François-Joseph Bosio’s Hercules fighting Achelous transformed into a snake (Hercule combattant Achéloüs métamorphosé en serpent) draws its subject from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Achelous, the patron deity of the Acheloos River, the largest river of Greece, was Heracles’ rival suitor for the love of Deïaneira, daughter of Oeneus king of Calydon. Depending on the telling, Acehlous transformed […]