Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/151

Rh Pind. Pyth. 4.156, &c.) Here Artemis appeared to them in the form of a stag, and ran between the two brothers, who, both aiming at the animal at the same time, shot each other dead. Hyginus (Hyg. Fab. 28) relates their death in a similar manner, but makes Apollo send the fatal stag. (Comp. Callim. Hymn. in Dian. 264; Apollon. 1.484, with the Schol.) As a punishment for their presumption, they were, in Hades, tied to a pillar with serpents, with their faces turned away from each other, and were perpetually tormented by the shrieks of an owl. (Munck, ad Hygin. l.c.; Verg. A. 6.582.) Diodorus (5.50, &c.), who does not mention the Homeric stories, contrives to give to his account an appearance of history. According to him, the Aloeidae are Thessalian heroes who were sent out by their father Aloeus to fetch back their mother Iphimedeia and her daughter Pancratis, who had been carried off by Thracians. After having overtaken and defeated the Thracians in the island of Strongyle (Naxos), they settled there as rulers over the Thracians. But soon after, they killed each other in a dispute which had arisen between them, and the Naxians worshipped them as heroes. The foundation of the town of Aloium in Thessaly was ascribed to them. (Steph. Byz. s. v.) In all these traditions the Aloeidae are represented as only remarkable for their gigantic physical strength; but there is another story which places them in a different light. Pausanias (9.29.1) relates, that they were believed to have been the first of all men who worshipped the Muses on mount Helicon, and to have consecrated this mountain to them; but they worshipped only three Muses--Melete, Mneme, and Aoide, and founded the town of Ascra in Boeotia. Sepulchral monuments of the Aloeidae were seen in the time of Pausanias (9.22.5) near the Boeotian town of Anthedon. Later times fabled of their bones being seen in Thessaly. (Philostr. 1.3.) The interpretation of these traditions by etymologies from ὠθέω and ἀλωά, which has been attempted by modern scholars, is little satisfactory.

ALO'EUS (Ἀλωεύς). 1. A son of Poseidon and Canace. He married Iphimedeia, the daughter of Triops, who was in love with Poseidon, and used to walk by the sea-side, take her hands full of its water, and sprinkle her bosom with it. The two sons whom she had by Poseidon were called Aloeidae. (Hom. Il. 5.385, Od. 11.305; Apollod. 1.7.4.) [ALOEIDAE.]

2. A son of Helios by Circe or Antiope, who received from his father the sovereignty over the district of Asopia. (Paus. 2.1.6, 3.8.)

A'LOPE (Ἀλόπη), a daughter of Cercyon, who was beloved by Poseidon on account of her great beauty, and became by him the mother of a son, whom she exposed immediately after his birth. But a mare came and suckled the child until it was found by shepherds, who fell into a dispute as to who was to have the beautiful kingly attire of the boy. The case was brought before Cercyon, who, on recognising by the dress whose child the boy was, ordered Alope to be imprisoned in order to be put to death, and her child to be exposed again. The latter was fed and found in the same manner as before, and the shepherds called him Hippothous. [HIPPOTHOUS.] The body of Alope was changed by Poseidon into a well, which bore the same name. (Hyg. Fab. 187; Paus. 1.5.2; Aristoph. Birds 533.) The town of Alope, in Thessaly, was believed to have derived its name from her. (Pherecyd. apud Steph. Byz. s. v. Ἀλόπη, where, however, Philonides speaks of an Alope as a daughter of Actor.) There was a monument of Alope on the road from Eleusis to Megara, on the spot where she was believed to have been killed by her father. (Paus. 1.39.3.)

ALO'PECUS. [ASTRABACUS.]

ALORCUS, a Spaniard in Hannibal's army, who was a friend and hospes of the Saguntines, went into Saguntum, when the city was reduced to the last extremity, to endeavour to persuade the inhabitants to accept Hannibal's terms. (Liv. 21.12, &c.)

ALPHAEA, ALPHEAEA, or ALPHEIU'SA (Ἀλφαῖα, Ἀλφεαία, or Ἀλφειοῦσα, a surname of Artemis, which she derived from the river god Alpheius, who loved her, and under which she was worshipped at Letrini in Elis (Paus. 6.22.5; Strab. viii. p.343), and in Ortygia. (Schol. ad Pind. Pyth. 2.12, Nem. 1.3.)

ALPHEIAS, a name by which Ovid (Ov. Met. 5.487) designates the nymph of the Sicilian well Arethusa, because it was believed to have a subterraneous communication with the river Alpheius, in Peloponnesus.

ALPHEIUS or A'LPHEUS (Ἀλφειός or Ἀλφεός), the god of the river Alpheius in Peloponnesus, a son of Oceanus and Thetys. (Pind. Nem. i. l; Hes. Th. 338.) According to Pausanias (5.7.2) Alpheius was a passionate hunter and fell in love with the nymph Arethusa, but she fled from him to the island of Ortygia near Syracuse, and metamorphosed herself into a well, whereupon Alpheius became a river, which flowing from Peloponnesus under the sea to Ortygia, there united its waters with those of the well Arethusa. (Comp. Schol. ad Pind. Nem. 1.3.) This story is related somewhat differently by Ovid. (Met. 5.572, &c.) Arethusa, a fair nymph, once while bathing in the river Alpheius in Arcadia, was surprised and pursued by the god; but Artemis took pity upon her and changed her into a well, which flowed under the earth to the island of Ortygia. (Comp. Serv. ad Virg. Ecl. 10.4; Verg. A. 3.694; Stat. Silv. 1.2, 203; Theb. 1.271, 4.239; Lucian, Dial. Marin. 3.) Artemis, who is here only mentioned incidentally, was, according to other traditions, the object of the love of Alpheius. Once, it is said, when pursued by him she fled to Letrini in Elis, and here she covered her face and those of her companions (nymphs) with mud, so that Alpheius could not discover or distinguish her, and was obliged to return. (Paus. 6.22.5.) This occasioned the building of a temple of Artemis Alphaea at Letrini. According to another version, the goddess fled to Ortygia, where she had likewise a temple under the name of Alphaea. (Schol. ad Pind. Pyth. 2.12.) An allusion to Alpheius' love of Artemis is also contained in the fact, that at Olympia the two divinities had one altar in common. (Paus. 5.14.5 ; Schol. ad Pind. Ol. 5.10.) In these accounts two or more distinct stories seem to be mixed up together, but they probably originated in the popular belief, that there was a natural subterraneous communication between the river Alpheius and the well Arethusa. For, among several other things it was believed, that a cup thrown into the Alpheius would make its reappearance in the well Arethusa in Ortygia. (Strab. vi. p.270, viii. p.