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Fountain of Arethusa

Ancient Greek world stubsAncient SyracuseBuildings and structures in Syracuse, SicilyFountains in ItalySprings of Italy
Syrakus BW 2012 10 06 14 48 35 stitch 2
Syrakus BW 2012 10 06 14 48 35 stitch 2

The Fountain of Arethusa (Italian: Fonte Aretusa, Ancient Greek: Ἀρέθουσα) is a natural fountain on the island of Ortygia in the historical centre of the city of Syracuse in Sicily. According to Greek mythology, the fresh water fountain is the place where the nymph Arethusa, the patron figure of ancient Syracuse, returned to earth's surface after escaping from her undersea home in Arcadia.The fountain is mentioned in a number of works of literature, for instance John Milton’s pastoral elegy Lycidas (l. 85) and his masque Arcades, as well as Alexander Pope’s satire The Dunciad (Bk 2, l. 342) and William Wordsworth's blank verse poem The Prelude (Bk X, l. 1033). These writers would have known the fountain from references in ancient Roman and Greek sources, such as Virgil's 10th Eclogue (l. 1) and Theocritus' pastoral poem Idylls (I, l. 117). Virgil reckons the eponymous nymph as the divinity who inspired bucolic or pastoral poetry. In Moby-Dick, Herman Melville writes that waters from the fountain were said to come from the Holy Land.The Fountain of Arethusa, the river Ciane, south of Syracuse, and the river Fiume Freddo in the province of Catania are the only places in Europe where papyrus grows.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Fountain of Arethusa (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Fountain of Arethusa
Syracuse

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Latitude Longitude
N 37.057255555556 ° E 15.292911111111 °
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96100 Syracuse
Sicily, Italy
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Syrakus BW 2012 10 06 14 48 35 stitch 2
Syrakus BW 2012 10 06 14 48 35 stitch 2
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Siege of Syracuse (877–878)
Siege of Syracuse (877–878)

The siege of Syracuse from 877 to 878 led to the fall of the city of Syracuse, the Roman capital of Sicily, to the Aghlabids. The siege lasted from August 877 to 21 May 878 when the city, effectively left without assistance by the central Byzantine government, was sacked by the Aghlabid forces. Following their first landing in Sicily in the late 820s, the Aghlabids had tried several times, without success, to capture Syracuse. They were able to gradually take over the western half of the island, however, and, in 875, a new and energetic governor, Ja'far ibn Muhammad, was appointed, determined to capture the city. Ja'far began the siege in August 877 but soon left it in charge of his son Abu Ishaq, while he retired to Palermo. The Arabs were well-supplied with siege weapons, while the inhabitants of Syracuse were left largely unsupported by the Byzantine fleet, which was busy with transporting marble for a new church in Constantinople and was then delayed by adverse weather. Consequently, the besieged populace faced great hardships and famine as described in detail by the eyewitness account of Theodosios the Monk. Finally, the Aghlabids managed to effect a breach in the seaward walls and on 21 May 878 managed to break through it into the city. The defenders and much of the populace were massacred, while others, including Theodosios, were taken prisoner. The Byzantine patrikios, who commanded the defense, surrendered with a few of his men, but they were executed after a week, while a handful of soldiers escaped and brought the news east to the fleet that had belatedly set sail to aid the city. The Muslims were unable to capitalize upon this success due to internal rivalries, which even led to a full-scale civil war. Small-scale warfare with the Byzantines continued without any side gaining a decisive advantage until the arrival of the deposed Aghlabid emir Ibrahim II, who in 902 rallied the Sicilian Muslims and captured Taormina, effectively completing the Muslim conquest of Sicily, although a few fortresses remained in Byzantine hands until 965.