Kallirroi (Aetolia)

Another Callirrhoe of Greek mythology, was a beautiful virgin from Calydon. She was so beautiful that several people claimed to win her love. One of them was Koresos, a priest of the god Dionysus, who fell madly in love with her.

Although his position did not allow him to have passions, he intensely pursued the beautiful Callirrhoe, who constantly repelled his amorous pressures. Koresos complained about Callirrhoe's refusal

to Dionysus, as a result of which the god sent madness to the inhabitants of Calydon. The Calydonians behaved as if they were mad among themselves and the city was in danger of being destroyed by its own inhabitants. When they visited the oracle of Dodona to advise them on how to get rid of this situation, they received an oracle that said that they should sacrifice Callirrhoe or anyone else who would take her place to Dionysus, the culprit of the group's madness. When they brought the unfortunate girl to the

temple of Dionysus to be sacrificed, the execution would be carried out by Koresus. But he, still in love with her, could not bear to sacrifice the girl, so he committed suicide, taking her place, so that she herself would be saved. Then, Callirrhoe, recognizing the greatness of Koresus' love, from her remorse and shame, fell into the pond of a spring, which has since taken her name.

The myth of Callirrhoe and Cyrus is only mentioned by Pausanias, who does not explicitly identify this Callirrhoe with the daughter of Achelous.

Comment: The interpretation of the above myth is very easy, if we consider that Dionysus is a god who was established very late, at the beginning of historical times, and that Calydona had a tradition of “Irreverence” since they did not sacrifice to Artemis, hence the punishment of the “Calydonian Boar”. Also, let us consider that all the myths about the establishment of the Dionysian cult say that this happened bloody and “strangely”. Essentially, the cult of the god was imposed by force. Apparently, then, Callirrhoe's refusal was interpreted as a general devaluation of the cult of Dionysus (since Koresos was his priest) and thus, his priests cultivated a collective guilt psychosis in the population, not to mention that they used "herbs" to achieve it. Koresos and his love, however, were the "weak link" of the plan.