ABSTRACT
The first actions of hydraulic engineering in mainland Greece are traced to around 1600 B.C.[3]; there is no written information about these actions, which, however, survived in the mythic folklore in the legend of the hero Heracles (also known with the Latin name Hercules). Even from the ancient times, several authors such as the historian Diodoros Siculus (90-20 B.C.), the geographer Strabo (67 B.C.–23 A.D.), and the traveler Pausanias (2nd century AD) explained Heracles in a historic way demystifying him from a mythic hero into a hydraulic engineer; this continues today.[3-5] The myth of Heracles fighting against Acheloos indicates the struggle of the early Greeks against the destructive power of floods. Acheloos, the river with the highest mean flow rate in Greece, was then worshipped as a god. As depicted on Greek vessels, Acheloos was metamorphosed into a snake and then a bull, but finally was defeated by Heracles who won Deianira as his wife. According to the historian Diodoros Siculus (IV 35) and the geographer Strabo (X 458-459), the meaning of the victory is related to channel excavation and construction of dikes to confine the shifting bed of Acheloos. There are no technical descriptions of these works; only some presumed remnants of dikes.[3]
From Strabo (IX 440) and Diodoros (IV 18), it is also known that similar structures had been built on another large river located at the Thessaly plain, Peneios at Larissa, which are again attributed to Heracles. Other labors of Heracles such as those of the Lernaean Hydra and the Augean stables also symbolize hydraulic works. Lernaean Hydra was a legendary creature in the form of a water snake with nine heads that lived in the Lerna swamp near Argos. Hydra possibly symbolizes the karstic springs of the area or the Lerna swamp itself, and its annihilation by Heracles has been interpreted as the drying up of the swamp. The Augean stables were cleaned by Heracles who diverted two rivers to run through the stables (a more sanitary-environmental labor).
