Alpheus and Arethusa

The subject is taken from Ovid, Metamorphoses (5:572-641.) Arethusa was bathing on a river when she met Alpheus. She felt something stirring in the depths beneath her so she hurriedly get out of the water. She fled away from the stream but was chased by Alpheus. Worn out, Arethusa called on the her goddess, Artemis. Artemis turned her into a spring of water. But still, she was not free from Alpheus, changing back into a river, he went into the tunnel that Arethusa went into and now his water is intermingled with the water from Arethusa’s fountain. It is said that if you throw something into the Alpheus in Greece, it will turn up into Arethusa’s well in Sicily.

In the present composition we see Diana reaching down to envelop Arethusa in a cloud, just as the nymph’s strength is beginning to fail her, and transform her into a stream which runs underground.