Alpheus

ἰχθύς ἐκ τῆς κεφαλῆς ὄζειν ἄρχεται → the fish stinks from the head, a fish rots from the head down, the fish rots from the head down, fish begin to stink at the head, the fish stinks first at the head, corruption starts at the top, the rot starts at the top

English > Greek (Woodhouse)

(River) Ἀλφειός, ὁ, V. also Ἀλφεός, ὁ (Eur., El. 781).

Alphēus: (trisyl.) or Alphēŏs, i, m., = Ἀλφειός,
I the chief river in the Peloponnesus, now Rufia. It rises in the southern part of Arcadia, not far from Asea, unites with the Eurotas, and then losing itself under ground, makes its appearance again in Megalopolis. It afterwards flows, in a north-west direction, through Arcadia to Elis, and then turns west from Olympia, and falls into the Ionian Sea. At its mouth there was a grove consecrated to Diana or Alphiusa (Mann. Greece, 467 sq. 503). Its disappearance under ground gives occasion for the fable that it flows under the sea, and appearing again in Sicily, mingles with the waters of Arethusa.—Hence personified as the lover of the nymph Arethusa, Ov. M. 2, 250; 5, 599; id. Am. 3, 6, 29 (cf. Verg. E. 10, 1 sqq.).—Hence. Alphēus, a, um. adj., = Ἀλφεῖος, of or pertaining to the Alpheus: Alpheae Pisae, founded by a colony from Pisa, in Elis, on the river Alpheus, Verg. A. 10, 179: Alpheae ripae, Claud. B. Get. 575.

Alphēŭs¹³ ou -ēŏs, ī, m. (Ἀλφειός), l’Alphée [fleuve de l’Élide] : Ov. M. 2, 250 ; Am. 3, 6, 29