Trachiniae, Deianira describes her polymorphous suitor, ‘‘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’’ (lines 9–14, trans. Jebb). The
Oechalian bronze is notable for its full anthropomorphism, which seems to be
characteristic of fifth-century sculpture. River gods are likewise shown in human
form on pediments of the temple of Zeus at Olympia and the Parthenon in Athens,
but in other media they are shown as theriomorphic, man–bull hybrids, the bull
symbolizing both the terrifying force of a flooding river and the fertilizing potency
of its waters. Achelous was also worshiped in the form of a mask (a marble example
dating to about 470 BC was found near Marathon) and his bearded, horned face was
used as an amulet in jewelry.
In myth, the rivers figured as ancestors and primordial figures, the first kings in the
land. Examples include Peneus in Thessaly, Inachus in Argos, Asopus in Phlius, and
Scamander in the Troad. This way of thinking about rivers was exported to Greek
colonies, where there was a pressing need to establish claims upon the soil and the all-
important water sources, the first priority in choosing the site of a new settlement. All
over the Greek world, but notably in well-watered Sicily, river gods were celebrated as
emblems on fifth- and fourth-century coins.
Figure 3.2 Votive relief from Eleusis, showing head of Achelous, Pan, and three nymphs.
Photo courtesy of National Archaeological Museum, Athens
66 Jennifer Larson