The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Achelous

ACHELOUS, ak-e-lō′us (now Aspropotamo, “White River”), the largest river in Greece, 130 miles long, and not navigable. It rises on the Pindus range, flows south in a boisterous torrent, forming the boundary between Ætolia and Acarnania, and empties into the Ionian Sea opposite Ithaca. In its lower course it is an alluvial stream, winding in great loops through very fertile and marshy plains; it comes from the mountains heavily laden with fine white mud, which it deposits along its banks and in the sea at its mouth, where it has formed a number of small islands.

In Greek legend, the son of Oceanus and Terra, or Tethys, god of the river. As one of the numerous suitors of Dejanira, daughter of Œneus, Achelous entered the lists against Hercules, and, being inferior, changed himself into a serpent and afterward into an ox. Hercules broke off one of his horns, and Achelous, being defeated, retired into his bed of water. The broken horn was given to the goddess of plenty.