Underground Rivers - University of New Mexico

Chapter 28 -- Et In Arcadia Ego
Pausanias (Chapter 3) leaves unclear what's personal
observation and what's not, his Description of Greece is
the best surviving geography of Greece in Roman times.
It is known that the Alpheus differs from other rivers in
exhibiting this natural peculiarity; it often disappears
beneath the earth to reappear again. So flowing on from
Phylace and the place called Symbola it sinks into the
Tegean plain; rising at Asea, and mingling its stream
with the Eurotas, it sinks again into the earth.
The Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) by
Sir William Smith had this to say,
The two reputed sources of the Alpheus and Eurotas are
found near the remains of Asea, at the copious source of
water called Frangovrysi; but whether the source of the
Alpheus be really the vent of the lake of Taki, cannot be
decided with certainty.
According to the Cyclopaedia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (1883),
Alpheus, one of the chief rivers of Peloponnesus. Its rise and early course are marked by some
singular circumstances.
According to Pausanias, the fountain is at Phylace, near the foot of Mount Parthenius, at the
southeast corner of Arcadia, where the boundaries of Arcadia, Argolis, and Laconia meet.
Near a place called Symbola, (the "meeting of the water") it is joined by a considerable stream,
and sinks underground; it rises again five stadia from Asea, close to the fountain of the Eurotas.
The two rivers then mix their waters, and after flowing twenty stadia, are again swallowed up,
and re-appear -- the Eurotas in Laconia, the Alpheus at Pegse (the Springs), in the
Megalopolitan territory, and in Arcadia.
The statement of Pausanias is confirmed, and the course of the upper stream (now the
Sarandapotamo) traced by Colonel Leake to the spot where it enters the earth below Phylace.
He confirms the statement of its rise (or at least the rise of some subterranean stream) at
Francovrysi, near Asea. Here there are two sources or emissaries, one of which he supposes
to be the vent of the lake or marsh called Taki, not far from Tegea, north-east of Francovrysi;
the other that of the Sarandapotamo. One of these probably is the supposed source of the
Eurotas, mentioned by Pausanias. These streams, after joining, enter a lake, and again sink
into the earth. Passing under a mountain called Tzimbaru, the Alpheus reappears at Marmora,
near Rhapsonati.
These subterranean descents are not uncommon in the Arcadian rivers, and are called by the
modem Greeks, Katavothra: similar instances are collected in the Encyclopedie Methodique;
Geog. Physique.
Where the headwaters sink and where they then rise has been of geographic interest for
millennia.
"But Some Waters So Hate the Sea"
According to the Aeneid of Virgil (70-19 BC),
The story goes that Alpheus, a river of Elis, forced a hidden path here under the sea, and
merges with the Sicilian waters of your fountain Arethusa.
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