When public art quotes Ovid and all the locals are there nodding their heads in agreement and understanding, you know you're in a wonderful place. Here is the Fountain of Arethusa. In Greek mythology, Arethusa was a nymph who gave her name to a spring here in Ortigia, that magically sprang from the ground as she received help from Artemis after the river god Alpheus fell in lust/love with her.
In Metamorphoses, Ovid writes:
"What are you rushing for, Arethusa? Alpheus called from the waves. "Why are you rushing?" He called again to me, in a strident voice. Just as I was, I fled, without my clothes: so much the more fiercely he pursued and burned. And being naked, I seemed readier for him.
I cried out, help me! I will be taken! Diana, help the one who bore your weapons for you!
The goddess was moved, and raising an impenetrable cloud, threw it over me. The river god circled the concealing fog, and in ignorance searched about the hollow mist. Twice, without understanding, he rounded the place. He did not go far. Cold sweat poured down my imprisoned limbs, and dark drops trickled from my whole body, and moisture dripped from my hair, and faster than I can now tell the tale, I turned to liquid.
And indeed, the river god saw his love in the water, and putting off the shape of a man he had assumed, he changed back to his own watery form, and mingled with mine.
The Metamorphoses are stories of transformation, and they are absolutely brilliant, fantastical, moving, and so insightful. It's my favorite work by Ovid. Exquisite.
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