Achelous

Achelous was the river god of the Achelous, one of the major rivers of Greece, which flows from Pindus between Acarnania and Aetolia down to the sea. He was a son of Oceanus and Tethys. He is best known for his wrestling match with Heracles over Deianeira, in which he lost one of his horns.

Family of Achelous

Hesiod lists Achelous among the rivers born to Tethys and Oceanus (Theogony 337–340), and in the Iliad the poet says that not even “king Achelous” or the mighty Oceanus, the source of all rivers and seas, can match the strength of Zeus (Iliad 21.194–199). In Apollodorus, Achelous was the father of the Sirens, by the Muse Melpomene (Library 1.3.4); in another passage their mother is Sterope, daughter of Porthaon (Library 1.7.10). Apollonius of Rhodes calls the Sirens daughters of Achelous and the Muse Terpsichore (Argonautica 4.895–896). Perimede, daughter of Aeolus, bore him Hippodamas and Orestes (Library 1.7.3). His daughter Callirrhoe became the wife of Alcmaeon (Library 3.7.5).

The River

Strabo describes the Achelous as the river that forms the border between the Aetolians and the Acarnanians. It flows from the north, from Pindus, through the land of the Agraeans and the Amphilochians (Geography 10.2.1). Alcmaeon, pursued by the madness he had earned by killing his mother, went to the springs of Achelous at the end of his wanderings and was purified by the god. He received Callirrhoe as his wife, and settled the land that the river had newly deposited (Library 3.7.5). Their son Acarnan later gave his name to Acarnania (Library 3.7.7).

Achelous and Heracles

Achelous wished to marry Deianeira, daughter of Oeneus, king of Calydon. In Sophocles’ Trachiniae, Deianeira herself describes her suitor: he appeared before her father in three shapes, first as a bull, then as a writhing, coiling snake, and then as a man with the face of a bull, from whose shaggy beard streams of spring water ran. She feared the marriage and prayed to die, until Heracles, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, came and fought Achelous for her (Trachiniae 9–21; the combat is described again in the choral song at 507–530).

Apollodorus says briefly that Heracles wrestled for Deianeira with Achelous, who took the form of a bull, and that Heracles broke off one of his horns (Library 2.7.5). Ovid gives the fullest version, in Achelous’ own words: he first turned into a snake and was nearly beaten, and then into a bull, and Heracles dragged him to the ground by the neck and tore off one horn (Metamorphoses 9.1–88).

The Horn of Achelous and the Cornucopia

The ancient writers told the story of the horn in two ways. In Apollodorus, Heracles married Deianeira, and Achelous recovered his horn by giving Heracles the horn of Amalthea in exchange. Amalthea’s horn, according to the mythographer Pherecydes, supplied meat or drink in abundance, whatever one might wish (Library 2.7.5). In Ovid, the horn that Heracles tore off was the one that was filled by the Naiads with fruit and fragrant flowers and consecrated as the horn of plenty, Copia (Metamorphoses 9.85–88). Strabo reports that some writers called the horn Heracles broke off the horn of Amalthea and said that he gave it to Oeneus as a wedding gift; others explained the myth by the river itself, which roars like a bull and has windings called horns, and said that Heracles held back its floods with embankments and canals (Geography 10.2.19).

Achelous Sources

Hesiod, Theogony 337–340; Homer, Iliad 21.194–199; Sophocles, Trachiniae 9–21, 507–530; Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 4.895–896; Apollodorus, Library 1.3.4, 1.7.3, 1.7.10, 2.7.5, 3.7.5, 3.7.7; Ovid, Metamorphoses 9.1–97; Strabo 10.2.1, 10.2.19.

See Also: Tethys, Oceanus, Deianeira, Heracles, Horn of Amalthea, Sirens, Alcmaeon, Callirrhoe