Book 5
7.2
There is another legend about the Alpheius. They say that there was a hunter called Alpheius, who fell in love with Arethusa, who was herself a huntress. Arethusa, unwilling to marry, crossed, they say, to the island opposite Syracuse called Ortygia, and there turned from a woman to a spring. Alpheius too was changed by his love into the river.
7.3
This account of Alpheiusto Ortygia.This sentence, obviously corrupt, seems to show a lacuna afterἈλφειόν.The meaning probably would be to the effect that the story was an invention, to account for the disappearance of the Alpheius in the sea and its reappearance at Ortygia (ἐς τὴν Ὀρτυγίαν). But that the Alpheius passes through the sea and mingles his waters with the spring at this place I cannot disbelieve, as I know that the god at Delphi confirms the story. For when he despatched Archias the Corinthian to found Syracuse he uttered this oracle:An isle, Ortygia, lies on the misty oceanOver against Trinacria, where the mouth of Alpheius bubblesMingling with the springs of broad Arethusa.For this reason, therefore, because the water of the Alpheius mingles with the Arethusa, I am convinced that the legend arose of the river's love-affair.
