Achelous was often reduced to a bearded mask, an inspiration for the medieval Green Man. A Green Man is a Sculpture, Drawing, or other representation of a face surrounded by or made from leaves. Floor mosaic, Zeugma Turkey. This article is about Zeugma in Commagene for the ancient city called Zeugma in Seleucis Syria see Samandağı (city.

In Greek mythology, Achelous (English, pronounced /ækɨˈloʊəs/; Greek: Ἀχελῷος (Achelōos)) was the patron deity of the "silver-swirling"^[1] Acheloos River, which is the largest river of Greece, and thus the chief of all river deities, every river having its own river spirit. Greek mythology is the body of stories belonging to the ancient Greeks concerning their gods and Heroes the nature of the world and the origins and significance Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly The Acheloos ( Greek: Αχελώος also Achelous, is a River in western Greece. His name is pre-Greek, its meaning unknown. The Greeks invented etymologies to associate it with Greek word roots (one such popular etymology translates the name as "he who washes away care"). However, these are etymologically unsound and of much later origin than the name itself.

Origin

Some sources say that he was the son of Gaia and Helios,^[2] or Gaia and Oceanus. In Greek mythology the Sun was personified as Helios (ˈhiliˌɑs ( Ἥλιος Latinized as Helius) Ocean (Ὠκεανός was believed to be the world-ocean in Classical antiquity, which the ancient Romans and Greeks considered to be ^[3] However, ancient Greeks generally believed with Hesiod^[4] that Tethys and Oceanus were the parents of all three thousand river gods. In Classical Greek mythology, Tethys (Greek Τηθύς) daughter of Uranus and Gaia ( Hesiod, Theogony lines Ocean (Ὠκεανός was believed to be the world-ocean in Classical antiquity, which the ancient Romans and Greeks considered to be Homer placed Achelous above all, the origin of all the world's fresh water. Homer ( Ancient Greek:, Homēros) is a legendary ancient Greek epic Poet, traditionally said to be the author of the epic poems the ^[5] By Roman times, Homer's reference was interpreted as making Achelous "prince of rivers". ^[6]

Others derived the legends about Achelous from Egypt, and describe him as a second Nilus. Nilus, in Greek mythology, in Greek Mythology was the son of Oceanus and Tethys. But however this may be, he was from the earliest times considered to be a great divinity throughout Greece,^[7] and was invoked in prayers, sacrifices, on taking oaths, &c. ,^[8] and the Dodonean Zeus usually added to each oracle he gave, the command to offer sacrifices to Achelous. Zeus (zjuːs in Greek: nominative: Zeús /zdeús/ genitive: Diós; Modern Greek /'zefs/ in Greek mythology ^[9] This wide extent of the worship of Achelous also accounts for his being regarded as the repre­sentative of sweet water in general, that is, as the source of all nourishment. ^[10][11]

Mythological tradition

Achelous was a suitor for Deianeira, daughter of Oeneus king of Calydon, but was defeated by Heracles, who wed her himself. Deïanira or Dejanira (Latinized in Greek, Δηϊάνειρα or Δῃάνειρα; Deïaneira 'man-destroyer' In Greek mythology, Oeneus, or Oineus (Οἰνεύς was a Calydonian king son of Porthaon, husband of Althaea and father of Calydon ( Greek: Καλυδών was an ancient Greek city in Aetolia, situated on the west bank of the river Evenus. In Greek mythology, Heracles or Herakles ("glory of Hera " or Sophocles pictures a mortal woman's terror at being courted by a chthonic river god:

'My suitor was the river Achelóüs,

who took three forms to ask me of my father:

a rambling bull once, then a writhing snake

of gleaming colors, then again a man

with ox-like face: and from his beard's dark shadows

stream upon stream of water tumbled down. Sophocles (ˈsɒfəkliːz Ancient Greek, sopʰoklɛ̂ːs circa

Such was my suitor. ' (Sophocles, Trachiniae)

The contest of Achelous with Heracles was represented on the throne of Amyclae,^[12] and in the treasury of the Megarians at Olympia there was a statue of him made by Dontas of cedarwood and gold. In Greek mythology, Heracles or Herakles ("glory of Hera " or Ancient Amyklai In the second century AD the traveller Pausanias was informed that the archaic site of Amyklai had its ancient origin as an Achaian stronghold Megara ( Greek:, "Big Houses" is an ancient city (pop Olympia ( Greek: Olympí'a or Olýmpia, older transliterations Olimpia, Olimbia) a sanctuary of ancient Greece ^[13] On several coins of Acarnania the god is represented as a bull with the head of an old man. Acarnania is a region of west-central Greece that lies along the Ionian Sea, west of Aetolia, with the Achelous River for a boundary and north ^[14]

The sacred bull the serpent and the Minotaur are all creatures associated with the Earth goddess Gaia. Appearances of the Bull (also known as Taurus) in Mythology and worship are widespread in the ancient world Serpent is a word of Latin origin (from serpens serpentis "something that creeps snake" that is commonly used in a specifically mythic or In Greek mythology, the Minotaur ( Greek:, Mīnṓtauros) was a creature that was part man and part bull. Gaia (ˈgeɪə or /ˈgaɪə/ (" land " or " Earth " from the Ancient Greek Γαîα also Gæa or Gea Achelous was most often depicted as a gray-haired old man or a vigorous bearded man in his prime, with a horned head and a serpent-like body. When he battled Heracles over the river nymph Deianeira, Achelous turned himself into a bull. Heracles tore off one of his horns and forced the god to surrender. Achelous had to trade the goat horn of Amalthea to get it back. In Greek mythology, Amalthea or Amaltheia ( Greek: Ἀμάλθεια is the most often mentioned among foster-mothers of Zeus. ^[15] Heracles gave it to the Naiads, who transformed it into the cornucopia. In Greek mythology, the Naiads or Naiades (Ναϊάδες from the Greek νάειν "to flow" and νἃμα "running water" The cornucopia ( Latin: Cornu Copiae) is a symbol of food and abundance dating back to the 5th century BC, also referred to as horn 'o' plenty Achelous relates the bitter episode afterwards to Theseus in Ovid's Metamorphoses. For other uses see Theseus (disambiguation Theseus (Θησεύς was a Legendary king of Athens, son of Aethra, and fathered Publius Ovidius Naso ( March 20, 43 BC – 17 AD was a Roman poet known to the English -speaking world as Ovid who wrote on many topics including The Metamorphoses by the Roman poet Ovid is a narrative poem ^[16] Sophocles makes Deianeira relate these occurrences in a some­what different manner. Sophocles (ˈsɒfəkliːz Ancient Greek, sopʰoklɛ̂ːs circa Deïanira or Dejanira (Latinized in Greek, Δηϊάνειρα or Δῃάνειρα; Deïaneira 'man-destroyer' ^[17]

The mouth of the Achelous river was the spot where Alcmaeon finally found peace from the Erinyes. In Greek mythology, Alcmaeon, or Alkmáon, was the son of Amphiaraus and Eriphyle. In Greek mythology the Erinyes (Ἐρινύες pl of Ἐρινύς lit Achelous offered him Callirhoe, his daughter, in marriage if Alcmaeon would retrieve the clothing and jewelry his mother Eriphyle had been wearing when she sent her husband Amphiaraus to his death. Callirhoe, the poppy mallows, is a Genus of nine species in the Mallow family ( Malvaceae) native to the Prairies and In Greek mythology, Eriphyle, daughter of Talaus, was the mother of Alcmaeon and the wife of Amphiaraus. In Greek mythology, Amphiaraus (or Amphiaraos, "doubly-cursed" or "twice Ares -like" was the son of Oecles and Alcmaeon had to retrieve the clothes from King Phegeus, who sent his sons to kill Alcmaeon. Phegeus was a Greek mythological king who offered succor and his daughter Arsinoe (named Alphesiboea in some versions to Alcmaeon, who was

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. Publius Ovidius Naso ( March 20, 43 BC – 17 AD was a Roman poet known to the English -speaking world as Ovid who wrote on many topics including The Metamorphoses by the Roman poet Ovid is a narrative poem For other uses see Theseus (disambiguation Theseus (Θησεύς was a Legendary king of Athens, son of Aethra, and fathered The floor was moist with soft moss, and the ceiling banded with freshwater mussel and oyster shells. "^[18] In sixteenth-century Italy, an aspect of the revival of Antiquity was the desire to recreate Classical spaces as extensions of the revived villa. A villa was originally an Upper-class Country house, though since its origins in Roman times the idea and function of a villa has evolved considerably Ovid's description of the cave of Achelous provided some specific inspiration to patrons in France as well as Italy for the Mannerist garden grotto, with its cool dampness, tuff vaulting and shellwork walls. Mannerism is a period of European art which emerged from the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520. A grotto (Italian grotta) is any type of natural or artificial Cave that is associated with modern historic or prehistoric use by humans Tuff (from the Italian "tufo" is a type of rock consisting of consolidated volcanic ash ejected from vents during a volcanic eruption The banquet served by Ovid's Achelous offered a prototype for Italian midday feasts in the fountain-cooled shade of garden grottoes.

At the mouth of the Achelous River lie the Echinades Islands. The Echinades ( Greek: per Herodotus, Thucydides, and Strabo) are a group of islands in the Ionian Islands, off the coast of According to Ovid's pretty myth-making in the same Metamorphoses episode, the Echinades Islands were once five nymphs. Unfortunately for them, they forgot to honor Achelous in their festivities, and the god was so angry about this slight that he turned them into the islands.

Achelous was sometimes the father of the Sirens by Terpsichore, or in a later version, they are from the blood he shed where Heracles broke off his horn. In Greek mythology, the Sirens ( Greek singular Seirēn; Greek plural Seirēnes) were three dangerous bird-women For the Fern Genus, see Terpsichore (fern. In Greek mythology, Terpsichore (tərpˈsɪkəri (Τερψιχόρη ^[19]

In another mythic context, the Achelous was said to be formed by the tears of Niobe, who fled to Mount Sipylon after the deaths of her husband and children. Niobe (Νιόβη was the daughter of the semi-legendary ruler Tantalus, called the " Phrygian " and sometimes even as "King of Phrygia

In Hellenistic and Roman contexts, the river god was often reduced to a mask and used decoratively as an emblem of water, "his uncut hair wreathed with reeds". ^[20] The feature survived in Romanesque carved details and flowered duruing the Middle Ages as one of the Classical prototypes of the Green Man. A Green Man is a Sculpture, Drawing, or other representation of a face surrounded by or made from leaves.

Achelous and the River Achelous

The origin of the river Achelous is thus described by Servius:

When Ache­lous on one occasion had lost his daughters, the Sirens, and in his grief invoked his mother Gaea, she received him to her bosom, and on the spot where she received him, she caused the river bearing his name to gush forth. "Servius" redirects here For the Roman king see Servius Tullius. In Greek mythology, the Sirens ( Greek singular Seirēn; Greek plural Seirēnes) were three dangerous bird-women ^[21]

Other accounts about the origin of the river and its name are given by Stephanus of Byzantium, Strabo,^[22] and Plutarch. Stephanus of Byzantium, also known as Stephanus Byzantinus ( Greek:; fl Strabo ( Greek: Στράβων 63/64 BC – ca AD 24 was a Greek historian, geographer and philosopher. Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus ( Greek: Μέστριος Πλούταρχος c ^[23] Strabo proposes a very ingenious interpretation of the legends about Achelous, all of which according to him arose from the nature of the river itself. Strabo ( Greek: Στράβων 63/64 BC – ca AD 24 was a Greek historian, geographer and philosopher. It resembled a bull's voice in the noise of the water; its windings and its reaches gave rise to the story about his forming himself into a serpent and about his horns; the formation of islands at the mouth of the river re­quires no explanation. His conquest by Heracles lastly refers to the embankments by which Heracles confined the river to its bed and thus gained large tracts of land for cultivation, which are expressed by the horn of plenty. ^[24][25]

References

Notes

Other sources

• Andrews, Tamra. A Dictionary of Nature Myths, 1998. ISBN# 0-19-513677-2
• Kerenyi, Karl. One of the founders of modern studies in Greek mythology, Károly (Carl Karl Kerényi ( January 19, 1897 &ndash April 14 1973 The Heroes of the Greeks. New York and London: Thames and Hudson, 1959.
• Kerenyi, Karl. The Gods of the Greeks. New York and London: Thames and Hudson, 1951.
• March, Jenny. Cassell’s Dictionary of Classical Mythology, 2001. ISBN # 0-304-35788-X
• This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology by William Smith (1870). The public domain is a range of abstract materials &ndash commonly referred to as Intellectual property &ndash which are not owned or controlled by anyone The Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1849 originally published 1844 under a slightly different title is an Encyclopedia / Biographical dictionary Sir William Smith (1813 &ndash 1893 English Lexicographer, was born at Enfield in 1813 of Nonconformist parents

External links

• Theoi Project - Potamos Akheloios