Читать книгу The Herodotus Encyclopedia - Группа авторов - Страница 62

PETER FUNKE

Westfälische Wilhelms‐Universität Münster

The Achelous is the second‐longest (c. 220 km) river with the largest amount of water in present‐day Greece. Its source lies at an elevation of about 2,000 meters on the eastern slope of the Lakmos (also called Peristeri) mountain in the PINDUS mountain range south of Metsovo. North of Agrinion the river pours forth from the mountains into a wide plain. In the course of time this plain was broadened considerably by the masses of alluvial debris carried along by the river, and the estuary area moved forward into the IONIAN GULF, creating an alluvial plain (Paracheliotis: BA 54 D5) encompassing some parts of the group of ISLANDS known as the ECHINADES (2.10.3). While Herodotus attributed the Achelous to ACARNANIA (2.10.3; 7.126; cf. Strabo 8.2.3/C335), the river later formed the (disputed) border between the Aetolian and Acarnanian Leagues (Funke 1991, 181–82). The Achelous was in classical times considered the southwestern boundary of the distribution area of LIONS in Greece (7.126; Steier 1926, 969–71).

SEE ALSO: Aetolia; Change; Rivers