Some writers add, that this was the horn of Amaltheia, which Hercules broke off from the Achelous, and presented to Œneus as a bridal gift. Others, conjecturing the truth included in this story, say, that Achelous is reported to have resembled a bull, like other rivers, in the roar of their waters, and the bendings of their streams, which they term horns; and a serpent from its length and oblique course; and bull-fronted because it was compared to a bull’s head; and that Hercules, who, on other occasions, was disposed to perform acts of kindness for the public benefit, so particularly, when he was desirous of contracting an alliance with Œneus, performed for him these services; he prevented the river from overflowing its banks, by constructing mounds and by diverting its streams by canals, and by draining a large tract of the Paracheloïtis, which had been injured by the river; and this is the horn of Amaltheia. Homer says, that in the time of the Trojan war the Echinades, and the Oxeiæ were subject to Meges, “son of the hero Phyleus, beloved of Jupiter, who formerly repaired to Dulichium on account of a quarrel with his father.”[674] The father of Phyleus was Augeas, king of Elis, and of the Epeii. The Epeii then, who possessed these islands, were those who had migrated to Dulichium with Phyleus. 20. The islands of the Taphii, and formerly of the Teleboæ, among which was Taphus, now called Taphius, were distinct from the Echinades, not separated by distance, (for they lie near one another,) but because they were ranged under different chiefs, Taphii and Teleboæ. In earlier times Amphitryon, in conjunction with Cephalus, the son of Deïoneus, an exile from Athens, attacked, and then delivered them up to the government of Cephalus. But the poet says that Mentes was their chief, and calls them robbers, which was the character of all the Teleboæ. So much then concerning the islands off Acarnania. 21. Between Leucas and the Ambracian gulf is a sea-lake, called Myrtuntium.[675] Next to Leucas followed Palærus, and Alyzia, cities of Acarnania, of which Alyzia is distant from the sea 15 stadia. Opposite to it is a harbour sacred to Hercules, and a grove from whence a Roman governor transported to Rome “the labours of Hercules,” the workmanship of Lysippus, which was lying in an unsuitable place, being a deserted spot.[676]