ABSTRACT
A fountain in Greece, reported by Renaissance mythographers to be the haunt of the Graces (Boccaccio Genealogia 1.16, Giraldi De deis gentium 13). The name appears in Epithalamion 310 as ‘the Acidalian brooke’ where Spenser reports (on his own authority) that Maia bathed before Jove lay with her: the brook suggests the vernal and virginal freshness of the June bride (Maia =May). The poet’s beloved is again presented as Acidalian in FQ VI x, where silver waves tumble at the foot of Mount Acidale (7). This stream, where nymphs bathe, may derive from the nameless brook in SC, Aprill 35-7, since it too is the site of Colin’s poetic inspiration to celebrate a fourth Grace; in both instances, song is tuned ‘to the waters fall.’ Earlier, in FQ IV v 5, Venus is said to have left her cestus ‘On Acidalian mount, where many an howre/She with the pleasant Graces wont to play.’ Venus herself can be ‘the Acidalian.’
