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Paper short abstract

This paper explores how the myth of Alpheus and Arethusa and the Fonte Arethusa site mutually reinforce one another through romanticization and obfuscation, offering a case study of how nature narratives shape cultural memory, tourism, and perceptions of the past.

Paper long abstract

On Ortigia, a small island off the coast of Syracuse in Sicily, Italy, there is a spring. The Fonte Arethusa, is a clear, cold, freshwater spring that runs out from underground and into the Mediterranean Sea just steps away from the spring. Steeped in myth and legend, the spring is most deeply tied to the Ancient Greek Myth of Alpheus and Arethusa.

Alpheus and Arethusa, presents a beautiful love story between a river god and a nymph. However, upon reflection from a contemporary understanding of consent, this story more closely aligns with themes of sexual coercion and violence. In this paper, I explore the interplay between the romanticization of the myth of Alpheus and Arethusa, and the romanticization of the historic site of the Fonte Arethusa in Ortigia.

Using interdisciplinary perspectives, I explore how the place and its accompanying myth enable bad practices. In the story these are exemplified by romanticizing ideas such as non-consensual pursuit. In the place it is environmental and cultural ramifications of tourism on the area surrounding the natural historic site. This both parallel and intertwined example of romanticism and obfuscation — where myth and site reinforce one another — offers a unique lens for examining how nature narratives continue to shape cultural memory, tourism, and our understanding of the past.

Please consider this proposal under the FNLM committee.