Siracusa Mediterranean legend

By I’m Italian team

The nymph Arethusa following Artemis, running free in the woods of the Peloponnese, was seen by the young Alfeo who fell madly in love with her. But Arethusa did not reciprocate his sentiment, on the contrary she fled from him, until tired of his insistence she asked Artemis for help. The Goddess wrapped her in a thick cloud, melting the young woman in a spring on the Lido of Ortigia.

Alfeo then asked for help from the Gods, who transformed it into a river that, originating from Greece and crossing the Ionian Sea, joined the beloved source.

Even today the myth lives on the island of Ortigia thanks to the so-called Fonte Aretusa, a mirror of water that flows into the Porto Grande of Syracuse. The legend of Alfeo originates from the homonymous river in the Peloponnese, in Greece, and from a source of fresh water (locally called Occhio della Zillica) that flows into the Porto Grande of Syracuse not far from the Fonte Aretusa. Today the avenue that runs along the Fonte Aretusa is called Lungomare Alfeo.

In the stretch of water of the Fonte Aretusa and along the banks of the Ciane river there are the only wild papyrus in all of Europe. (Papyrus grows wild only in Egypt.)