Roman Times: Achelous and the origin of the Horn of Plenty

Sunday, January 17, 2021

Achelous and the origin of the Horn of Plenty

In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the god Achelous (also Acheloos or Acheloios) was associated with the Achelous River, the largest river in Greece. According to Hesiod, he was the son of the Titans Oceanus and Tethys. He was also said to be the father of the Sirens, several nymphs, and other offspring. Achelous was able to change his shape, and in the form of a bull, he wrestled Heracles for the right to marry Deianeira, daughter of the king of Calydon, but lost. This myth is retold in a 7th century BCE poem by Archilochus. In the 5th century BCE, Pindar claimed Heracles broke off one of Achelous's horns, and the river-god was able to get his horn back by trading it for a horn from Amalthea, foster mother of Zeus.

In his play, Women of Trachis, Sophocles relates Deianeira's account of the courtship:

"For my suitor was a river-god, Achelous, who in three shapes was always asking me from my father—coming now as a bull in visible form, now as a serpent, sheeny and coiled, now ox-faced with human trunk, while from his thick-shaded beard wellheads of fountain-water sprayed. In the expectation that such a suitor would get me, I was always praying in my misery that I might die, before I should ever approach that marriage-bed. But at last, to my joy, the glorious son of Zeus and Alcmena came and closed with him in combat and delivered me."

The Roman poet, Ovid, in his account of the struggle in his poem, Metamorphoses (8 CE), describes how Achelous fights Heracles, and loses three times: first in his normal (human?) shape, then as a snake, and finally as a bull. Heracles tore off one of Achelous's bull-horns, and the Naiads filled the horn with fruit and flowers, transforming it into the "Horn of Plenty" (cornucopia). Diodorus Siculus and Strabo explain the myth as an offshoot of an actual event. According to Diodorus, Heracles diverted the Achelous River's course, while according to Strabo, some writers "conjecturing the truth from the myths" said that, to please his father-in-law Oeneus, Heracles confined the river by means of "embankments and channels". In this way, Heracles defeated the raging river, and in so doing created a large amount of new fertile land of the Achelous River delta which came to be known as Amaltheia's horn of plenty.

From at least as early as Homer, Achelous was apparently considered to be an important divinity throughout Greece. A commentary on Iliad 21.195, preserved on Oxyrhynchus Papyrus 221, contains a fragment of a poem, possibly from the Epic tradition, which mentions "the waters of silver-eddying Achelous" being the source of "the whole sea." The Oxyrhynchus Papyrus also mentions "many people sacrifice to Achelois before sacrificing to Demeter, since Acheloios is the name of all rivers and the crop comes from water." According to the early 4th-century BCE Greek historian Ephorus, the oracle at Dodona usually added to his pronouncements the command to offer sacrifices to Achelous, and that, while people would offer sacrifices to their local river, only the Achelous river was honored everywhere, with Achelous's name often being invoked in oaths, prayers and sacrifices. Achelous was also an important deity in the Etruscan religion, intimately related to water as in the Greek tradition but also carrying significant chthonic associations. Man-faced bull iconography was first adapted to represent Achelous by the Etruscans in the 8th century BCE, and some scholars think the Greeks later adopted this same tradition. Seer-healers and mercenaries during the Iron Age, used iconography of Achelous as a man-faced bull for centuries.


	Closeup of Hercules battling Achelous in the form of a serpent by François-Joseph Bosio, 1824, at The Louvre courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Juanedc

Full Length Hercules battling Achelous in the form of a serpent by François-Joseph Bosio, 1824, at The Louvre courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Carole Raddato.

Acroter of Achelous from the southern sanctuary of Pyrgi, an ancient Etruscan port in Latium, central Italy, to the northwest of Caere 510 BCE, at the Etruscan Museum in the Villa Giulia in Rome courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Sailko.

Mask of the River God Achelous. Marathon (Attica, Greece), marble, around 470 BC. Antikensammlung Berlin (Altes Museum) courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Zde.


		Pendant necklace in the shape of Acheloos head. Gold. Circa 480 BCE courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Tangopaso.

Ivory plaque depicting Hercules and Achelous (in the form of a bull), 1670, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York


	Etruscan bronze protome of Achelous from Tarquinia, 500-475 BCE, at the Etruscan Museum in the Villa Giulia in Rome courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Sailko.

Vase in the form of a head of Acheloos from east Greece, terracotta, 550-525 BCE at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.


	Hercules Battling Achelous, ivory, mid-17th century CE, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The vertex stone of an arch with a depiction of the river deity Achelous, from Pula, 2nd - 3rd century CE, on display in the Temple of Augustus, Colonia Pietas Iulia Pola Pollentia Herculanea, Histria courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Carole Raddato.

Bronze Etruscan shield with head of Achelous 6th century BCE that I photographed at the Dallas Museum of Art in Dallas, Texas.

Achelous was often depicted as a bearded mask such as in this Roman floor mosaic from Zeugma, Turkey courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Achelous terracotta mask (patron deity of the Achelous River), 1st century BCE, Monsters. Fantastic Creatures of Fear and Myth Exhibition, Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, Rome courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Carole Raddato