ALPHEUS,
a River of Areadia. Pausa∣nias, in his Eliaca, tells us, That Alpheus was an antient Hunter, who lov'd Arethusa, and also delighted much in Hunting. He sought her in Mar∣riage, but she deny'd him, and flying into an Isle near Syracuse, she was turn'd into a Fountain, and Alpheus into a River; which, as thrd an amorous Impatience, forces its course through the Sea, and mixes its Waters with Arethuss.
Lucian, in a Dialogue between Neptune and Alpheus, introduces them speaking thus: Nept. Whence comes it that such a fine River as you, pass through the Sea without mixing with its Water any more than if you were Ice, like those Fowls who dive in one place and rise in another? Alph. It is an amorous Mystery which you ought not to condemn, because you have been in love your self. Nept. Who are you in love with, is it with a Woman, a Nymph, or any one of the Nereides? Alph. No, no, it is with a Fountain. Nept. With what Fountain pray? Alph. With Arethusa. Nept. 'Tis a fine clear Spring, which rolls its Silver Streams through the Stones with an agreeable Murmur. Alph. Ah! how well you describe her, 'tis she that I pursue. Nept. Ga, and be happy in thy Amour; but tell me when hast thou seen her, thou being in Arcadia, and she in Sicily? Alph. You are too curious, and press too far for me to answer you. Nept. You are in the right of it, and I to blame, to retard a Lover in the pursuit of his Mistress; and when you have met with her, join your self so close to her that you two may have but one Bed hereafter.
Pansanias enlarges this Fable a little more in his Arcadica; Alpheus, says he, parts the Lace∣daemonians from the Tageates, and bounds them both: its Source is from Phylace. At some distance from hence he receives the Waters of several small Springs called Symboles, or A Concouse of Wa∣ters. This River has this particular Quality, that it loses its Waters under the Earth, and they rise again in other places; it goes into the River Euro∣tas, and then loses it self, and rises again in a place which the Arcadians call The Sources. It runs into the Territories of Pisa and Olympia, and dis∣charges it self in the Adriatick Gulph; from whence it passes, without mixing its Waters with the Sea, and rises in Ortygia in the Fountain of Are∣thusa, with which it mixes.
Hercules cut a Canal from this River, to cleanse the Stable of Augens, which was fill'd, with the Dung of three thousand Oxen for thirty years.