Wife of Picus king of Latium, called Canens because her singing moved woods and rocks, tamed wild beasts, and stayed long rivers — who searched the Laurentine woods for her husband after Circe changed him into a woodpecker until, on the seventh day, grief wasted her away into thin air.1
Canens was given in marriage to Picus when she had ripened to womanhood — rare in beauty, but rarer in the art of song, from which art they called her Canens. Her voice would move the woods and rocks and tame wild beasts, and stay long rivers and wandering birds.2
While she sang in their palace, Picus rode out to hunt and met Circe on the plain. When the sorceress changed him into a woodpecker, Canens searched the woods for her husband until the seventh day, when she could no longer endure the long grief and melted away into thin air — and the place was called the Canens grove after her.3
Ovid does not call her a nymph — only a mortal queen whose art earned her a speaking name. No homonym collision with another Canens appears in our seven lenses.4
⁂
the spine ignites as you read · hover a bond on the card — every mention of them lights in the story