# Alpheus and Arethusa [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [LORENZI, Battista di Domenico]() - Date: 1551-1600 - Technique: Marble, 149 x 83 x 60 cm ## Commentary Alpheus \(Alpheios\) was in Greek mythology a river and river-god. He is a son of Oceanus and Tethys. Alpheus was a passionate hunter and fell in love with the nymph Arethusa, but she fled from him to the island of Ortygia near Syracuse, and metamorphosed herself into a well, after which Alpheus became a river, which flowing from Peloponnesus under the sea to Ortygia, there united its waters with those of the well Arethusa. This story is related somewhat differently by the Roman writer Ovid: Arethusa, a beautiful nymph, once while bathing in the river Alfeios in Arcadia, was surprised and pursued by the river god; but the goddess Artemis took pity upon her and changed her into a well, which flowed under the earth to the island of Ortygia. Lorenzi's group was carved to go above a fountain in the villa Il Paradiso at Pian di Ripoli, near Florence. ## Related artworks - [Ganymede Fountain \(detail\)]() - [Ganymede Fountain]() - [Tomb of Michelangelo: Allegory of Painting]() - [Tomb of Michelangelo: Bust of Michelangelo]() - [Tomb of Michelangelo: Bust of Michelangelo]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()