ALPHEUS, (’Αλφειός), the chief river of Peloponnesus, now called Rufia or Rouphi. Its sources are in the mountains of Arcadia, to the east of Megalopolis. Being fed by a great number of small streams, it becomes navigable, and traversing Elis, empties itself into the Ionian sea. At several points in its course it runs in a subterranean channel. This fact probably gave rise to the well-known myth which represents Alpheus, the river-god, as passing under the sea to the nymph Arethusa, who had been changed into a fountain in the island of Ortygia. Milton in his Arcades thus alludes to the story—- “That renowned flood, so often sung, Divine Alphéus, who by secret sluice Stole under seas to meet his Arethuse.”

father of James the less, Matt. x, 3; Luke vi, 15. Alpheus was the husband of Mary, believed to have been sister to the mother of Christ; for which reason, James is called the Lord’s brother; but the term brother is too general in its application to fix their relation, though the fact is probable. Many are of opinion that Cleopas, mentioned Luke xxiv, 18, is the same as Alpheus; Alpheus being his Greek name, and Cleopas his Hebrew, or Syriac name, according to the custom of this province, (or of the time,) where men often had two names; by one of which they were known to their friends and countrymen, by the other to the Romans or strangers.

ALPHEUS, father of Levi, or Matthew, whom Jesus took to be an Apostle and Evangelist, Mark ii, 14.