Achelous A river god who engaged in a mythical fight with Heracles. Classical resources are Apollodorus’s Library
Diodorus Siculus’s Library of History Hyginus’s Fabulae, Ovid’s Meta morphoses , Philostratus’s Imagines, and Sophocles’ Trachiniae . Dur-ing the 11th of his Twelve Labors, Heracles descended to Hades, wherein he met the ghost of Meleager. There, Meleager extracted from Heracles the promise that at the hero’s return from the underworld he would locate and marry his sister Deianira. Heracles efficaciously battled Achelous in a wrestling suit for the
hand of Deianira. The war was tough fought because the river god become able to changing form. Achelous became a snake, then a bull. Heracles pulled off one horn and defeated him. This horn become associated with a cornucopia, or
