Note 580 — ETYMOLOGICAL TRUTHS

How much it prevailed among the Romans we learn from Seneca. [580]Magnorum fluviorum capita veneramur—coluntur aquarum calentium fontes; et quædam stagna, quæ vel opacitas, vel immensa altitudo sacravit. It mattered not what the nature of the water might be, if it had a peculiar quality. At Thebes, in Ammonia, was a fountain, which was said to have been cold by day, and warm at night. Ἡ κρηνη [581]καλειται του ἡλιου. It was named the fountain of the Sun. In Campania was a fountain Virena; which I should judge to be a compound of Vir-En, and to signify ignis fons, from being dedicated to the Deity of fire, on account of some particular quality. I accordingly find in [582]Vitruvius, that it was a medicinal spring, and of a strong vitriolic nature. The Corinthians had in their Acropolis a [583]Pirene, of the same purport as Virena, just mentioned. It was a beautiful fountain sacred to Apollo, whose [584]image was at the head of the water within a sacred inclosure.