”34 Some writers add to the myth, saying that this was the horn of Amaltheia,5 which Heracles broke off from Acheloüs and gave to Oeneus as a wedding gift. Others, conjecturing the truth from the myths, say that the Acheloüs, like the other rivers, was called "like a bull" from the roaring of its waters, and also from the the bendings of its streams, which were called Horns, and "like a serpent" because of its length and windings, and "with front of ox"6 for the same reason that he was called "bull-faced"; and that Heracles, who in general was inclined to deeds of kindness, but especially for Oeneus, since he was to ally himself with him by marriage, regulated the irregular flow of the river by means of embankments and channels, and thus rendered a considerable part of Paracheloïtis dry, all to please Oeneus; and that this was the horn of Amaltheia.7 Now, as for the Echinades, or the Oxeiae, Homer says that they were ruled over in the time of the Trojan War by Meges,“who was begotten by the knightly Phyleus, dear to Zeus, who once changed his abode to Dulichium because he was wroth with his father.
”8His father was Augeas, the ruler of the Eleian country and the Epeians; and therefore the Epeians who set out for Dulichium with Phyleus held these islands.
1 In Greek "Oxeiai" and "Thoai," both words meaning "sharp" or "pointed" (see 8. 3. 26 and footnote, and Hom. Od. 15.299.
2 i.e., "Along the Acheloüs.
4 One vase-painting shows Acheloüs fighting with Achilles as a serpent with the head and arms of a man, and with ox horns, and another as a human figure, except that he had the forehead, horns, and ears of an ox (Jebb, note ad loc.).
5 Cf. 3. 2. 14 and footnote.
6 Literally, "ox-prowed" (see Jebb, loc. cit.).
7 Cp. 3. 2. 14.
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