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Gods & Spirits

Achelous

Ἀχελῷος

God of Greece's greatest river, who lost a horn wrestling Heracles for a bride.

He is held to be the greatest river in Greece and the father of the Sirens.

He fought Heracles over Deianira, shifting shape from serpent to bull — and lost when his horn was torn off in bull form.

Ovid passes down a version in which nymphs filled that horn with fruit and flowers, making it the horn of plenty. The horn a river god lost became overflowing harvest — the bond between flooding rivers and fertile fields, written as myth.

SourcesOvid, Metamorphoses

See also