Alpheus
al-fe'us, the ancient name of the river Rouphia, or Rufia. It is the principal river of the Peloponnesus, Greece, and empties into the Ionian Sea. A part of its course lies underground and the river was fabled to flow under the sea to Sicily.
In Greek mythology Alpheus was the river-god, and fell in love with a nymph, Arethusa. Pursued by her lover, Arethusa changed herself into a fountain on an island in the harbor of Syracuse, where Alpheus, as a river flowing underground, overtook her, and they flowed united to the sea. We find allusions to this story in the poems of Milton, Hood, Coleridge, and many others. The following quotation from Moore alludes to the pretty Greek custom of throwing wreaths of flowers into the river at the point where it runs below the surface, to be brought forth again where the waters reappear:
Is the pure joy when kindred spirits meet!
Like him the river-god, whose waters flow,
With love their only light, through caves below,
Wafting in triumph all the flowery braids
And festal rings, with which Olympic maids
Have decked his current, as an offering meet
To lay at Arethusa's shining feet.
Think, when he meets at last his fountain bride,
What perfect love must thrill the blended tide!
Each lost in each, till mingling into one,
Their lot the same for shadow or for sun,
A type of true love, to the deep they run.