Artemis and Archimedes
Immortal Artemis and the very mortal Archimedes are remembered together in one place in Ortygia where the Fontana Artemis forms the centrpiece of Piazza Archimedes. We'll never know whether Archimedes really ran naked through the streets of Syracuse following his Eureka! moment, but if he did, it could well have been around here that he did it.
Artemis was the daughter of Zeus and Leto, a real princess of a goddess if ever there was one. Beautiful, capricious, vengeful, chaste, she was greatly venerated in Syracuse. Charming as the fountain is, it was only erected in the 19th century. It shows Artemis and Arethusa together as Artemis is changing Arethusa into a stream.
Archimedes is regarded as the greatest Greek and scientist, one of the greatest minds of all time. He was born in Syracuse in 287BC and is reputedly buried there after he was killed by a Roman soldier in 212BC though the tomb identified as his by Cicero is lost and the so-called Tombe di Archimede is in fact a Roman mausoleum made to hold many funerary urns. The tomb can be found in the Archaeological Park in the Grotticelli Necropolis though currently you cannot get to it from inside the park. You can however view it from the street outside, Via Teracati.



street scene
Piazza del Duomo, Ortigia, Siracusa
skuggorna ruva...
antichity