Alpheus
2 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Alpheus. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
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: Oh, my beloved, how divinely sweet 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. 2026 Editor's Note: The Alpheus flows past Olympia — birthplace of the Olympic Games — and its valley is where, to this day, the Olympic flame is kindled by the sun's rays before each Games and carried around the world. (Ed: BR 2026-06-02)
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
the principal river of Peloponnesus (Morea), rising ri in the S. E. of Arcadia, and flowing past picture writing. (5) The Egyptian the famous Olympia westward into the hieroglyphics, from which the Phoenician Ionic Sea. In its passage through Arcadia, a country consisting of cavernous limestone, it repeatedly disappears underground and rises again. With this fact was connected a remarkable myth. The river god Alpheus was said to have become enamored of the nymph Arethusa while bathing in his stream. To escape him, she prayed to Artemis, who changed her into a fountain, and opened up an underground passage for her to Ortygia, a small Sicilian island in the harbor of Syracuse. The river still pursued the nymph, passing from Greece to Sicily below the sea, without mingling his waters with it, and appearing in the spring that bubbles up by the shore, close by the fountain of Arethusa. ALPHONSO. See ALFONSO.