Myths featuring Alpheus

Arethusa, a chaste nymph of Artemis, is pursued by the river god Alpheus after she unknowingly bathes in his waters. To escape his advances, she is transformed into a subterranean stream that flows from Greece to Sicily, where she emerges as a sacred fountain. However, Alpheus follows her through the depths of the sea to forever unite their waters.

The nymph Arethusa, fleeing the unwanted advances of the river god Alpheus in Arcadia, was transformed into a stream by Artemis to escape. She traveled deep beneath the Ionian Sea to emerge in Syracuse, Sicily, as a freshwater fountain. Alpheus, fueled by obsession, channeled his own waters under the ocean to eventually merge his current with hers in the island of Ortygia.

As his fifth labor, Heracles was tasked with cleaning the vast and filthy stables of King Augeas in a single day. Rather than using his hands, the hero used his ingenuity to reroute the rivers Alpheus and Peneus to wash away thirty years of accumulated waste. Although he succeeded, the labor became a source of great conflict when King Augeas refused to pay and Eurystheus refused to count the task.