Arethusa is a Naiad nymph in Greek mythology who fled the river-god Alpheus and became a spring on Ortygia in Sicily. In Ovid she witnesses Proserpina's abduction and tells Ceres. She is distinct from Arethusa the Hesperid in Apollodorus.
Adapted from Wikipedia, "Arethusa (nymph)" · CC BY-SA 4.0
I.Mythology
Ovid's Arethusa flees Alpheus beneath Elis until Diana opens the earth and she rises at Ortygia (Metamorphoses 5.746–868).
She reveals Proserpina's rape to Ceres (5.487–508). Pausanias records the tradition that Alpheus mingles underground with her Sicilian spring (Description of Greece 5.7.2–3).
AT A GLANCE
Greek nameArethousa (Ἀρέθουσα)
Roman nameArethusa
Typenymph
Domainsspring nymph of Sicily · fugitive from Alpheus · witness of Proserpina's rape
READ MOREWikipedia ↗