ALPHEUS ('AAdseaos; mod. Ruphia)  , the chief river of Peloponnesus . Strictly Ruphia is the modern name for the ancient Laden, a tributary which rises in N.E . Elis, but the name has been given to the whole river . The Alpheus proper rises near Asea; but its passage thither by 'subterranean channels from the Tegean plain and its union with the Eurotas are probably mythical (see W . Loring, in Journ . Hell . Studies, xv. p . 67) . It consists for the most part of a shallow and rapid stream, occupying but a small part of its broad, stony bed . It empties itself into the Ionian sea . Pliny states that in ancient times it was navigable for six Roman miles from its mouth . Alpheus was recognized in cult and myth as the chief or typical river-god in the Peloponnesus, as was Achelous in northern Greece .

His

waters were said to pass beneath the sea and rise again in the fountain Arethusa at Syracuse; such is the earlier version from which later mythologists and poets evolved the familiar myth of the loves of Alpheus and Arethusa .