Iconographicum%20Mythologiae%20Classicae/LIMC%20I-1/page/n35/mode/1up 12], [https://archive.org/details/limc_20210516/Lexicon%20Iconographicum%20Mythologiae%20Classicae/LIMC%20I-1/page/n45/mode/1up 35].</ref> Apparently some ancient Greeks considered sacrifices to Achelous to be even more important than those to the agriculture goddess [[Demeter]].<ref>D'Alessio, p. 31.</ref> Many inscriptions attest to the cult of Achelous, which was particularly associated with the oracle at [[Dodona]]. Although of early importance, his cult declined in significance from the end of the fourth-century BC.<ref>Isler 2006, [https://referenceworks-brill-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/display/entries/NPOE/e102080.xml s.v. Achelous 2]; Fowler, [https://books.google.com/books?id=scd8AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA12 p. 12]. For a list of the epigraphical attestations of cult, see Isler 1981, [https://archive.org/details/limc_20210516/Lexicon%20Iconographicum%20Mythologiae%20Classicae/LIMC%20I-1/page/n35/mode/1up p. 12].</ref>

From at least as early as [[Homer]], Achelous was apparently considered to be an important divinity throughout Greece.<ref>Fowler, [https://books.google.com/books?id=scd8AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA12 p. 12]; Jebb, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0027%3Atext%3Dcomm%3Acommline%3D9 ln. 9]; 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].</ref> Calling Achelous "king", Homer mentions Achelous (along with Oceanus) as a mighty river, using him as a measure of the strength of (the even mightier) Zeus:<ref>Gantz, p. 28.</ref>
{{blockquote|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.<ref>[[Homer]], ''[[Iliad]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg001.perseus-eng1:21.161-21.199 21.194&ndash;199]; compare [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.perseus-eng1:8.38.10 8.38.10].</ref>|[[Homer]]; translation by A. T. Murray}}
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.<ref>Andolfi, fr. 1.</ref> 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.<ref>Fowler 2013, [https://books.google.com/books?id=scd8AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA12 p. 12]; Andolfi, fr. 1. For a detailed discussion of this issue, arguing that the version of the ''Iliad'' with line 21.195 omitted "represents the earlier textual stage", see D'Alessio, pp. 16&ndash;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 the ''Iliad'', where Oceanus' predominance is unquestionable."</ref> A commentary on ''[[Iliad]]'' 21.195, preserved on [[Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 221|Oxyrhynchus Papyrus 221]], contains a fragment of a poem, possibly from the [[Epic tradition]], which mentions "the waters of silver-eddying Achelous" being the source of "the whole sea".<ref>West 2003, [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/greek_epic_fragments_unplaced_fragments_mostly_ascribed_homer/2003/pb_LCL497.293.xml fr. 12, pp. 292, 293]; D'Alessio, p. 18; [[Oxyrhynchus Papyri|''P.Oxy.'']] [[P.Oxy. 221|221]] ix 1&ndash;3; 5.93 Erbse.</ref> A late-5th-century BC commentary on an [[Orphic]] theogony, preserved by the [[Derveni Papyrus]], quotes a poetic fragment calling the rivers the "sinews of Achelous".<ref>West 1983, pp. 92,115. According to D'Alessio, pp. 20&ndash;23, this poetic fragment may be from the same poem (or near contemporary versions of the same poem) as the fragment quoted in ''Oxyrhynchus Papyrus'' 221. For a  discussion of the translation of ''ἶνας'' as "sinews" see D'Alessio, pp. 23ff.</ref> The same Oxyrhynchus Papyrus also quotes ancient verses which apparently equated Achelous and Oceanus,<ref>Fowler 2013, [https://books.google.com/books?id=scd8AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA12 p. 12]; Schironi, [https://books.google.com/books?id=GZ92DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA319 p. 319]; D'Alessio, pp. 30&ndash;31 (which discusses the probable attribution of these quotes to the 5th-century BC poet [[Panyassis]]); [[Panyassis]] [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/panyassis-heraclea/2003/pb_LCL497.201.xml fr. 13 West]; [[Oxyrhynchus Papyri|''P.Oxy.'']] [[P.Oxy. 221|221]] ix 8-11; 5.93&ndash;94 Erbse. [[Joseph Fontenrose|Fontenrose]], [https://books.google.com/books?id=wqeVv09Y6hIC&pg=PA232 p. 232], reads the Iliad passage itself, as appearing to identify Achelous and Oceanus.</ref> 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".<ref>D'Alessio, pp. 18, 31; [[Oxyrhynchus Papyri|''P.Oxy.'']] [[P.Oxy. 221|221]] ix 18&ndash;20.</ref>
[[File:Achelous mask, marble, 470 BC, Antikensammlung Berlin, 141684.jpg|thumb|A possible Achelous cult mask, with dowel holes where bronze horns and ears were perhaps attached and the mask hung; Marble mask from [[Marathon, Greece|Marathon]], Berlin [[Antikensammlung Berlin|Antikensammlung]] SK 100.<ref>Isler 1981 [https://archive.org/details/limc_20210516/Lexicon%20Iconographicum%20Mythologiae%20Classicae/LIMC%20I-1/page/n38/mode/1up p. 18 (Acheloos 80)]; [[Beazley Archive]], [https://www.carc.ox.ac.uk/CGPrograms/Cast/ASP/Cast.asp?CastNo=B071 CAST GALLERY CATALOGUE NUMBER: B071]; [[Perseus Digital Library]], [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/artifact?name=Berlin+100&object=sculpture Berlin 100 (Sculpture)]; Boardman 1978, [https://archive.org/details/GREEKSCULPTURETHEARCHAICPERIOD1978ByJOHNBOARDMAN/page/n143/mode/2up fig. 171]; ''LIMC'' I.2, [https://archive.org/details/limc_20210516/Lexicon%20Iconographicum%20Mythologiae%20Classicae/LIMC%20I-2/page/n12/mode/1up p. 24 (Acheloos 80)].</ref>]]
Achelous as a cultic figure is attested as early as the seventh century BC. The 2nd-century geographer [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], reports seeing, near [[Megara]], an altar to Achelous erected by the seventh-century BC [[tyrant#Archaic tyrants|"tyrant"]], [[Theagenes of Megara]].<ref>D'Alessio, p. 27 with n. 33; [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.perseus-eng1:1.41.2 1.41.2].</ref> Achelous was the only river-god to achieve Panhellenic cult status. By the fifth century BC he shared many sanctuaries with his daughters the nymphs.<ref>Larson, p. 65.</ref> Achelous appears in many [[Votive offering|votive]] reliefs which often include nymphs. Such reliefs were given as dedications in sanctuaries.<ref>Kaltsas, [https://books.google.com/books?id=s4glewvbsakC&pg=PA219 p. 219].</ref> A votive relief (Athens 1488), dedicated to "[[Pan (god)|Pan]] and the Nymphs", shows Hermes leading three nymphs in a cave, with a relief head of Achelous depicted on the wall of the cave.<ref>Kaltsas, [https://books.google.com/books?id=s4glewvbsakC&pg=PA219 p. 219]; Isler 1981, [https://archive.org/details/limc_20210516/Lexicon%20Iconographicum%20Mythologiae%20Classicae/LIMC%20I-1/page/n40/mode/1up p. 23]; ''LIMC'' I.2, [https://archive.org/details/limc_20210516/Lexicon%20Iconographicum%20Mythologiae%20Classicae/LIMC%20I-2/page/n20/mode/1up 9. 40 (Acheloos 188)].</ref> In a similar votive relief (Athens 1859), Achelous is depicted as a bull with a human head.<ref>Kaltsas, [https://books.google.com/books?id=s4glewvbsakC&pg=PA221 p. 221]; Isler 1981, [https://archive.org/details/limc_20210516/Lexicon%20Iconographicum%20Mythologiae%20Classicae/LIMC%20I-1/page/n40/mode/1up p. 23]; ''LIMC'' I.2, [https://archive.org/details/limc_20210516/Lexicon%20Iconographicum%20Mythologiae%20Classicae/LIMC%20I-2/page/n19/mode/1up p. 39 (Acheloos 186)].</ref> Achelous could also be venerated in the form of stylized votive masks, similar to the cult masks of the wine-god Dionysus.<ref>Gais, p. 357; Isler 1981, [https://archive.org/details/limc_20210516/Lexicon%20Iconographicum%20Mythologiae%20Classicae/LIMC%20I-1/page/n35/mode/1up p. 12], [https://archive.org/details/limc_20210516/Lexicon%20Iconographicum%20Mythologiae%20Classicae/LIMC%20I-1/page/n38/mode/1up p. 18 (Acheloos 80)], [https://archive.org/details/limc_20210516/Lexicon%20Iconographicum%20Mythologiae%20Classicae/LIMC%20I-1/page/n41/mode/1up p. 24 (Acheloos 198)]; [[University of Giessen]], [https://www.uni-giessen.de/en/faculties/f04/institute-en/classical-studies/classical-archaeology/facilities/collection-of-antiquities/collections-holdings/terracotta-figurines/terracottas-from-campania/mask-of-a-river-god-acheloos Mask of a river god (Acheloos), Inv. T I-9].</ref> A well-known example of such a cult mask, considered to be Achelous, is a marble mask (c. 490&ndash;470 BC) from [[Marathon, Greece|Marathon]] (Berlin SK 100).<ref>Gais, p. 357, Fig 4; Isler 1981 [https://archive.org/details/limc_20210516/Lexicon%20Iconographicum%20Mythologiae%20Classicae/LIMC%20I-1/page/n38/mode/1up p. 18 (Acheloos 80)]; [[Beazley Archive]], [https://www.carc.ox.ac.uk/CGPrograms/Cast/ASP/Cast.asp?CastNo=B071 CAST GALLERY CATALOGUE NUMBER: B071]; [[Perseus Digital Library]], [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/artifact?name=Berlin+100&object=sculpture Berlin 100 (Sculpture)]; Boardman 1978, [https://archive.org/details/GREEKSCULPTURETHEARCHAICPERIOD1978ByJOHNBOARDMAN/page/n143/mode/2up fig. 171]; ''LIMC'' I.2, [https://archive.org/details/limc_20210516/Lexicon%20Iconographicum%20Mythologiae%20Classicae/LIMC%20I-2/page/n12/mode/1up p. 24 (Acheloos 80)].</ref>

According to the early 4th-century BC Greek historian [[Ephorus]], the oracle at [[Dodona]] usually 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".<ref>Fowler 2013, [https://books.google.com/books?id=scd8AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA12 p. 12], D'Alessio, p. 32; Andolfi, fr. 1; [[Ephorus]] ''[[FGrHist]]'' 70 20a = [[Macrobius]], ''[[Saturnalia (Macrobius)|Saturnalia]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/macrobius-saturnalia/2011/pb_LCL511.423.xml 5.18.6&ndash;8].</ref> Ephorus, explaining the "puzzle" of why Achelous name was used to mean water, said 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.<ref>D'Alessio, p. 18; Andolfi, fr. 1; [[Ephorus]], ''[[FGrHist]]'' 70 20a = [[Macrobius]], ''[[Saturnalia (Macrobius)|Saturnalia]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/macrobius-saturnalia/2011/pb_LCL511.423.xml 5.18.6&ndash;8].</ref>

[[Plato]]'s  ''[[Phaedrus (dialogue)|Phaedrus]]'' has [[Socrates]], walking in the countryside along the [[Ilissus]] river, come across a "sacred place of some nymphs and of Achelous, judging by the figurines and statues".<ref>Larson, p. 58; [[Plato]], ''[[Phaedrus (dialogue)|Phaedrus]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0059.tlg012.perseus-eng1:230b 230b].</ref> In addition to the altar to Achelous near Megara, Pausanias also mentions a part of the altar at the [[Amphiareion of Oropos]] dedicated to "the nymphs and to Pan, and to the rivers Achelous and Cephisus",<ref>[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.perseus-eng1:1.34 1.34.3].</ref> and the [[Megarian Treasury (Olympia)|Megarian Treasury]] at [[Olympia, Greece|Olympia]], which contained  a dedication  representing the fight of Heracles with Achelous.<ref>[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.perseus-eng1:6.19.12 6.19.12].</ref>

==River-gods and bulls==
Achelous as a bull in the story of his contest with Heracles is part of a Greek tradition, perhaps as old as Homer (or older), of associating rivers and river-gods with bulls.<ref>Lloyd, p. 113; Jones, p. 10; D'Alessio, p. 27; [[Homer]], ''[[Iliad]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg001.perseus-eng1:21.233-21.271 2.233&ndash;239], which has the river-[[Scamander]], while fighting with [[Achilles]], roaring like a bull (''μεμυκὼς ἠΰτε ταῦρος''). Lloyd, takes this passage as "sufficient proof ... that the personification of rivers as bulls is as old as Homer", while Jones more cautiously says: "Whether Homer's simile is a precursor of the identification of river gods with bulls or a rationalizing reflection of such a belief remains unclear". D'Alessio says "It is very likely that the connection between rivers and bulls was part of Greek tradition well before any influence of Near Eastern models", which corresponds to [[Walter Burkert|Burkert]]'s (p. 5), "orientalizing period" (c. 750&ndash;650 BC), and thus contemporaneous with Homer. In any case the association seems well established by the fifth century BC, see [[Euripides]], ''[[Ion (play)|Ion]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-ion/1999/pb_LCL010.467.xml 1261], ''[[Orestes]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-orestes/2002/pb_LCL011.565.xml 1377&ndash;1379]. Ashton, [https://books.openedition.org/pulg/1618 I.63], sees this association as part of a "much wider pattern of association" connecting bulls with water and water-deities in general.</ref> Strabo reports that according to some "the Acheloüs, like the other rivers, was called 'like a bull' from the roaring of its waters, and also from the bendings of its streams, which were called Horns".<ref>[[Richard Claverhouse Jebb|Jebb]], [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0027%3Atext%3Dcomm%3Acommline%3D11 note on line 11]; [[Strabo]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0099.tlg001.perseus-eng1:10.2.19 10.2.19]. Compare with the description (like a raging bull?) of the overflowing Achelous river that Ovid puts in the river-god's mouth: "The current is wont to sweep down solid trunks of trees and huge boulders in zigzag course with crash and roar. I have seen great stables that stood near by the bank swept away, cattle and all, and in that current neither strength availed the ox nor speed the horse. Many a strong man also has been overwhelmed in its whirling pools when swollen by melting snows from the mountain-sides" ([[Metamorphoses]] [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/ovid-metamorphoses/1916/pb_LCL042.445.xml 8.549&ndash;559]). Ashton, [https://books.openedition.org/pulg/1618 I.63], suggests that Strabo felt the need to give this rationalizing explanation for the connection of bulls with rivers since "perhaps by Strabo’s time the traditional bull-water connection had lost its force."</ref> This association is reflected in the fact that the Greeks depicted river-gods as part bull from at least the [[Archaic Greece|Archaic period]] onward.<ref>Gais, p. 157; Isler 1981, [https://archive.org/details/limc_20210516/Lexicon%20Iconographicum%20Mythologiae%20Classicae/LIMC%20I-1/page/n44/mode/1up p. 30].</ref> There is also an ancient association between horns and the fertility that rivers provide, as can be seen in the story of the [[cornucopia|horn of plenty]].<ref>Ashton,  [https://books.openedition.org/pulg/1618 I.64], [https://books.openedition.org/pulg/1620 III.9, 22].</ref>

==Iconography==
[[File:EB1911_Greek_Art_-_Heracles_and_Achelous.jpg|thumb|Heracles wrestling with Achelous in the form of the sea-god [[Triton (mythology)|Triton]]; Achelous has one bull's horn and a bull's ear, a human torso, and a snaky fish tail. Heracles grabs Achelous by his horn and strangles him with the other hand, while the river-god tries to loosen Heracles' grip. Illustration from [[British Museum]] E437 (pictured above).<ref>Isler 1981, [https://archive.org/details/limc_20210516/Lexicon%20Iconographicum%20Mythologiae%20Classicae/LIMC%20I-1/page/n42/mode/1up p. 27 (Acheloos 245)].</ref>]]

Achelous was a popular subject in ancient Greek art.<ref>Tripp, s.v. Acheloüs; Fairbanks, [https://archive.org/stream/imagines00philuoft#page/302/mode/2up p. 303 n. 1]; Isler 2006, [https://referenceworks-brill-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/display/entries/NPOE/e102080.xml s.v. Achelous 2]. For a comprehensive treatment of Acheleus' iconography, see Isler 1981, [https://archive.org/details/limc_20210516/Lexicon%20Iconographicum%20Mythologiae%20Classicae/LIMC%20I-1/page/n35/mode/1up pp. 12&ndash;36], along with LIMC I.2, [https://archive.org/details/limc_20210516/Lexicon%20Iconographicum%20Mythologiae%20Classicae/LIMC%20I-2/page/n9/mode/1up pp. 19&ndash;54].</ref> There are many depictions of his fight with Heracles over Deianeira, with over twenty surviving examples in [[Attica|Attic]] vase painting alone.<ref>Stafford, p. 76. The ''LIMC'' lists the following Attic vase paintings: Acheloos 214&ndash;218, 241&ndash;245, and 247&ndash;259.</ref> Achelous also appears in many votive reliefs along with other divinities often including nymphs.<ref>''LIMC'' Achelous 166&ndash;205.</ref> In these contexts, in which the identity of the figure as Achelous is secured by inscription,<ref>''LIMC'' Acheloos 217, 230 (Heracles scenes), 180, 194, 204 (votive reliefs).</ref> the river-god is characteristically portrayed in the form of a  man-bull, i.e. a bull with a bull-horned and bull-eared human face, head or torso and a bison-like beard, either in full-figure, or in the abbreviated form of a man-bull torso, head or particularly a mask.<ref>Stafford, p. 75; Isler 2006, [https://referenceworks-brill-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/display/entries/NPOE/e102080.xml s.v. Achelous 2];  D'Alessio, p. 26; Isler 1981, [https://archive.org/details/limc_20210516/Lexicon%20Iconographicum%20Mythologiae%20Classicae/LIMC%20I-1/page/n44/mode/1up pp. 31&ndash;32.] This man-bull form is in contrast to the "bull-man" form, i.e. a human body with a bull's head, such as the [[Minataur]].</ref> Achelous' man-bull iconography probably derived from oriental art.<ref>Gais, p. 356; Isler 1981, [https://archive.org/details/limc_20210516/Lexicon%20Iconographicum%20Mythologiae%20Classicae/LIMC%20I-1/page/n44/mode/1up p. 30]; D'Alessio, p. 26.</ref>  Much more rarely, Achelous can also be found depicted in human form.<ref>Isler 1981, [https://archive.org/details/limc_20210516/Lexicon%20Iconographicum%20Mythologiae%20Classicae/LIMC%20I-1/page/n45/mode/1up p. 32]; ''LIMC''  Acheloos 75&ndash;79, 210 (? or perhaps the river-god [[Cephissus (mythology)|Cephissus]], see Kaltsas, [https://books.google.com/books?id=s4glewvbsakC&pg=PA134 p. 134]; ''LIMC'' Kephiosos I 1), 211, 212, 260&ndash;265, 259a.</ref> Besides Greek art, Achelous was also a common figure in [[Etruscan art]].<ref>Isler 2006, [https://referenceworks-brill-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/display/entries/NPOE/e102080.xml s.v. Achelous 2].</ref> 

===Achelous and Heracles===
Achelous' contest with Heracles was the subject of many 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.<ref>Gantz, p. 433.</ref> Possibly the earliest version of the scene (c. 600&ndash;560 BC) appears on the figure frieze of a [[Middle Corinthian]] [[kylix]] cup  (Brussels A1374), which depicts Heracles wrestling with a horned [[centaur]]-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 (Deianeira?).<ref>Gantz, p. 433; Stafford, pp. 75–76; Boardman 1982, [https://books.google.com/books?id=4p2Pw39u_DkC&pg=PA2 p. 2]; Luce, [https://books.google.com/books?id=yqIrAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA430 pp. 430&ndash;431]; Isler 1981, [https://archive.org/details/limc_20210516/Lexicon%20Iconographicum%20Mythologiae%20Classicae/LIMC%20I-1/page/n42/mode/1up p. 27 (Acheloos 246)]; [[Beazley Archive]] [http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/record/EAF313D4-956B-4CC6-B061-2EC20667E278 1011067]; [[Digital LIMC]] [http://ark.dasch.swiss/ark:/72163/080e-73e001030a302-4 4267]; ''LIMC'' I.2, [https://archive.org/details/limc_20210516/Lexicon%20Iconographicum%20Mythologiae%20Classicae/LIMC%20I-2/page/n25/mode/1up p. 50 (Acheloos 246)]. The cited sources give various date ranges, Stafford: c. 590&ndash;580 BC, Boardman: c. 570&ndash;560 BC, ''LIMC'': 600&ndash;575 BC.</ref> The earliest (c. 570 BC) [[Attic]] versions (New York 59.64, Boston 99.519) depict Achelous as a bull with a man's head and beard.<ref>Gantz, p. 433; New York 59.64 (Isler, [https://archive.org/details/limc_20210516/Lexicon%20Iconographicum%20Mythologiae%20Classicae/LIMC%20I-1/page/n41/mode/1up p. 25 (Acheloos 214)]; [[Beazley Archive]]  [http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/record/E763F626-D47F-4A44-AA64-AB74C0FF2980 350203]; [[Digital LIMC]] [http://ark.dasch.swiss/ark:/72163/080e-73e00854eae8c-1 4268], [https://app.dasch.swiss/resource/080E/i-k1qhA9VwuAA6zHRnwgcg scene 4320]; [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]] [https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/255056 59.64]; ''LIMC'' I.2, [https://archive.org/details/limc_20210516/Lexicon%20Iconographicum%20Mythologiae%20Classicae/LIMC%20I-2/page/n22/mode/1up p. 43 (Acheloos 214)]); Boston 99.519 (Luce, [https://books.google.com/books?id=yqIrAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA425 pp. 425&ndash;437]; Isler, [https://archive.org/details/limc_20210516/Lexicon%20Iconographicum%20Mythologiae%20Classicae/LIMC%20I-1/page/n41/mode/1up p. 25 (Acheloos 215)]; [[Beazley Archive]] [http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/record/3588B753-30DB-4277-9A0C-CC00A68A2BC9 300620]; [[Digital LIMC]] [http://ark.dasch.swiss/ark:/72163/080e-7478e082ca09b-f 15049], [https://app.dasch.swiss/resource/080E/Uh1ALSeHXm2SBkTJTrCYnA scene 15525]; ''LIMC'' I.2, [https://archive.org/details/limc_20210516/Lexicon%20Iconographicum%20Mythologiae%20Classicae/LIMC%20I-2/page/n22/mode/1up p. 43 (Acheloos 215)]).</ref> Although many early depiction of this scene represent Achelous as a centaur,<ref>''LIMC'' Acheloos 246&ndash;258. For a discussion of Achelous as centaur see Isler 1981, [https://archive.org/details/limc_20210516/Lexicon%20Iconographicum%20Mythologiae%20Classicae/LIMC%20I-1/page/n45/mode/1up p. 33].</ref> by the fifth century BC he is commonly represented as a bull with a human face.<ref>Fairbanks, [https://archive.org/stream/imagines00philuoft#page/302/mode/2up p. 303 n. 1].</ref>

[[File:Ottův slovník naučný - obrázek č. 110.jpg|thumb|[[Deianeira]] (left) as veiled bride watches right; Heracles, with raised club holds Achelous (in his characteristic man-bull form) by a horn; a broken-off horn lies on the ground; Achelous spouts water from his mouth. Illustration from [[Louvre]] G365 (pictured above).<ref>Isler 1981, [https://archive.org/details/limc_20210516/Lexicon%20Iconographicum%20Mythologiae%20Classicae/LIMC%20I-1/page/n41/mode/1up p. 25 (Acheloos 218)].</ref>]]

On one later example (c. 525&ndash;475 BC), an Attic [[red-figure]] [[stamnos]] from [[Cerveteri]] attributed to [[Oltos]] ([[British Museum]] 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-god [[Triton (mythology)|Triton]] which appear on many other Attic vases. Heracles (also identified by inscription) appears about to break off the river-god's single horn.<ref>Schefold, [https://books.google.com/books?id=p2DA_Aze7F0C&pg=PA159 p. 159]; Stafford, p. 76; [[Joseph Fontenrose|Fontenrose]], [https://books.google.com/books?id=wqeVv09Y6hIC&pg=PA233 pp. 233&ndash;234]; Luce, [https://books.google.com/books?id=yqIrAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA425 p. 425]; Isler 1981, [https://archive.org/details/limc_20210516/Lexicon%20Iconographicum%20Mythologiae%20Classicae/LIMC%20I-1/page/n42/mode/1up p. 27 (Acheloos 245)]; [[Digital LIMC]] [http://ark.dasch.swiss/ark:/72163/080e-7427a884d97e6-f 9321], [https://app.dasch.swiss/resource/080E/LwAF-v27V3yNa40eB1etVA scene 9523]; [[Beazley Archive]] [http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/record/34CF8453-D951-4A26-83EB-B504853B7D0E 200437]; [[British Museum]] [https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/G_1839-0214-70 1839,0214.70]; ''LIMC'' I.2, [https://archive.org/details/limc_20210516/Lexicon%20Iconographicum%20Mythologiae%20Classicae/LIMC%20I-2/page/n25/mode/1up p. 50 (Acheloos 245)]; [[Attic Vase Inscriptions|AVI]] [https://www.avi.unibas.ch/DB/searchform.html?ID=4762 4590].</ref> On a somewhat later (c. 475&ndash;425 BC) red-figure Attic [[column krater]] ([[Louvre]] G365), 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.<ref>Gantz, p. 433; Isler 1981, [https://archive.org/details/limc_20210516/Lexicon%20Iconographicum%20Mythologiae%20Classicae/LIMC%20I-1/page/n41/mode/1up p. 25 (Acheloos 218)]; [[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)]. 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).</ref>  Figures depicting Oineus and Deianeira (as on Louvre G365) and also [[Athena]] and [[Hermes]] are sometimes included in the scene.<ref>Gantz, p. 433.</ref>

[[File:Votive relief with Zeus Melichius, Hermes, and Hercules (3rd cent. B.C.) at the National Archaeological Museum on 28 September 2018.jpg|thumb|left|[[Heracles]] (right), being presented by [[Hermes]] (center) to [[Zeus]] (seated left). The side of Zeus' seat is decorated with a mask of Achelous identified by inscription below. Marble votive relief found near the [[Ilissos]] river,  [[National Archaeological Museum, Athens]] 1778.<ref>Kaltsas, [https://books.google.com/books?id=s4glewvbsakC&pg=PA278 p. 278]; Isler 1981, [https://archive.org/details/limc_20210516/Lexicon%20Iconographicum%20Mythologiae%20Classicae/LIMC%20I-1/page/n41/mode/1up p. 24]; ''LIMC'' I.2, [https://archive.org/details/limc_20210516/Lexicon%20Iconographicum%20Mythologiae%20Classicae/LIMC%20I-2/page/n21/mode/1up p. 42 (Acheloos 204)].</ref>]]

[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] reports seeing the scene represented on the throne of [[Amyclae]],<ref>Gantz, p. 433; Stafford, p. 75; Isler 1981, p. 25 (Acheloos 219); [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.perseus-eng1:3.18.16 3.18.16].</ref> and also in the [[Megarian Treasury (Olympia)|Megarian Treasury]] at [[Olympia, Greece|Olympia]], where he describes seeing "small cedar-wood figures inlaid with gold" which, besides Achelous, included [[Zeus]], [[Deianeira]], [[Heracles]], and [[Ares]] aiding Achelous.<ref>Gantz, p. 433; Stafford, pp. 75&ndash;76; [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.perseus-eng1:6.19.12 6.19.12].</ref>

===Votive reliefs===
Beginning in the late fifth century BC, Achelous also appears in many votive reliefs. Such reliefs often include his daughters the nymphs.<ref>See Isler 1981, [https://archive.org/details/limc_20210516/Lexicon%20Iconographicum%20Mythologiae%20Classicae/LIMC%20I-1/page/n40/mode/1up pp. 22&ndash;25]; Gais, 357; ''LIMC'' Acheloos 166&ndash;196 (with nymphs), 197&ndash;205, 206&ndash;208 (clay from [[Locri]], with nymphs), 209&ndash;212 (with nymphs).</ref> Three marble [[Attic]] reliefs (Athens 1445, 1448, and 1859) have the form of a cave, with four central figures, a male leading three nymphs, all holding hands gathered around a small stone altar (dancing?). Achelous, along with other figures, is represented as being carved into the cave wall. In two of these (1448 and 1859, pictured above) the male central figure is Hermes, in the other he is Pan. Votive reliefs without nymphs are also common. A votive relief (Athens 1778), dedicated to Zeus and found near the [[Ilissos]] river, shows Zeus sitting on a stone seat decorated with the face of Achelous.<ref>Kaltsas, [https://books.google.com/books?id=s4glewvbsakC&pg=PA278 p. 278]; Isler 1981, [https://archive.org/details/limc_20210516/Lexicon%20Iconographicum%20Mythologiae%20Classicae/LIMC%20I-1/page/n41/mode/1up p. 24].</ref>

===Other contexts===
Although depictions of Achelous in the form of a man-bull in Heracles scenes and votive reliefs are very common, far more common are depictions of a man-bull unaccompanied by other figures.<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/n45/mode/1up p. 32].</ref> In these contexts&mdash;where no inscription allows certain identification&mdash;the interpretation of such an individual man-bull as being Achelous is inferred.<ref>For Isler 1981, pp. [https://archive.org/details/limc_20210516/Lexicon%20Iconographicum%20Mythologiae%20Classicae/LIMC%20I-1/page/n44/mode/1up 30], [https://archive.org/details/limc_20210516/Lexicon%20Iconographicum%20Mythologiae%20Classicae/LIMC%20I-1/page/n45/mode/1up 35], all man-bull images are considered to be Achelous, however as Isler, [https://archive.org/details/limc_20210516/Lexicon%20Iconographicum%20Mythologiae%20Classicae/LIMC%20I-1/page/n35/mode/1up p. 13], notes other researchers, especially on coins, prefer an interpretation of the man-bull as being a local river-god rather than Achelous. Of the 267 ''LIMC'' entries whose identification as Achelous is considered by Isler as being certain, 212 are individual representations (Acheloos 1&ndash;212).</ref> In particular, depictions of a man-bull are found on the coins of many cites in Magna Graecia, Sicily, and elsewhere.<ref>''LIMC'' Acheloos 15&ndash;53, 92&ndash;99, 227.</ref> In addition to vase paintings, votive reliefs, and coins, man-bull depictions can also be found on many other kinds of artifacts, including gems,<ref>''LIMC'' Acheloos 6&ndash;10, 64, 221&ndash;223, 231&ndash;233.</ref> jewelry,<ref>''LIMC'' Acheloos 136&ndash;138, 142&ndash;160, 234, 235.</ref> bronzes,<ref>''LIMC'' Acheloos 55, 56, 65&ndash;67, 111&ndash;114, 236&ndash;240.</ref> and architectural terracottas.<ref>''LIMC'' Acheloos 81&ndash;84 (antefixes), 121&ndash;124 (roof terracottas).</ref>

==Possible origins==
That Achelous, rather than Oceanus, was perhaps, in some earlier version of the ''Iliad'', the source  of "all rivers ... and every sea", and that his name was often used to mean "water" (along with other evidence from ancient sources), have suggested the possibility to modern scholars that Achelous may have predated Oceanus as the original Greek water-god.<ref>Fowler 2013, [https://books.google.com/books?id=scd8AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA12 p. 12]; D'Alessio, p. 27 (who adds to such evidence that in cultic practice&mdash;in contrast to Achelous whose cultic practice was extensive&mdash;Oceanus "scarcely found any place at all"); Wilamowitz, [https://archive.org/details/derglaubederhell0000wila/page/90/mode/2up p. 91].</ref>

[[File:Bronze coin from Oiniadai.jpg|right|thumb|[[Bronze]] coin struck in [[Oiniadai]], c. 215 BC, depicting the [[river-god]] Achelous as man-faced [[bull]] on 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 in [[Old Europe (archaeology)|Old Europe]] in the [[Bronze Age]], and that after the disappearance of many Old European cultures, the traditions traveled to the Near East at the beginning of 4th millennium BC ([[Ubaid period]]),<ref>Molinari and Sisci, pp. 1&ndash;6.</ref> and finally migrated to Greece, Italy, Sicily, and Sardinia with itinerant sea-folk during the Late Bronze Age through the [[Orientalizing period]].<ref>Molinari and Sisci, pp. 22&ndash;30.</ref> Although no single cult of Achelous persisted throughout all of these generations, the iconography and general ''mythos'' easily 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.<ref>Molinari and Sisci, pp. 97ff.</ref>

Achelous was also an important deity in the [[Etruscan religion]],<ref>Isler 1970; Jannot 1974.</ref> intimately related to water as in the Greek tradition but also carrying significant [[chthonic]] associations. 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.<ref>Molinari and Sisci, pp. 48&ndash;68.</ref>

The leading exponents into the Greek and Etruscan worlds were seer-healers and mercenaries during the [[Iron Age]], and Achelous as a man-faced bull becomes an emblem employed by mercenaries in the Greek world for centuries.<ref>Molinari and Sisci, pp. 22&ndash;30.</ref> These earlier figures probably adapted the mythological and iconographic traditions of Asallúhi (also Asarlúhi or [[Asaruludu]]),<ref>Molinari and Sisci, p. 14.</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/amgg/listofdeities/asalluhi/|title=Asalluhi (god)|last1=Heffron|first1=Yaǧmur|last2=Brisch|first2=Nicole|date=2016|website=Ancient Mesopotamian Gods and Goddesses|publisher=University of Pennsylvania|access-date=20 October 2016}}</ref> the "princely bison" of Near Eastern traditions that "rises to the surface of the earth in springs and marshes, ultimately flowing as rivers".<ref>{{Cite book|chapter=Milking the Udder of Heaven: A Note on Mesopotamian and Indo-Iranian Religious Imagery|last=Whittaker|first=Gordon|title=From Daena to Din. Religion, Kultur und Sprache in der iranischen Welt: Festschrift fuer Philip Kreyenbroek zum 60. Geburstag|publisher=Harrassowitz Verlag|year=2009|location=Wiesbaden|pages=131}}</ref>

==Achelous River==
{{main|Achelous River}}
The [[Achelous River]] rises in the [[Pindus|Pindus mountains]], flows into the [[Ionian Sea]] near the [[Echinades|Echinades Islands]] in western [[Greece]], and divided ancient [[Acarnania]] and [[Aetolia]]. [[Maurus Servius Honoratus|Servius]] gives 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.<ref>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]; [[Maurus Servius Honoratus|Servius]], ''ad Virg. Georg.'' i. 9.</ref>

[[Pseudo-Plutarch]] gives a different story for how the river acquired its name. He says it was formerly called Thestius, after a son of [[Mars]] and [[Pisidice]], 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 nymph [[Naïs (mythology)|Naïs]], who jumped into the river after he discovered he had slept with his daughter Cletoria by mistake.<ref>[[Joseph Fontenrose|Fontenrose]], 
[https://books.google.com/books?id=wqeVv09Y6hIC&pg=PA352 p. 352]; 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]; [[Pseudo-Plutarch]], ''De fluviis'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0094.tlg001.perseus-eng1:22 22].</ref>

Strabo reports that in "earlier times" the river was called the Thoas.<ref>[[Joseph Fontenrose|Fontenrose]], 
[https://books.google.com/books?id=wqeVv09Y6hIC&pg=PA352 p. 352]; [[Strabo]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0099.tlg001.perseus-eng1:10.2.1 10.2.1].</ref> 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.<ref>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]; [[Strabo]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0099.tlg001.perseus-eng1:10.2.19 10.2.19]. Compare with [[Diodorus Siculus]], [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/4B*.html#35 4.35.3&ndash;4].</ref>

Achelous was a common river name. There were several other rivers with that name in ancient times.<ref>Mussini, p. 92, says that ancient sources mention seven rivers named Achelous; Ashton, [https://books.openedition.org/pulg/1618 I.47 n. 121], says that "there were other, far less famous rivers of the same name in Arkadia, Achaia, Lydia, Mykonos and the Troad ... not associated with the god Acheloos"; Molinari and Sisci, p. 61, says there were "at least six" rivers with that name.</ref> In addition to "king Achelous",<ref>[[Homer]], ''[[Iliad]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg001.perseus-eng1:21.161-21.199 21.194].</ref> Homer apparently knew of an Achelous river in [[Lydia]], near [[Mount Sipylos]]:<ref>D'Alessio, pp. 30–31; [[Panyassis]] [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/panyassis-heraclea/2003/pb_LCL497.211.xml fr. 23 West]; [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.perseus-eng1:8.38.10 8.38.10].</ref>
{{blockquote|on the lonely mountains, on Sipylus, where, men say, are the couches of goddesses, of the nymphs that range swiftly in the dance about Achelous,<ref>[[Homer]], ''[[Iliad]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg001.perseus-eng1:24.596-24.642 24.614&ndash;617].</ref>|Homer's ''Iliad''; translation by A. T. Murray, revised by William F. Wyatt}}

[[Strabo]] mentions two other rivers named Achelous, one in [[Achaea]] near [[Dyme]], also called the [[Peiros]],<ref> Smith 1854 [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0064%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DA%3Aentry+group%3D2%3Aentry%3Dachelous-geo s.v. Achelous 4.]; [[Strabo]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0099.tlg001.perseus-eng1:8.3.11 8.3.11], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0099.tlg001.perseus-eng1:10.2.1 10.2.1].</ref> the other in [[Thessaly]] near [[Lamia (city)|Lamia]].<ref>Smith 1854 [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0064%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DA%3Aentry+group%3D2%3Aentry%3Dachelous-geo s.v. Achelous 2.]; [[Strabo]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0099.tlg001.perseus-eng1:9.5.10 9.5.10], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0099.tlg001.perseus-eng1:10.2.1 10.2.1].</ref> [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] mentions one more, a tributary of the [[Alfeios|Alpheius]] in the [[Peloponnese]], near [[Mount Lykaion|Mount Lycaeus]] in [[Arcadia (ancient region)|Arcadia]].<ref>Smith 1854 [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0064%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DA%3Aentry+group%3D2%3Aentry%3Dachelous-geo s.v. Achelous 3.]); [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.perseus-eng1:8.38.9 8.38.9&ndash;10].</ref> The multiplicity of rivers with the same name, perhaps due to the river-god's equation with water,<ref>Andolfi, fr. 1.</ref> has also been seen as suggesting the possibility that Achelous was originally "the primal source of all water".<ref>Molinari and Sisci, p. 61.</ref>

==''Metamorphoses''==
[[Ovid]], in his ''[[Metamorphoses]]'', provided a descriptive interlude when [[Theseus]] is 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."<ref>[[Ovid]], ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' VIII, 547ff.</ref>

== See also ==
* {{Portal inline|Ancient Greece}}
* {{Portal inline|Myths}}

== Notes ==
{{reflist|2}}

== References ==
* Andolfi, Ilaria, ''Acusilaus of Argos' Rhapsody in Prose: Introduction, Text, and Commentary'', Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG, 2019. {{ISBN|978-3-11-061695-8}}.
* [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], ''Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes.'' Cambridge, Massachusetts, [[Harvard University Press]]; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg001.perseus-eng1 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library].
* [[Apollonius of Rhodes]], ''Apollonius Rhodius: the Argonautica'', translated by Robert Cooper Seaton, W. Heinemann, 1912. [http://www.archive.org/stream/argonautica00apoluoft#page/n5/mode/2up Internet Archive].
* [[Aristophanes]], ''Fragments'', edited and translated by Jeffrey Henderson, [[Loeb Classical Library]] No. 502, Cambridge, Massachusetts, [[Harvard University Press]], 2007. [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/LCL502/2008/volume.xml Online version at Harvard University Press]. {{ISBN|978-0-674-99615-1}}.
* [[Aristotle]], ''[[Metaphysics]]'' in  ''Aristotle in 23 Volumes'', Vols.17, 18, translated by Hugh Tredennick, Cambridge, Massachusetts, [[Harvard University Press]], London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1932. [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0086.tlg025.perseus-eng1:1.980a  Online version at the Perseus Digital Library].
* Ashton, Emma, [https://books.openedition.org/pulg/1613 ''Mixanthrôpoi: Animal-human hybrid deities in Greek religion'']. Centre International d'Étude de la Religion Grecque Antique, 2011. Presses universitaires de Liège, 2017. {{isbn|978-2-9600717-8-8}} (print). {{isbn|978-2-8218-9563-8}} (digital). {{doi| 10.4000/books.pulg.1613}}.
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==External links==
{{Commons category}}
* {{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Achelous |short=x}}
* [http://www.theoi.com/Potamos/PotamosAkheloios.html Theoi Project - Potamos Akheloios]
* {{Cite NIE|wstitle=Achelous|year=1905 |short=x}}
* [https://iconographic.warburg.sas.ac.uk/category/vpc-taxonomy-000031 The Warburg Institute Iconographic Database (images of Achelous)]

{{Greek mythology (deities)}}
{{Metamorphoses in Greek mythology}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:River gods in Greek mythology]]
[[Category:Achelous River]]
[[Category:Metamorphoses characters]]
[[Category:Mythological Aetolians]]
[[Category:Cattle deities]]
[[Category:Metamorphoses into bodies of water in Greek mythology]]
[[Category:Deeds of Gaia]]

[[kk:Ахелой (Бургас облысы)]]