The Goddess Companion There was a Water Goddess who grieved especially at the fate of Proserpine, for Cyane had seen the maiden raped away from the earth she held that image in her wounded heart and dissolved into tears. Yes, she dissolved. Her limbs grew soft, her bones grew fluid, her long green hair drifted into seaweed, her graceful body slid into the chilly water, her pale blood ran cold in paler veins and soon Cyane was nothing but her tears nothing but spray and water, nothing at all. ~Ovid Metamorphoses In Rome, this day was marked by the festival called the Fontinalia, the feast of fresh water that bursts forth from the ground. To celebrate these sources of sweet water, women brought garlands of leaves and late flowers to hand about the fountains, The nymphs, who were believed to live within the waters, were honored in the same ritual. Today we no longer assume that spirits inhabit springs and valleys, rocks and trees. Yet our forebears had no difficulty believing that nature was alive, even conscious. As they drank the cooling water from an unpolluted water source, they thanked the nymph who lived within it. A they plucked fruit from a tree, they thanked the dryad who inhabited it. Sitting on a mountain rock, they were grateful to the Oread there. Have we really progressed now that we no longer live in such a world? )0( By Patricia Monaghan
Posted on: Tue, 14 Oct 2014 03:19:27 +0000
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