Extract

In the Classical Greek world a nymphaeum was a shrine to the *nymphs, often a rural cave or grove with no architectural adornment. Several sculptured reliefs dedicated to *Pan and the Nymphs are known from Classical *Attica (see caves, sacred).The Nymphs were with river-gods the guardian spirits of sources of pure *water. When the tyrant *Theagenes(1) of *Megara diverted fresh water for his city, he sacrificed to the *river-god at the point where the waters had been captured. By the Roman imperial period such sentiment was more publicly expressed at the urban terminus of *aqueducts, where the waters were filtered into a fountain, often richly decorated with statues and inscriptions recording the generosity, piety, and social status of the donor, and in many instances referring to the river or spring from which the waters originated. The most intelligible surviving example was built by Ti.