=Alphēus=, now _Alpheo_, a famous river of Peloponnesus, which rises in Arcadia, and after passing through Elis falls into the sea. The god of this river fell in love with the nymph Arethusa, and pursued her till she was changed into a fountain by Diana. The fountain Arethusa is in Ortygia, a small island near Syracuse; and the ancients affirm that the river Alpheus passes under the sea from Peloponnesus, and without mingling itself with the salt waters, rises again in Ortygia, and joins the stream of Arethusa. If anything is thrown into the Alpheus in Elis, according to their traditions, it will reappear, after some time, swimming on the waters of Arethusa, near Sicily. Hercules made use of the Alpheus to clean the stables of Augeas. _Strabo_, bk. 6.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 3, li. 694.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 5, fable 10.――_Lucan_, bk. 3, li. 176. ――_Statius_, _Thebiad_, bks. 1 & 4.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 7; bk. 6, ch. 21.――_Marcellinus_, bk. 25.――_Pliny_, bk. 2, ch. 103. =Alphius=, or =Alfeus=, a celebrated usurer ridiculed in _Horace_, _Epodes_, poem 2. =Alphius Avitus=, a writer in the age of Severus, who gave an account of illustrious men, and a history of the Carthaginian war. =Alpīnus=, belonging to the Alps. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 4, li. 442. =Alpīnus (Cornelius)=, a contemptible poet, whom Horace ridicules for the awkward manner in which he introduces the death of Memnon in a tragedy, and the pitiful style with which he describes the Rhine, in an epic poem which he attempted on the wars in Germany. _Horace_, bk. 1, satire 10, li. 36.――――Julius, one of the chiefs of the Helvetii. _Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 1, ch. 68. =Alpis=, a small river falling into the Danube. =Alsium=, a maritime town at the west of the Tiber, now _Statua_. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 8. =Alsus=, a river of Achaia in Peloponnesus, flowing from mount Sipylus. _Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 27.――――A shepherd during the Rutulian wars. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 12, li. 304. =Althæa=, daughter of Thestius and Eurythemis, married Œneus king of Calydon, by whom she had many children, among whom was Meleager. When Althæa brought forth Meleager, the Parcæ placed a log of wood in the fire, and said, that as long as it was preserved, so long would the life of the child just born be prolonged. The mother saved the wood from the flames, and kept it very carefully; but when Meleager killed his two uncles, Althæa’s brothers, Althæa, to revenge their death, threw the log into the fire, and as soon as it was burnt, Meleager expired. She was afterwards so sorry for the death she had caused, that she killed herself, unable to survive her son. _See:_ Meleager. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 8, fable 4.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 9.――_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 45; bk. 10, ch. 31.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 8.