Cook, Arthur B.: Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 3,2): Zeus god of the dark sky (earthquake, clouds, wind, dew, rain, meteorits) (Cambridge, 1940)

Floating Islands

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waters of the lake, fragments of which might from time to time be detached from
the overhanging crust thus formed on the banks: the same phenomenon occurs,
though on a smaller scale, at the Aquae Albulae near Tibur. ([Sir W.] Gell
[The] Tocography] of Rome [and its Vicinity London 1834 i. 74, id.2 London
1846 i.] 41.)...The Cutilian Lake still exists under the name of Pozzo diRatignano
or Latignano, though apparently reduced in size by the continual incrustation of
its banks; but the floating island has disappeared.'

(15) Two islands in the Lacus Tarquiniensis (more often called the Lacus
Volsiniensis, nowadays the Lago di Bolsena, a quondam crater near Volsinii) are
described as floating groves blown by the winds now into triangular, now into
circular forms, but never into squares (Plin. nat. hist. 2. 209). It is not clear how
these two islands (the /sola Mariana and the Isola Bisentina (cp. Plin. nat. hist.
3. 52 Vesentini and Corp. inscr. Lat. xi nos. 2910 Honori Visentium, 2911 Virtuti
Visenti = Dessau Inscr. Lat. sel. nos. 3796, 379611)) could suggest either a triangle
or a circle, let alone a square. G. Dennis The Cities and Cemeteries of Etrieria3
London 1883 ii. 29 shakes his head: 'Shall we not rather refer this unsteady,
changeful character to the eyes of the beholders, and conclude that the propa-
gators of the miracle had been making too deep potations in the rich wine of [the
lake-side]? Now. at least, the islands have lost their erratic and Protean
propensities, and, though still capt with wood, have taken determinate and
beautiful forms, no longer plastic beneath the breath of /Eolus.' Possibly Santa
Cristina, the virgin-martyr of Bolscna (July 24), who was cast into the lake and
touched bottom—witness her footprints on the rocks—but, despite the millstone
round her neck, would not drown and, after gruesome sufferings, had to be bound
to a tree and shot with arrows, should be regarded as the Christian successor of
a pagan lake-goddess (Diana?). On her see the Acta Sanctorum edd. Bolland.
Antverpiae 1727 Julius v. 495 ff. ' De S. Christina virg. et martyri apud Lacum
Vulsinium, ut volunt, in Tuscia' (Passio 2. 11 p. 526 F Urbanus...jussit earn ligari
ad saxum, & medio mari dare prrecepit: cumque hoc fieret, saxum disruptum
est, & ipsa ab angelis suscepta est, & ita pedibus super aquas maris ferebatur,
2. 17 p. 528 A Julianus ira commotus jussit mammillas ejus abscindere. Christina
dixit: Lapideum cor & abominabile, mammillas meas abscidere jussisti; respice
& vide, quia pro sanguine lac in terram defluxit, 2, 18 p. 528 B Tunc iratus
Julianus duas sagittas [misit] in earn, unam ad cor ejus, & aliam contra latus ejus,
& cum percuteretur, cum gaudio reddidit spiritum), S. Baring-Gould The Lives
of the Saints Edinburgh 1914 viii. 527—531 (p. 530 'on this day [July 24], as we
are solemnly assured, her head is seen to swim about the lake'), M. and W. Drake
Saints and their Emblems London 1916 pp. 26, 143, 193, alib., K. Kiinstle
Phonographic der Heiligen Freiburg im Breisgau 1926 p. 153 f. The tradition
that she walked the water and the belief that her head still swims recall the
floating islands mentioned by Pliny. Such wonders die hard.

(16) The Lacus Statoniensis, identified by P. Cluverius Italia an/iqua Lugduni
Batavorum 1624 p. 517 with the Lago di Mezzano, a tiny sheet of water about
five miles west of the Lago di Bolsena, had once a floating island (Plin. nat. hist.
2. 209, Sen. nat. quaestt. 3. 25. 8, and perhaps Strab. 614), but now has none, 'so
that we must either reject CluveiJs conclusion, or suppose that the island has
since disappeared. As there is no other lake in central Etruria which can answer
to the Statonian, we must take the alternative, and consider the island to have
floated, as it is described, and to have become eventually attached to the shores
of the lake' (G. Dennis The Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria3 London 1883 i.
494 f-)-