DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.846#0068
fountain of Arethitsa.—Museum of Ortygia* 06
like this. All these foreign ornaments, all these picturesque
accessories, the magic of renowned times, and names, and
men, no longer exist here, but the port still merits the eulo-
gium of Cicero, and the moment we behold it, we exclaim
with him, "What can be more beautiful than the port of
Syracuse!"
The Fountain of Arethusa.
When you ask some account from the learned of this celer
fcrated little spring, you must not expect to hear any details as
to its locality. Instead of speaking of the fountain, they will
cite Pindar, and Bion, and Moschus, and Virgil, and Ovid,
and Lucan, and Statius, and a crowd of other authors; and
when they have overloaded their pages with Greek and Latin
quotations, when they have collected for you all praises which
poets, historians, naturalists, and lexicographers have lavished
on this fountain, when they have copied all, and said all, you will
probably know something less of it than when you asked the
question.
Two travellers, Brydone and Borch, who are not always so
severe, seem to have been wanting, when speaking of this
fountain, in the respect which is due to antiquity. Both re-
mark that, instead of the lively limpid spring, they could
see nothing but a disgusting washing-place, where a troubled
and brackish streamlet runs; and one of them adds, that the
nymphs which he observed there were suited to the place. Now
it is very true that the famous fountain of Arethusa serves as a
washing^tub to the ladies of Ortygia; and it is also true, that
the latter are neither so young, so fair, nor so attractive as the
daughter of the good Alcinous, from whom the fountain in
question receives its name;—true, also, it receives the waters
from some of the sewers of the city ;—true, lastly, the tanners
of the town sometimes steep their skins in it; but, in the eyes
of true amateurs, how futile are all these objections. A modern
spring may be corrupted, but what shall poison an ancient one ?
Museum of Ortygia.
If ever there were a civilized people who had the power of
collecting a vast, interesting, and rich collection of antique
monuments, without doubt they were the people of Syracuse.
Let us see how they have employed these advantages. Two
or three low rooms belonging to the archiepiscopal palace,
damp, narrow, and dark, the approach to which is by a back-
door of the palace ; such is the place devoted by the inhabit-
ants of Ortygia to (he relics of magnificence, the productions
Voyages and Travels, No. 2. Vol. IV. K
like this. All these foreign ornaments, all these picturesque
accessories, the magic of renowned times, and names, and
men, no longer exist here, but the port still merits the eulo-
gium of Cicero, and the moment we behold it, we exclaim
with him, "What can be more beautiful than the port of
Syracuse!"
The Fountain of Arethusa.
When you ask some account from the learned of this celer
fcrated little spring, you must not expect to hear any details as
to its locality. Instead of speaking of the fountain, they will
cite Pindar, and Bion, and Moschus, and Virgil, and Ovid,
and Lucan, and Statius, and a crowd of other authors; and
when they have overloaded their pages with Greek and Latin
quotations, when they have collected for you all praises which
poets, historians, naturalists, and lexicographers have lavished
on this fountain, when they have copied all, and said all, you will
probably know something less of it than when you asked the
question.
Two travellers, Brydone and Borch, who are not always so
severe, seem to have been wanting, when speaking of this
fountain, in the respect which is due to antiquity. Both re-
mark that, instead of the lively limpid spring, they could
see nothing but a disgusting washing-place, where a troubled
and brackish streamlet runs; and one of them adds, that the
nymphs which he observed there were suited to the place. Now
it is very true that the famous fountain of Arethusa serves as a
washing^tub to the ladies of Ortygia; and it is also true, that
the latter are neither so young, so fair, nor so attractive as the
daughter of the good Alcinous, from whom the fountain in
question receives its name;—true, also, it receives the waters
from some of the sewers of the city ;—true, lastly, the tanners
of the town sometimes steep their skins in it; but, in the eyes
of true amateurs, how futile are all these objections. A modern
spring may be corrupted, but what shall poison an ancient one ?
Museum of Ortygia.
If ever there were a civilized people who had the power of
collecting a vast, interesting, and rich collection of antique
monuments, without doubt they were the people of Syracuse.
Let us see how they have employed these advantages. Two
or three low rooms belonging to the archiepiscopal palace,
damp, narrow, and dark, the approach to which is by a back-
door of the palace ; such is the place devoted by the inhabit-
ants of Ortygia to (he relics of magnificence, the productions
Voyages and Travels, No. 2. Vol. IV. K