Drinking Water Read Online Free PDF Page B

corpse’s mouth. Only at this point is he laid upon the death pyre and the structure lit. His ashes are then scattered in the river, taking his spirit to rejoin the cycle of reincarnation.
    Just as drinking the water of oblivion eases passage into the world of darkness, the inability of the dead to drink water can make the passage a torment. This is clearest in the Greek myth of Tantalus. One legend recounts that Tantalus was honored by an invitation to dine with the gods on Mount Olympus. He stole ambrosia and nectar, however, and shared it with other mortals. Another version recounts that he invited the gods to dine and served them a stew of his own son Pelops. Demeter, mother of Persephone, was the only one hungry enough to eat the meat, which turned out to be Pelops’s shoulder. When Pelops was restored to life, part of his shoulder was replaced by ivory crafted by Hephaestus, surely one of the earliest examples of joint replacement surgery.
    Whichever tale one relies on, Tantalus made the gods angry, which is never a good idea. As punishment, upon his death, Tantalus was imprisoned chest deep in a lake in Tartarus, the deepest region of the Underworld, condemned to suffer from eternal hunger and thirst. Just in front of his mouth hung a tree branch heavy with luscious fruit, but every time he tried to eat, the branch would pull away. Every time he tried to drink the lapping water just beneathhis parched lips, the waters would recede before him. This was his cursed fate for all eternity, providing us the word for unsatisfied desire: “tantalizing.”
    T HE TALES OF THE F OUNTAIN OF Y OUTH, THE R IVER L ETHE, AND THE spring beneath Yggdrasil all involve mythical waters that do not exist, or at least have not yet been found. But many legends of drinking water are tied to local wells and fountains, places that actually do exist and can be visited. Stories from around the world speak of specific wells with healing powers that can cure the sick and restore movement to the lame, eyesight to the blind, and fertility to the barren. These are holy wells, and they marry the myth to the real.
    There are few universals in the human condition, but sacred wells may be one of the rare constants. They have been found in virtually every culture around the world and in virtually every era. From earliest times, natural water sources have been linked with mystical healing and powers. An archeological site in Wales, for example, uncovered a vast temple complex extending across more than eighty-five acres. More than thirty times bigger than Stone-henge, the oval site is one and a half miles long and once featured 1,400 massive oak pillars, each towering twenty-three feet high, with a pristine natural spring at its center. Researchers say it had been in continuous use for 4,700 years before it was overrun by the Romans. Archeological digs in Europe have uncovered evidence of religious worship at springs since the Neolithic Period.
    One can understand why a natural spring would appear miraculous to premodern people. How the water came to the surface could not be easily explained. The minerals, carbonation, heat, and smells coming from springs would have been mysteries. Surely these had mystic origins, but special origins were rarely enough. Those special wells also held special powers. Particular springs offered particular benefits. Below are some of the most notable examples compiled by a chronicler of sacred wells.
• Insanity was cured at St. Maelrubha’s Well on an island in Loch Maree, Scotland. Reportedly, the “patient” was draggedbehind a boat and rowed twice around the island, then plunged into the well and made to drink the water—all of which produced the cure. However, drinking from Borgie Well near Cambusland, Scotland, produced insanity.
• Those seeking relief from toothaches would go to a healing well on the Scottish island North Uist. They were required by tradition to remain silent and not to eat or drink until they