Arethusa, << `ar` uh THOO zuh >>, was a beautiful nymph in Greek mythology. Her father was the sea god Nereus, and she was an attendant of the goddess Artemis. The river god Alpheus fell in love with Arethusa as she bathed in the sea. He pursued her in the form of a swift torrent all the way to an island off the coast of Sicily. Out of pity for the fleeing girl, Artemis transformed her into a spring. Even so, Alpheus overcame her and mingled his waters with hers. The Greeks used this myth to explain the disappearance of the Alpheus River as it flows toward the Ionian Sea. This story is retold in Metamorphoses by the Roman author Ovid and in Arethusa by the English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley.
