The God of All Rivers Saved – for the time being – by the European High CourtThe second largest rive

The God of All Rivers Saved – for the time being – by the European High CourtThe second largest river of Greece is the Acheloos, and its god of the same name was essentially the third-ranked god of Greek Mythology – the god of fresh water.Born of the titans Oceanos and Tethys (yes, that Tethys, the mother of all the waters of the world who gave her name to the Tethyan Ocean of the Mesozoic), Acheloos controlled the lives of all who lived in ancient Greece. Zeus might strike you down with a bolt of lightning; Neptune may cause the earth to shake; but if your river ran with a terrifying flood you might be drowned, your crops washed away, your livelihood destroyed by the whim of the god. The Acheloos still runs through Greece, starting in the Pindos in the north where its bed is lined with white cobbles derived from limestone layers within the highly erodible grey flysch country rocks – perhaps this is the source of its ancient description as being “silver swirling” in nature, though the presence of an abundance of wild trout may also have contributed to this description. The river winds south, trapped in several horseshoe bends within canyons caught between mountains with relief of over a thousand meters above the riverbed. Fitting for so great a god, the Acheloos is fed by waterfalls, more than can be counted, along its course. Flysch is an impermeable formation; there is no aquifer, no ground water. Dating from the less environmentally concerned days of the late 1960’s, the farmers of the plain of Thessaly challenged the mighty course of the river: running wild and free through the rugged Pindos mountains, it served “no purpose.” They, on the other hand, have pretty much exhausted their own ground water through poorly managed intensive irrigation. What better solution than to turn the course of the river from the mountains to the plains? Since originally conceived, the environmental value of the Acheloos in its present course has been better studied, certainly better appreciated. A decision by the European Court of Justice recently ruled that the river project does not violate any European laws, but raised concerns about the environmental impact – thus giving a tactic that both Greek environmentalists and the Greek courts can pursue to derail the project. For once, the economic crisis is “helping” the situation: will money be available to go forward with the project anyway? Somehow though, we suspect that the mighty god of the ancients will probably not be shackled to the whims of those who no longer respect his immense power. Annie R.My photoReferences for further reading:Hesiod, The Theogony, Works and Days, and The Shield of Heracles [Paperback]Hesiod (Author), Hugh G. Evelyn-White (Translator) at http://www.theoi.com/Text/HesiodTheogony.html Essential geography: http://www.cityofagrinio.gr/en/city/rivers/acheloos.htmlFor environmental decisions:http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_11/09/2012_460818 -- source link

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