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Arethusa
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Silver tetradrachm from Syracuse, Italy, signed by the engraver Cimon above the headband of the nymph Arethusa, c. 410 bc. In the British Museum. Diameter 28 mm. (Top) Obverse side of a silver decadrachm showing head of the nymph Arethusa surrounded by dolphins; (bottom) on the reverse side, quadriga (chariot) with charioteer being crowned by Nike. By the master Euainetos, c. 400 bc, struck in Syracuse, Sicily. Diameter 36 mm. Günter Grass
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James Barry (1741-1806) painting title: The Education of Achilles, oil on canvas by James Barry, c. 1772; in the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut. 102.9 x 128.9 cm Alternate title: Chiron and Achilles
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Silver tetradrachm from Syracuse, Italy, signed by the engraver Cimon above the headband of the nymph Arethusa, c. 410 bc. In the British Museum. Diameter 28 mm.
Silver tetradrachm from Syracuse, Italy, signed by the engraver Cimon above the headband of the nymph Arethusa, c. 410 bc. In the British Museum. Diameter 28 mm.

Arethusa, in Greek mythology, a nymph who gave her name to a spring in Elis and to another on the island of Ortygia, near Syracuse.

The river god Alpheus fell in love with Arethusa, who was in the retinue of Artemis. Arethusa fled to Ortygia, where she was changed into a spring. Alpheus, however, made his way beneath the sea and united his waters with those of the spring. According to Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Book V, Arethusa, while bathing in the Alpheus River, was seen and pursued by the river god in human form. Artemis changed her into a spring that, flowing underground, emerged at Ortygia.

James Barry (1741-1806) painting title: The Education of Achilles, oil on canvas by James Barry, c. 1772; in the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut. 102.9 x 128.9 cm Alternate title: Chiron and Achilles
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Gods, Goddesses, and Greek Mythology

In an earlier form of the legend, it was Artemis, not Arethusa, who was the object of the river god’s affections and who escaped by smearing her face with mire, so that he failed to recognize her. The story probably originated from the fact that Artemis Alpheiaia was worshiped in both Elis and Ortygia and also that the Alpheus in its upper part runs underground.