(Coincidentally, this cache was approved/posted late one night, and the announcement was made the following morning that Geocaching had hit its 3 million active caches milestone. We don't presume to think this one was "the one"...but it's fun to dream about :)
Alpheios, is a river that flows through Arcadia and Elis, and the name also applies to the god of that river. In Greek mythology, Alpheios, like most river-gods, was the son of Oceanus and Tethys. According to many accounts, Alpheios fell in love with the nymph Arethusa who was bathing in his river. She really wanted nothing to do with him and fled, praying to Artemis to help her. Artemis took pity on her and turned Arethusa into a spring well. Alpheios pursued her under the sea and found her so he could mix his waters with hers. A tradition emerged that if you tossed a cup into the Alpheios river, it would reappear in the well Arethusa in Ortygia.
Alpheios' course (along with the river Peneus) was redirected by Hercules (or Heracles) as part of his 5th labor to clean the filth of the stables of King Augeas in a single day, a seemingly impossible task until Hercules. By some sources, Alpheios was also the grandfather of Dorodoche (wife of Icarus, who famously flew too close to the sun) and the father of Penelope (the faithful wife of Odysseus).