Alcmaeon and Callirhoe: The Necklace’s Second Curse

Catalogue ID: 03-heroes/185-alcmaeon-callirhoe-necklace-apollodorus

Cycle: Heroes — Epigoni aftermath / Alcmaeon’s wanderings

Version line: Apollodorean — Psophis to Achelous; Callirhoe’s demand; death in Psophis

Sources: Apollodorus, *Library* 3.7.5–7; Pausanias 8.24.7–10; Thucydides 2.102

Source file: /workspace/greek-myth-catalogue/03-heroes/185-alcmaeon-callirhoe-necklace-apollodorus.md

Characters

Alcmaeon — matricide; husband of Arsinoë then Callirhoe; slain in Psophis
Arsinoë — first wife; received the necklace
Electra — daughter of Achelous; demands the necklace; mother of avengers
Harmonia — source of the cursed necklace (prior)
Phegeus — king of Psophis; first host and father-in-law
River-gods — river-god; purifier and father-in-law
Sons of Alcmaeon and Callirhoe — miraculously aged avengers
Sons of Phegeus — kill Alcmaeon

Places

Achelous river — purification and new land
Mount Helicon — first refuge; site of Alcmaeon’s death
Pytho — pretended destination for the necklace

Themes

Narrative

After killing Eriphyle, Alcmaeon was driven by the Erinyes. Phegeus of Psophis purified him and married him to Arsinoë (or Alphesiboea), giving her Harmonia’s necklace and robe. When the land grew barren for hosting a matricide, Alcmaeon went to the river-god Achelous, who purified him and gave him Callirhoe as wife; he settled on new silt-land at the river mouth (Acarnanian aetiology). Callirhoe demanded the necklace and robe. Alcmaeon returned to Psophis, claiming he needed them for a further dedication at Delphi; Phegeus’s sons learned the truth, ambushed, and killed him. Callirhoe prayed that her infant sons by Alcmaeon grow at once to avenge him; Zeus granted it, and they slew Phegeus’s house. The second marriage thus reactivates Harmonia’s cursed gifts and finishes Alcmaeon’s tragic circuit.