Helplessly the exhausted Arethusa cried to her patroness for help.

The maiden made for the shore and, fully naked, started running away.

Onward they sped over hill and valley, across dark heights and over broad plains, until the waters of the western sea lay stretched out right before them.

Presently she heard a bubbling in the stream and was surprised to find it was the thundering voice of the river god Alpheus.

Arethusa was once a fairy maiden huntress. She carried bow and arrows for Artemis in her hunting.

Taking a human form, the river-god followed closely in pursuit.

She was so devoted to her work that she cared for neither admiration nor love.

She jumped into the delightful stream and happily started swimming.

One sunny summer day, she felt hot and found a cool stream quite attractive.

Then a cold sweat broke from the maiden''s arms and legs. The drops of water fell from all over her body. She had been turned into a spring!

Artemis instantly cast a cloud over her body, but the pigheaded Alpheus was not to be tricked.

Alpheus recognized her new form and presently took his former shape to join with Arethusa and enjoy her company.

Artemis then broke the ground and Arethusa sank down and flowed all the way through the under world from southern Greece to Sicily.

She rose up again at Syracuse, only to find that the river god had endured the darkness of the lower world and turned up as a stream as well. mixing his waves with hers, he gained her love in the end.