Hercules Fight Achelous Metamorphosed into a Snake at The Louvre, Paris

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Achelous was the god of the most turbulent river in Greece, and so he dominated all the other river gods. The land along the river was ruled by the king of the nearby city of Calydon, who had a stunning daughter named Dejanira. When it came time for Dejanira to marry, her father announced a contest: the strongest suitor would win her hand. Achelous, the river god, was far and away the strongest in the region. But Dejanira's beauty was renowned everywhere, so it wasn't long before Hercules arrived in Calydon to try his luck. Hercules was the strongest mortal in the world, but Achelous had some advantages over him as a god. He could change his shape at will. He could become a snake that curved like the winding river. He could become a bull that roared like the roaring river. And when he was a bull, he could tear the very earth with his massive horns, just as the river carved away the land when it overflowed its banks. When Hercules came to town, all other suitors withdrew. Only he would wrestle Achelous for Dejanira's hand in marriage. "Here is Hercules," Achelous said to the king. "He is a stranger from distant Thebes. Do you want a stranger as your son-in-law? You and I are neighbors. You know me well. So often has my river flooded your fields and crops, which belong to Dejanira too. Her land and my flooding river have already merged. I feel like we're already family!" Achelous was like his river in another way - words flowed from him constantly, just as the river babbled when it wasn't roaring. Hercules, on the other hand, was a man of very few words. He listened patiently and politely, then gave his answer: he grabbed Achelous, threw him to the ground, and pinned him down. As Achelous later said, "It was as if a mountain had fallen on me. Hercules was a giant of a man." The god realized he couldn't beat Hercules in a regular wrestling match, so he took the form of a snake that slithered out of Hercules' arms. He coiled himself and gave a hiss. Hercules laughed and spoke for the first time. "A snake? Is that the best you can do? I've been killing snakes since I was a toddler." What seemed like an outrageous boast was entirely true, and Achelous knew it. Hercules's famous first feat in life was strangling two snakes that had crawled into his crib. Achelous decided to become a furious bull instead of a snake. He lowered his broad head to point his sharp horns at Hercules. He scratched the dirt, then charged forward. The crowd gasped in shock. But to a man like Hercules, the horns of a bull were just two convenient handles. He seized Achelous by both horns and flipped him to the ground. Then he gave a mighty jerk to one of the horns. It snapped off. Hercules won the match and secured Dejanira's hand in marriage. The people of Calydon also benefited, as the goddess named Plenty ordered that the broken horn be filled with all the harvest fruits and vegetables. It became the Cornucopia, or Horn of Plenty. With one horn missing, Achelous lost much of his power to flood the kingdom.