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[3] This account of Alpheius ... to Ortygia.1 But that the Alpheius passes through the sea and mingles his waters with the spring at this place I cannot disbelieve, as I know that the god at Delphi confirms the story. For when he despatched Archias the Corinthian to found Syracuse he uttered this oracle:“An isle, Ortygia, lies on the misty ocean
Over against Trinacria, where the mouth of Alpheius bubbles
Mingling with the springs of broad Arethusa.
”For this reason, therefore, because the water of the Alpheius mingles with the Arethusa, I am convinced that the legend arose of the river's love-affair.

1 This sentence, obviously corrupt, seems to show a lacuna afterἈλφειόν.The meaning probably would be to the effect that the story was an invention, to account for the disappearance of the Alpheius in the sea and its reappearance at Ortygia （ἐς τὴν Ὀρτυγίαν）.

Pausanias. Pausanias Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918.

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