Castalides

Monserrate - Music Room

Castalides, Aonides, Heliconides, Pegasides, and Phebiades: these are names derived from places haunted by the muses. There is a fountain called Castalia, at the foot of Mount Parnassus. The Castalides are the nymphs that inhabit this fountain. Not one of the nine muses, the name is generally applied to all of them.

The fountain of Castalia was sacred to Apollo. Castalia was a nymph who threw herself down a well to escape his amorous advances. The Pythian priestesses bathed in the waters of this spring, before delivering their oracles of the god.

In the Music room at Monserrate there were 16 spandrels to be filled with medallions and busts; so a few extras were needed. The use of these general names seems to imply that at Monserrate there were many muses, not just the famous nine. The muses were nymphs that inhabited springs and fountains, and each part of the garden has its own denizen.

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