Callirrhoe

ka-lir’o-e, a name of frequent occurrence in Greek legend. Perhaps the most noted was Callirrhoe, the daughter of Achelous, a river god. She became the wife of Alcmaeon. Alcmaeon had slain his mother Eriphyle in Obedience to an oracle. He then left Argos that he might be purified from his crime in the water of the Achelous. Here he met and married Callirrhoe. She knew that Eriphyle had once possessed a magic peplus and necklace, and she was determined to have them for her own. Alcmaeon had left them in Arcadia. Much against his will he went after them to please his wife, but on his return was a maiden of Calydon. She wooed by Coresus, the priest of Bacchus. She rejected his suit. Bacchus, in punishment, sent madness upon the people of Calydon. An oracle declared that the plague could not be averted unless Callirrhoe was sacrificed upon the altar. But Coresus, about to perform the sacrifice, was moved by love of Callirrhoe and gave himself in her stead. Touched by his devotion, she took her own life near a well, which was called thereafter by her name. The name has been given by botanists to several species of poppy mallows, rose, red, cherry, lilac, and white, gathered by children from Minnesota to Texas. See Alcmaeon