Achelous was able to change his shape, and in the form of a bull, he wrestledHeracles for the right to marryDeianeira, but lost. He was also involved in the legend of theArgive heroAlcmaeon.[2]
The name Ἀχελώϊος is possibly pre-Greek,[3] its meaning is not entirely certain. Recent arguments suggest it isSemitic in 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").[4] According to linguistIvan Duridanov [bg], theThracian river nameAchelōos (alternatively,Achēlon andAchelon), located near Anchialo, in the Black Sea, is cognate to the Greek word, both deriving from aProto-Indo-European stem*ɘku̯el, meaning 'water'.[5]
According toHesiod, Achelous, along with all the otherriver gods, was the son of the TitansOceanus andTethys.[6] According to the sixth-centurymythographerAcusilaus, Achelous was the "oldest and most honoured" of the river-god offspring of Oceanus.[7]Servius, relating a tradition of unknown origin, reports that Achelous was said to have been the son of Earth (i.e. Gaia).[8]
Achelous had various offspring.[9] He was said to be the father of theSirens.[10] 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), whileOvid calls the Sirens simply daughters of Achelous, with no mention of their mother.[11] Another 3rd-century BC, poetApollonius of Rhodes, makes the mother the MuseTerpsichore,[12] while according to other accounts, she was the MuseMelpomene,[13] or theCalydonian princessSterope.[14] ByPerimede, the daughter ofAeolus, Achelous was said to have fatheredHippodamas andOrestes.[15]
Achelous was also said to be the father (with no mothers mentioned) of severalnymphs associated with various famous 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 theDirce who wasAntiope's aunt.[19] Plato has "the nymphs" as daughters of Achelous,[20] and the 5th-century BC poetPanyassis seems 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]
Deianeira watches Heracles fighting Achelous, the river-god's broken-off horn lies on the ground;Atticcolumn krater,Louvre G365 (c. 460–450).[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 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 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 does in Pindar's poem.Ovid, in his poemMetamorphoses (8 AD), has Achelous tell a different 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 theNaiads filled 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 fatherOeneus as 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]
The breaking off of Achelous' horn was rationalized as Heracles' diversion of the Acarnanian river.[34] BothDiodorus Siculus andStrabo give such accounts.[35] 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.[36] For the Latin poets during the Roman Imperial period, fromPropertius onward, the story of Heracles and Achelous' contest for Deianeria continued to be popular, with Achelous as "the stereotypical unlucky lover".[37]
Achelous played a role in the story of theArgive heroAlcmaeon, who had killed his motherEriphyle because of her treachery against his fatherAmphiaraus, and needed to be religiously purified.[38] According to Apollodorus, Alcmaeon was first purified byPhegeus the 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.[39] Later, according to Apollodorus, Achelous commanded Alcmaeon to dedicate thenecklace and robe—the cause of his mother's treachery—atDelphi, which he did.[40]
Ovid, in hisMetamorphoses, has the river-god involved in two transformation stories concerning the creation of islands near the mouth of the Achelous River.[41] According to Ovid, theEchinades Islands were once five local nymphs.[42] 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.[43]
— 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 itPerimele."[44] 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 toPoseidon to save her, and in answer Poseidon transformed the girl into an island.[45]
Achelous's name could be used to refer to water in general.[46] ThusEuripides can have a house, far from the Achelous river itself, being sprinkled with "Achelous' water",[47] or have servants "bring Achelous" [Ἀχελῷον φέρειν] to douse a fire,[48] while the comic playwrightAristophanes, in hisLysistrata, has the Woman's chorus leader, while pouring water on the Men's chorus, say "Achelous, you’re on!".[49]
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. ASophocles fragment has the single line: "So Achelous runs with wine in our place",[50] and a fragment from a satyr play byAchaeus has unhappy satyrs complaining about too much "of Achelous" being mixed with the wine they are being given to drink.[51] An Aristophanes fragment has a character complain about the aftereffects of drinking unwatered wine:[52]
Ovid, in hisFasti, uses Achelous' name as a stand in for water when he connects wine drinking with the wearing of flowers in the hair:
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.[53]
— 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.[54]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 iscerasai.[55] Achelous is also mythologicaly linked with Dionysus and wine, through his connection withDeianeira, and her fatherOeneus.[56] There are various stories involving Oeneus (whose name means "Wine-man") Dionysus, and the origins of wine.[57] According toApollodorus, Oeneus was the first mortal given the grape vine by Dionysus.[58] 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.[59]
Twovotive reliefs from theCave of Pan, onMount Parnes inAttica. 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[60] (top), and 1859[61] (bottom).
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 thecornucopia or horn of plenty.[62] Apparently some ancient Greeks considered sacrifices to Achelous to be even more important than those to the agriculture goddessDemeter.[63] Many inscriptions attest to the cult of Achelous, which was particularly associated with the oracle atDodona. Although of early importance, his cult declined in significance from the end of the fourth-century BC.[64]
From at least as early asHomer, Achelous was apparently considered to be an important divinity throughout Greece.[65] 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:[66]
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.[67]
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.[68] 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.[69] A commentary onIliad 21.195, 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".[70] A late-5th-century BC commentary on anOrphic theogony, preserved by theDerveni Papyrus, quotes a poetic fragment calling the rivers the "sinews of Achelous".[71] The same Oxyrhynchus Papyrus also quotes ancient verses which apparently equated Achelous and Oceanus,[72] 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".[73]
A possible Achelous cult mask, with dowel holes where bronze horns and ears were perhaps attached and the mask hung; Marble mask fromMarathon, BerlinAntikensammlung SK 100.[74]
Achelous as a cultic figure is attested as early as the seventh century BC. The 2nd-century geographerPausanias, reports seeing, nearMegara, an altar to Achelous erected by the seventh-century BC"tyrant",Theagenes of Megara.[75] 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.[76] Achelous appears in manyvotive reliefs which often include nymphs. Such reliefs were given as dedications in sanctuaries.[77] A votive relief (Athens 1488), dedicated to "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.[78] In a similar votive relief (Athens 1859), Achelous is depicted as a bull with a human head.[79] Achelous could also be venerated in the form of stylized votive masks, similar to the cult masks of the wine-god Dionysus.[80] A well-known example of such a cult mask, considered to be Achelous, is a marble mask (c. 490–470 BC) fromMarathon (Berlin SK 100).[81]
According to the early 4th-century BC Greek historianEphorus, the oracle atDodona 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".[82] 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.[83]
Plato'sPhaedrus hasSocrates, walking in the countryside along theIlissus river, come across a "sacred place of some nymphs and of Achelous, judging by the figurines and statues".[84] In addition to the altar to Achelous near Megara, Pausanias also mentions a part of the altar at theAmphiareion of Oropos dedicated to "the nymphs and to Pan, and to the rivers Achelous and Cephisus",[85] and theMegarian Treasury atOlympia, which contained a dedication representing the fight of Heracles with Achelous.[86]
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.[87] 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".[88] This association is reflected in the fact that the Greeks depicted river-gods as part bull from at least theArchaic period onward.[89] There is also an ancient association between horns and the fertility that rivers provide, as can be seen in the story of thehorn of plenty.[90]
Heracles wrestling with Achelous in the form of the sea-godTriton; 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 fromBritish Museum E437 (pictured above).[91]
Achelous was a popular subject in ancient Greek art.[92] There are many depictions of his fight with Heracles over Deianeira, with over twenty surviving examples inAttic vase painting alone.[93] Achelous also appears in many votive reliefs along with other divinities often including nymphs.[94] In these contexts, in which the identity of the figure as Achelous is secured by inscription,[95] 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.[96] Achelous' man-bull iconography probably derived from oriental art.[97] Much more rarely, Achelous can also be found depicted in human form.[98] Besides Greek art, Achelous was also a common figure inEtruscan art.[99]
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.[100] Possibly the earliest version of the scene (c. 600–560 BC) appears on the figure frieze of aMiddle Corinthiankylix cup (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 (Deianeira?).[101] 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.[102] Although many early depiction of this scene represent Achelous as a centaur,[103] by the fifth century BC he is commonly represented as a bull with a human face.[104]
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 fromLouvre G365 (pictured above).[105]
On one later example (c. 525–475 BC), an Atticred-figurestamnos fromCerveteri attributed toOltos (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-godTriton which appear on many other Attic vases. Heracles (also identified by inscription) appears about to break off the river-god's single horn.[106] On a somewhat later (c. 475–425 BC) red-figure Atticcolumn 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.[107] Figures depicting Oineus and Deianeira (as on Louvre G365) and alsoAthena andHermes are sometimes included in the scene.[108]
Beginning in the late fifth century BC, Achelous also appears in many votive reliefs. Such reliefs often include his daughters the nymphs.[112] Three marbleAttic 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 theIlissos river, shows Zeus sitting on a stone seat decorated with the face of Achelous.[113]
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.[114] In these contexts—where no inscription allows certain identification—the interpretation of such an individual man-bull as being Achelous is inferred.[115] In particular, depictions of a man-bull are found on the coins of many cites in Magna Graecia, Sicily, and elsewhere.[116] In addition to vase paintings, votive reliefs, and coins, man-bull depictions can also be found on many other kinds of artifacts, including gems,[117] jewelry,[118] bronzes,[119] and architectural terracottas.[120]
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" (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.[121]
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 Europe in theBronze 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),[122] and finally migrated to Greece, Italy, Sicily, and Sardinia with itinerant sea-folk during the Late Bronze Age through theOrientalizing period.[123] Although no single cult of Achelous persisted throughout all of these generations, the iconography and generalmythos 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.[124]
Achelous was also an important deity in theEtruscan religion,[125] intimately related to water as in the Greek tradition but also carrying significantchthonic 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.[126]
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.[127] These earlier figures probably adapted the mythological and iconographic traditions of Asallúhi (also Asarlúhi orAsaruludu),[128][129] the "princely bison" of Near Eastern traditions that "rises to the surface of the earth in springs and marshes, ultimately flowing as rivers".[130]
TheAchelous River rises in thePindus mountains, flows into theIonian Sea near theEchinades Islands in westernGreece, and divided ancientAcarnania andAetolia.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.[131]
Pseudo-Plutarch gives a different story for how the river acquired its name. He says it was formerly called Thestius, after a son ofMars andPisidice, 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.[132]
Strabo reports that in "earlier times" the river was called the Thoas.[133] 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.[134]
Achelous was a common river name. There were several other rivers with that name in ancient times.[135] In addition to "king Achelous",[136] Homer apparently knew of an Achelous river inLydia, nearMount Sipylos:[137]
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,[138]
— Homer'sIliad; translation by A. T. Murray, revised by William F. Wyatt
Strabo mentions two other rivers named Achelous, one inAchaea nearDyme, also called thePeiros,[139] the other inThessaly nearLamia.[140]Pausanias mentions one more, a tributary of theAlpheius in thePeloponnese, nearMount Lycaeus inArcadia.[141] The multiplicity of rivers with the same name, perhaps due to the river-god's equation with water,[142] has also been seen as suggesting the possibility that Achelous was originally "the primal source of all water".[143]
Ovid, in hisMetamorphoses, provided a descriptive interlude whenTheseus 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."[144]
^Fowler,p. 12;Fontenrose,p. 351;Servius onVirgil'sGeorgics1.8. Isler 1981,p. 12, describes this tradition as probably older ("wohl urspriinglicherer") than the Hesiodic tradition. However Fowler,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 thearchaic poetAlcaeus understood Achelous to be the son of Ocean and Earth, seeNatalis Comes,Mythologiae7.2 (p. 212) [=Alcaeus,fr. 450 Campbell]; on the reliability of Comes' attributions to classical writers, see Fowler 2013,pp. 735–7.
^See D'Alessio, p. 30, which attributes toPanyassis, and "many other fifth-century authors the idea that all springs derive" from Achelous, and Isler 1981,p. 12, which says Achelous was considered generally the father of all spring nymphs ("überhaupt als Vater aller Quellnymphen").
^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,Iliad 21.237]. Compare withApollodorus,2.7.5 [=Pherecydes of Athensfr. 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,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.
^Grimal, s.v. Sirens; 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 whenUranus was castrated by his son, theTitanCronus.
^Fowler 2013,p. 12; Andolfi, fr. 1. For a detailed discussion of this issue, arguing that the version of theIliad with 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."
^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 Papyrus 221. For a discussion of the translation ofἶνας as "sinews" see D'Alessio, pp. 23ff.
^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.221 ix 8-11; 5.93–94 Erbse.Fontenrose,p. 232, reads the Iliad passage itself, as appearing to identify Achelous and Oceanus.
^Lloyd, p. 113; Jones, p. 10; D'Alessio, p. 27;Homer,Iliad2.233–239, which has the river-Scamander, while fighting withAchilles, 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 toBurkert's (p. 5), "orientalizing period" (c. 750–650 BC), and thus contemporaneous with Homer. In any case the association seems well established by the fifth century BC, seeEuripides,Ion1261,Orestes1377–1379. Ashton,I.63, sees this association as part of a "much wider pattern of association" connecting bulls with water and water-deities in general.
^Jebb,note on line 11;Strabo,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" (Metamorphoses8.549–559). Ashton,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."
^Tripp, s.v. Acheloüs; Fairbanks,p. 303 n. 1; Isler 2006,s.v. Achelous 2. For a comprehensive treatment of Acheleus' iconography, see Isler 1981,pp. 12–36, along with LIMC I.2,pp. 19–54.
^Stafford, p. 76. TheLIMC lists the following Attic vase paintings: Acheloos 214–218, 241–245, and 247–259.
^Stafford, p. 75; Isler 2006,s.v. Achelous 2; D'Alessio, p. 26; Isler 1981,pp. 31–32. This man-bull form is in contrast to the "bull-man" form, i.e. a human body with a bull's head, such as theMinataur.
^Gais, p. 356; Isler 1981,p. 30; D'Alessio, p. 26.
^Isler 1981,p. 32;LIMC Acheloos 75–79, 210 (? or perhaps the river-godCephissus, see Kaltsas,p. 134;LIMC Kephiosos I 1), 211, 212, 260–265, 259a.
^Gantz, p. 433; Isler 1981,p. 25 (Acheloos 218);Beazley Archive6911;LIMC I.2,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).
^For Isler 1981, pp.30,35, all man-bull images are considered to be Achelous, however as Isler,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 267LIMC entries whose identification as Achelous is considered by Isler as being certain, 212 are individual representations (Acheloos 1–212).
^Fowler 2013,p. 12; D'Alessio, p. 27 (who adds to such evidence that in cultic practice—in contrast to Achelous whose cultic practice was extensive—Oceanus "scarcely found any place at all"); Wilamowitz,p. 91.
^Heffron, Yaǧmur; Brisch, Nicole (2016)."Asalluhi (god)".Ancient Mesopotamian Gods and Goddesses. University of Pennsylvania. Retrieved20 October 2016.
^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.
^Mussini, p. 92, says that ancient sources mention seven rivers named Achelous; Ashton,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.
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