History of the Peloponnesian War

Opposite to Aeniadae he most of the islands called Echinades, close to the mouths of the Achelous; so that the river, being so large as it is, continually forms depositions round them, and some of the islands have been joined to the continent, as I expect will be the case with all of them in no long period of time.

For the stream is strong, and deep, and turbid, and the islands are thick together, and mutually serve to connect the alluvium so as to prevent its being dispersed; as they lie in alternating rows, not in one line, and have no free passages for the water into the open sea. They are uninhabited, and of no great extent. [*]( Such appears to be the force of the conjunctions δὲ καί, by which the following story is introduced in connexion with the preceding account of the islands.)

There is a report which I may also mention, that when Alemaeon, son of Amphiaraus, was wandering about after the murder of his mother, Apollo directed him by an oracle to inhabit this region, by suggesting to him that he would have no release from his terrors till he should discover and inhabit a country which had not yet been seen by the sun, nor existed as land, at the time he slew his mother; since all the rest of the earth was polluted to him.