Alphēus

, now Alpheo , a famous river of Peloponnesus, which rises in Arcadia, and after pa ing through Elis falls into the sea. The god of this river fell in love with the nymph Arethusa, and pursued her till she was changed into a fountain by Diana. The fountain Arethusa is in Ortygia, a small island near Syracuse; and the ancients affirm that the river Alpheus pa es under the sea from Peloponnesus, and without mingling itself with the salt waters, rises again in Ortygia, and joins the stream of Arethusa. If anything is thrown into the Alpheus in Elis, according to their traditions, it will reappear, after some time, swimming on the waters of Arethusa, near Sicily. Hercules made use of the Alpheus to clean the stables of Augeas. Strabo , bk. 6 .— Virgil , Æneid , bk. 3 , li. 694 .— Ovid , Metamorphoses , bk. 5 , fable 10.— Lucan , bk. 3 , li. 176 .— Statius , Thebiad , bks. 1 & 4.— Mela , bk. 2 , ch. 7 .— Pausanias , bk. 5 , ch. 7 ; bk. 6 , ch. 21 .— Mar cell in us , bk. 25 .— Pliny , bk. 2 , ch. 103 .