Popular taboos and cult regulations protected the purity of rivers and springs
against the taint of human dirt, excrement, and other wastes, and rituals such as
hand-washing or, in the case of an army, sacrifice before crossing a river are attested
(Cole 2004: 30–37). Herodotus (6.76) tells how Cleomenes sacrificed to the river
Erasinus at the border of Argolis on his way to attack Argos. When the omens were
unfavorable, he said that he honored the river for not betraying his countrymen, but
that even so, the Argives would not escape danger. In theIliad, the cults of river
deities are well developed: Scamander has his own priest and Spercheus has an altar
and sanctuary (Iliad5.77, 23.140–51). Animal sacrifice was performed either on an
altar in a sanctuary or at the river bank itself so that the blood flowed into the water.
Immersion sacrifices are also attested; Homer speaks of live horses cast into the
Scamander (Iliad21.131–2). Excavated counterparts to the literary descriptions are
few, but a Swedish team investigated the sanctuary of the river Pamisus, the major
waterway of Messenia, in the early twentieth century (Valmin 1938: 417–65).
Located at a group of warm- and cold-water springs feeding the stream, it was
founded in the archaic period and had a reputation as a place for healing. It included
a small Doric temple with an unusual feature, a votive pit incorporated in the temple
wall that connected with one of the springs feeding the river. Into this pit were
deposited gifts of all sorts, including a number of small bronzes, which can be divided
into animal figures (primarily horses, bulls, and goats) and human figures (mainly
naked youths of classical date). There are signs that the god’s sanctuary was used in
rites of maturation; a number of small lead stars were found, originally attached with
wire in wreaths. These are paralleled at Laconian sanctuaries and were apparently
dedicated by ephebes. Other metal items includeastragaloi, probably dedicated as
children’s toys, and models of male genitals deposited in hope of curing ailments or
siring offspring. One curious bronze figurine is the bottom half of a boy that was
originally cast in two parts and connected by a peg with its top. Since the feet of this
figurine appeared deformed, the excavator guessed that the top half was worn by its
dedicator as an amulet, while the bottom half was presented to the river-god in hopes
of a cure. A ramp led from the temple to an altar, and according to tradition, the kings
of Messenia brought annual sacrifices to the river (Pausanias 4.3.10). If accurate, this
would place the origins of the cult in the seventh or eighth century.
The only river-god to achieve panhellenic status in cult is Achelous, the longest
river in Greece, who shared many sanctuaries with the nymphs by the fifth century
(Figure 3.2). No temple of the Achelous, which formed the boundary between
Acarnania and Aetolia in northwestern Greece, has so far been uncovered, but
he was regularly worshiped from archaic times as a generalized deity of fresh water.
The cult was promoted by Zeus’ oracle at Dodona, which often recommended
sacrifice to Achelous (Ephorus FGrH70 F20). Theagenes of Megara dedicated
an altar to Achelous when he diverted a stream to his new fountain house, where
the Sithnid nymphs were the deities of the local springs (Pausanias 1.41.2).
A boundary stone marking a shrine of the nymphs and Achelous was unearthed in
Oechalia in Euboea, accompanied by a bronze of the god (ca. 460 BC), shown as a
bearded, draped figure holding a cornucopia (Isler 1970:no. 264). The horn of
plenty refers both to the river as a source of prosperity and to the myth, depicted in
black figured vases, of his combat with Heracles for the hand of Deianira, during
which the hero wrenched off one of the god’s horns. In the opening of Sophocles’
Nature Deities 65