In Greek mythology, Achelous (Greek: Αχελώος), was the patron deity of the river by the same name, which is the largest river of Greece, and thus the chief of all river deities, every river having its own river spirit. His name translates as "he who washes away care". He was the eldest child of Oceanus and Tethys. Achelous was a suitor for Deianeira, daughter of Oeneus king of Calydon, but was defeated by Heracles, who wed her himself. Sophocles pictures a mortal woman's terror at being courted by a chthonic river god: Greek mythology comprises the collected legends of Greek gods, goddesses, heroes, and heroines, originally created and spread within an oral-poetic tradition. ... Oceanus or Okeanos refers to the ocean, which the Greeks and Romans regarded as a river circling the world. ... In Greek mythology, Tethys was a Titaness and sea goddess who was both sister and wife of Oceanus. ... Like many mortal women in Greek mythology, Deianira (also Deianeira) occupied a perilous threshold position between the daylit world of Olympian gods and heroes and the dark chthonic primordial world of primitive earth magic. ... In Greek mythology, two people shared the name Oeneus, or Oineus. ... Calydon (Greek Καλυδών) was an ancient Greek city in Aetolia, situated on the west bank of the river Evenus. ... For the son of Alexander the Great, see Heracles (Macedon). ...

'My suitor was the river Achelóüs,

who took three forms to ask me of my father:

a rambling bull once, then a writhing snake

of gleaming colors, then again a man

with ox-like face: and from his beard's dark shadows

stream upon stream of water tumbled down.

Such was my suitor.' (Sophocles, Trachiniae)

The sacred bull the serpent and the Minotaur are all creatures associated with the Earth Goddess Gaia. Achelous was also portrayed as a gray-haired old man with horns. He was also considered a storm-god. He was sometimes the father of the Sirens by Terpsichore. Serpent is a word of Latin origin (serpens, serpentis) that is normally substituted for snake in a specifically mythic or religious context, in order to distinguish such creatures from the field of biology. ... In Greek mythology, the Minotaur was a creature that was half man and half bull. ... Gaia (land or earth, from the Greek Γαία; variant spelling Gaea—see also also Ge from Γη) is a Greek goddess personifying the Earth. ... In Greek mythology, the Sirens or Seirenes (Greek Σειρῆνας) were Naiads (sea nymphs) who lived on an island called Sirenum scopuli which was surrounded by cliffs and rocks. ... Terpsichore, Muse of Music and Dance, oil on canvas by Jean-Marc Nattier 1739 In Greek mythology, Terpsichore (delight of dancing) was one of the nine Muses, ruling over dance and the dramatic chorus. ...

When Achelous was defeated, Heracles took one of his horns, and Achelous had to trade the goat horn of Amalthea to get it back. Heracles gave it to the Naiads, who transformed it into the cornucopia. In Greek mythology, Amalthea (Greek Αμαλθεια, tender) is the foster-mother of Zeus. ... Naiad by John William Waterhouse, 1893 In Greek mythology, the Naiads (from the Greek νάειν, to flow, and νἃμα, running water) were a type of nymph who presided over fountains, wells, springs, streams, and brooks, as river gods embodied rivers, and some very ancient spirits inhabited the still waters of... The cornucopia, also known in English as the Horn of Plenty, is a symbol of prosperity and affluence, dating back to the 5th century BC. In Greek mythology, Amalthea raised Zeus on the milk of a goat. ...

The mouth of the Acheloos river was the spot where Alcmaeon finally found peace from the Erinyes. Achelous offered him Callirhoe, his daughter, in marriage if Alcmaeon would retrieve the clothing and jewelry his mother, Eriphyle, had been wearing when she sent her husband, Amphiaraus to his death. Alcmaeon had to retrieve the clothes from King Phegeus, who sent his sons to kill Alcmaeon. In Greek mythology, Alcmaeon, or Alkmáon, was the son of Amphiaraus and Eriphyle. ... In Greek mythology the Erinyes or Eumenides (the Romans called them the Furies) were female personifications of vengeance. ... In Greek mythology, three women were named Callirhoe or Callirrhoe: A daughter of Oceanus and mother of Echidna, one of the Oceanids. ... In Greek mythology, Eriphyle, daughter of Talaus, was the mother of Alcmaeon and the wife of Amphiaraus. ... In Greek mythology, Amphiaraus, or Amphiaraos (doubly-cursed) was the son of Oicles and husband of Eriphyle. ... A Greek King, Phegeus offered succor and his daughter, Alphesiboea, to Alcmaeon, who was fleeing from the Erinyes. ...

Ovid, Metamorphoses, VIII, 547, IX, 1, and X, 87. Engraved frontispiece of George Sandyss 1632 London edition of Publius Ovidius Naso, (March 20, 43 BC – AD 17) Roman poet known to the English-speaking world as Ovid, wrote on topics of love, abandoned women, and mythological transformations. ...

In another mythic context, the Achelous was said to be formed by the tears of Niobe, who fled to Mt. Sipylon after the deaths of her husband and children. A mortal woman in Greek mythology, Niobe, daughter of Tantalus and either Euryanassa, Eurythemista, Clytia, Dione, or Laodice, and the wife of Amphion, boasted of her superiority to Leto because she had fourteen children (Niobids), seven male and seven female, while Leto had only two. ...