Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Salmacis.
The gallery
Hermaphroditus and Salmacis
Unknown (Roman); Albani collection, c. 1st–2nd century AD
Louvre relief from the Albani collection: Salmacis coils around Hermaphroditus at the fountain — Ovid's Carian nymph frozen in marble embrace.
Landscape with Salmacis and Hermaphroditus
Louis-Jean-François Lagrenée, 1773
Lagrenée's pastoral landscape nests the fountain encounter in soft trees and water — Salmacis as Rococo desire before the waters fuse the pair.
Salmacis and Hermaphroditus
Thomas Rowlandson, c. 1800
Rowlandson's watercolour: the nymph clinging at the spring — English Regency wit applied to Ovid's most intimate metamorphosis.
Dish with Hermaphroditus and the Nymph Salmacis
Francesco Xanto Avelli, 1532
Xanto's maiolica dish: Salmacis and Hermaphroditus as table spectacle — Renaissance Urbino ceramics keeping the fountain myth in bright glaze.
Nymph of Salmacis
Rupert Bunny, c. 1899
Bunny's fin-de-siècle Salmacis alone — the Carian naiad as Symbolist water spirit, desire before the embrace.