We are now, my friend Ernest (who revels in such things) tells me, marking the Ancient Roman Juturnalia Festival, honoring Juturna, goddess of lakes, rivers and, yes, fountains. I’m assuming that would include this peaceful dribbler outside the Palazzo Farnese (Tosca, Act II.) As Ernest tells it, “The story goes that it was on this date that the divine twins Castor and Pollux miraculously appeared in the Forum, watering their horses in the fountain of Juturna (adjacent to the Temple of Vesta), announcing that the Romans were victorious at the battle of Lake Regillus.” Because twins C&P (aka Gemini, whose mother was Leda and whose father, well... Castor had a mortal father -- the King of Sparta-- while Pollux’s father was Zeus, who’d ravished Leda while disguised as a swan) chose Juturna’s fountain to proclaim the freedom of the Romans from the tyranny of their kings, succeeding generations looked on their city’s fountains as “a continuing, ever-flowing symbol of Roman freedom from monarchs.” Thank you, Ernest. And grazie mille, Juturna.
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