Castalia

Family

Castalia was the child of the river-god Achelous.

Mythology

The Castalia or Castalian Spring was the name of a spring near Delphi, sacred to the Muses, mentioned by many authors. According to old traditions, the Castalian Spring already existed by the time Apollo came to Delphi searching for Python. According to some, the water was a gift to Castalia from the river Cephisus.

In his commentary on Statius's Thebaid, Latin poet Lactantius Placidus says that the virgin Castalia, trying to escape Apollo's unwanted amorous advances, threw herself into a fountain at Delphi, at the base of Mount Parnassus, or at Mount Helicon, which took her name thereafter. Castalia then became the sacred fountain of Poseidon.

In culture

She inspired the genius of poetry to those who drank her waters or listened to their quiet sound; the sacred water was also used to clean the Delphian temples. Apollo consecrated Castalia to the Muses (Castaliae Musae).

The 20th-century German writer Hermann Hesse used Castalia as inspiration for the name of the futuristic fictional utopia in his 1943 magnum opus The Glass Bead Game. Castalia is home to an austere order of intellectuals with a twofold mission: to run boarding schools for boys, and to nurture and play the Glass Bead Game.

References

Bibliography

References

1. Pausanias. (1918). "[[Description of Greece]]". Harvard University Press.
2. The spring is mentioned in [[Herodotus]], 8.39; [[Pindar]], ''Pyth.'' 1.39; [[Virgil]], ''Georgics'' 3.293; [[Horace]], ''Odes'' 3.4.61; [[Statius]], ''Thebaid'' 1.698 and elsewhere: see Liddell, Scott, Jones ''Greek Lexicon'' s.v. {{lang. grk. Κασταλία; Lewis and Short, ''Latin Dictionary'', s.v. {{lang. la. Castalia.
3. Homer, ''Hymn to Apollo''
4. Smith, W. (1858). ''Classical Dictionary'', s.v. ''Castalia''.
5. "Castalia".
6. Lactantius Placidus. (1898). "Lactantii Placidi qvi dicitvr Commentarios in Statii Thebaida it Commentarivm in Achilleida recensvit Ricardvs Jahnke". Lipsiae : in aedibvs B. G. Tevbneri.
7. {{Harvnb. Hamilton. 1978