This freshwater fountain is unusual because it is fed by a spring and is flowing right next to the ocean. Legend says this is why the city was built here. It has captured the imagination for millennia, making the fountain famous in legends and literature. Since ancient times the fountain was cited by poets and writers such as Ovid, Virgil, and John Milton.

In ancient Greek myth, the origin of the spring was attributed to the fate of a nymph, Arethusa, who was transformed by the goddess Artemis into a spring to escape the stalking courtship of the sea god Alpheus (son of Oceanus).
He, in despair, was in turn transformed into a river by Zeus and succeeded in this way to finally mix his water with that of Arethusa.

There is also wild papyrus growing in the middle.