The Castalian Fountain - Illustration from Views of Greece by Edward Dodwell

The Castalian Fountain is an illustration from the collection Views in Greece from Drawings published by Edward Dodwell in 1821.

The Castalia Fountain, nestled at the foot of Mount Parnassus, is a sacred spring dedicated to Apollo and the Muses. Its crystal-clear waters flow among the rocks, surrounded by lush vegetation, creating a mystical and inspiring atmosphere for ancient poets and pilgrims.

The literal transcription of the notice accompanying this plate is reproduced below:

This clear fountain provides an excellent beverage, although some travelers have imagined that the testing of its waters was still followed by the effects formerly attributed to them, which were to produce in some a poetic frenzy, and to manifest their power in others by more unfortunate consequences; but if such results were the constant product of the Castalian Fountain, one would expect to find all the inhabitants of Kastri exhausted to the point of paleness, under the influence of poetic shivers or ecstasies.

The water that flows gently from the rock was once led into a deep square basin where it was reserved for the use of the Pythia and the augurs. A few steps, formed in the rock, helped to descend into this bath. The sides of the precipice that encloses the fountain have been cut and faced and the fountain was undoubtedly covered in the past, because it would be wrong to imagine that the pythoness, bathing in the open, exposed her sacred person to the gaze of the profane. A circular niche, probably intended to receive a statue, is also cut into the rock. A little above the level of the fountain, one finds, under a small vault on the west side, a conduit for the flow of the excess of its waters. On the side of the engraving, is represented the puny chapel of St. John, which seems to have been imagined to show the triumph of the cross over the cult of Apollo and the Muses.

The fountain is shaded by ivy and a fig tree, which, while their roots make their way through the cracks in the rock, maintain a refreshing darkness in this interesting place with their branches. A little further on, a majestic plane tree protects the whole from the rays of the sun, which shines there for only a few hours a day.

In his hymn to Apollo, Homer celebrates the Delphousa fountain in the same place, alluding, in all probability, to the Castalian Fountain.

Its water sometimes overflows in abundance, and forms several small but pretty waterfalls whose appearance is quite picturesque; its banks are adorned with beautiful watercress.