AlphaeusArethusa. The Alpheus is the largest river of the Peloponnesus, originating in Arcadia and flowing past the city of Olympia. The river-god Alpheus fell in love with Arethusa, a nymph of Artemis. In escaping his pursuit, Arethusa be-seeched the goddess for help and Artemis covered her with a cloud. The cloud and the nymph were transformed into a stream that flowed underground until it was united with the waters of the Alpheus in the sea. The stream is said to have come out at Syracuse, in Sicily, where there is a spring called the fountain of Arethusa. The story of Alpheus and Arethusa has been a popular subject in poetry and literature; it became a favorite theme of works in the visual arts only around the seventeenth century. Classical Sources. Hesiod, Tbeogony 338. Virgil, Eclogues 10.1; Aeneid 3.694ft. Ovid, Metamorphoses 5.572—641. Pausanias, Description of Greece 5.6.2—3, 5.7.2. Lucian, Dialogues of the Sea-Gods 3, “Poseidon and Alpheus.”