Water fountains are powerfully associated to the Roman civilisation in particular because water had a stout religious worth. This was not unusual in the societies of the antiquities as the early Greek religions also placed much trust in water and water springs were converted into shrines to kings and nymphs as well as their deities and goddesses. The Greeks knew that the ability for a dwelling to survive comes from a sustainable source of good water and so the sites where their water sprung from were seen as a blessing. They also had the means to bring this wholesome water to other areas via pipes or aqueducts. The Greeks had written many fountains in their history books, such as The Spring of Pirene at Corinth, which comprised of several springs coming out of a white stone mural to Pegasus, with a basin at the bottom. In the same city, there was additional fountain shrine to Neptune, which integrated a dolphin with water flowing from its mouth.
Still today it is straight forward to recognise how these first works have encouraged later and even modern models. The Romans were very taken with these beautiful fountains and realised the significance and importance of the aqueducts too. They made this kind of fountains their own by means of their own religious and idolised icons to embellish the fountains, as well as using the knowledge of the time to ensure the ease of use of fresh natural spring water to all areas of their empire.
Still today, Italy has the scars of these magnificent aqueducts by the side of the area amid Campagna to the capital, Rome. This was one of the major considerable turning points in Roman history, as the rejuvenation of their capital, with a clean supply of water was commemorated with a wonderful set of public fountains, where the plebarians could fetch fresh water from. Not surpisingly, there were wealthy and chief members of Roman culture who were able to rent their own private water source and hand made their own fountains to party. Examples of private fountains are spraying a great water jet to a lower basin.
Even today, visitors to Rome, find the fountains to be a powerful and beautiful scenery, especially the Trevi Fountain, which signified the conclusion of an aqueduct, built in 19BC, bringing water from the Salone Springs, nearly 20 kilometres from Rome. There is a myth linked to this particular fountain, that if you turn around (back facing) to the fountain and chuck in a coin and it hits in the water, you will come back to Rome but if not, you will not. This it seems has survived from the epoch when soldiers would make a sacrifice to their gods before going on a journey into battle, which just illustrates how the religious meaning of the Roman fountains has not at all been lost in time.
Felicity is a freelance author, writing intermittent columns in the UK about
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