Arethusa

In the Greek mythic tradition Arethusa is first encountered bathing in a clear stream in Arcadia as a maiden and attendant of Artemis/Diana. When the river god Alpheus discovered and pursued her, she fled to preserve her chastity. Overcome by fear she began to perspire and transformed into a stream; Artemis then broke the ground to permit her waters to escape. The stream traveled beneath the sea and re-emerged as a freshwater fountain on the island of Ortygia at Syracuse, where she became identified with that spring and represented on local coinage.

As a mythic person Arethusa is portrayed as a youthful female nymph — an attendant of Artemis/Diana — and appears in ancient art in anthropomorphic form (e.g., heads of the nymph depicted on Syracusan coinage and on a terracotta kylix tondo). In her transformed state she is the freshwater spring/fountain rising on Ortygia, often iconographically shown with surrounding dolphins in Syracusan civic imagery and in sculptural fountain groups alongside Alpheus.

Attested abilities in the sources are principally metamorphosis into a stream/fountain (during flight from Alpheus) and the mythic subterranean movement of her waters from mainland Arcadia/Peloponnesus to Ortygia. Narrative episodes also record that she petitioned a major deity (she entreated Demeter in a single attested account) and that Artemis/Diana intervened on her behalf; these are presented as specific mythic incidents rather than generalized ritual powers available to worshippers.