ABSTRACT
Drafted in mid—late April 1820 as an ironic counterpart to Arethusa arose (no. 311), which S. contributed to Mary's drama Proserpine. While Arethusa arose remains relatively faithful to Ovid's account of the innocent nymph Arethusa who is pursued from Greece to Sicily by the lustful river god, Alpheus, these lines appear to develop the version of the story given in Pausanias, Description of Greece V vii 2:
They say that there was a hunter called Alpheius, who fell in love with Arethusa, who was herself a huntress. Arethusa, unwilling to marry, crossed, they say, to the island opposite Syracuse called Ortygia, and there turned from a woman to a spring. Alpheius too was changed by his love into the river.
