View source for Lotis (mythology)

{{Short description|Greek mythological figure}}
{{About|the mythological nymph|genus of ladybird|Lotis (beetle)}}
{{Infobox deity
| type = Greek
| name = Lôtis
| deity_of = Lotus-[[nymph]]
| member_of = [[Nereids]]
| image = Giovanni Bellini and Titian - The Feast of the Gods - Detail- figures right & tub with script.jpg
| alt = 
| caption = Priapus and Lotis, detail of ''[[The Feast of the Gods]]'' by [[Giovanni Bellini]] (c. 1514)
| other_names = 
| affiliation = 
| cult_center = 
| abode = Dryopia
| consort = [[Priapus]] ''(wooer)''
| parents = [[Nereus]]
| siblings = 
| offspring = 
| predecessor = 
| successor = 
| Roman_equivalent = 
| Etruscan_equivalent = 
}}
{{Greek deities (water)}}

In [[Greek mythology]], '''Lotis''' ([[Ancient Greek]]: Λωτίς) was a [[nymph]] mentioned by [[Ovid]].<ref>[[Ovid]], ''[[Fasti (poem)|Fasti]]'' [https://topostext.org/work/143#1.415 1.416] & [https://topostext.org/work/143#1.415 1.423]; ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Ov.+Met.+9&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0028 9.347]</ref>

== Mythology ==
In [[Ovid]]'s ''[[Fasti (poem)|Fasti]]'', at the [[Liberalia]] festival, [[Priapus]] tried to rape the nymph Lotis when everyone had fallen asleep, but she was awakened by a sudden cry of [[Silenus]]'s donkey and ran off, leaving Priapus in embarrassment as everyone else woke up too and became aware of his intentions.<ref>[[Ovid]], ''[[Fasti (poem)|Fasti]]'' [https://topostext.org/work/143#1.381 1.391 ff]</ref> In another work of his however, the ''[[Metamorphoses]]'', Lotis escaped Priapus only when she was changed into a lotus, either a plant or the [[lotus tree]]; later, [[Dryope (daughter of Dryops)|Dryope]] picked a flower off the tree Lotis had become, and was transformed into a [[black poplar]].<ref>[[Ovid]], ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Ov.+Met.+9&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0028 9.347 ff]</ref> This narrative is only found in one more author, [[Servius (grammarian)|Servius]].<ref>[[Servius (grammarian)|Servius]], ''On Georgics'' [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2007.01.0092%3Abook%3D2%3Acommline%3D84 2.84]</ref>

In Book 6 of the ''Fasti'' Ovid tells much the same story, but with the goddess [[Vesta (mythology)|Vesta]] rather than Lotis as the intended victim. According to some sources, Lotis was the daughter of [[Nereus]].{{Citation needed|date=October 2021}} Ovid suggests that Priapus later kills the donkey.

What the 'lotus' (if not the tree), that Lotis turned into is, has stirred much debate. Ovid describes it as having reddish-purple flowers and growing near water; the [[Nelumbo nucifera|Indian lotus]] and the [[Nymphaeaceae|water lily]] have both been suggested but also rejected by a number of scholars on account of them growing ''in'' water and not ''near'' it.<ref name="ann" /><ref name="will">{{cite book | page = [https://books.google.com/books?id=0RUhlNVR758C&pg=PA442 442] | title = Metamorphoses | author = Ovid | author-link = Ovid | translator = William S. Anderson | publisher = [[University of Oklahoma Press]] | isbn = 0-8061-1456-8 | date = 1972 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=0RUhlNVR758C}}</ref> Counter-arguments in favour of those plants include the fact that while they are rooted in sediments of water bodies, they do not grow in water over eight feet deep (that is, they grow in very shallow water).<ref name="ann">{{cite book | page = [https://books.google.com/books?id=AUgkBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA123 123] | title = The Mythology of Plants: Botanical Lore from Ancient Greece and Rome | first = Annette | last = Giesecke | publisher = [[Getty Publications]] | date = April 1, 2014 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=AUgkBAAAQBAJ | isbn = 978-1606063217}}</ref> Servius, on the other hand, writes that Lotis became the tree.

==In art==
The story does not seem to feature in [[Ancient Greek vase-painting]], and only occasionally in later art. Priapus and Lotis appear in the right foreground of ''[[The Feast of the Gods]]'' by [[Giovanni Bellini]] (c. 1514),<ref>Bull, 242</ref> in an [[engraving]] by [[Giovanni Battista Palumba]] (c. 1510), and a drawing by [[Parmigianino]] of the 1530s. Bellini keeps Priapus's aroused state visible under his clothes,<ref>Hall, 253</ref> Palumba has it out in the open, as Parmigianino originally did, but this has been altered subsequently,<ref>Bayer, 196; [http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=715864&partId=1 British Museum collection database]</ref> as very explicit details often were in art. There are also some depictions of Lotis as a tree.<ref>Bayer, 196</ref>

== Gallery ==
<gallery mode="packed">
File:Wilton Album, folio 10a- Priapus and Lotis MET DP822195.jpg|alt=|''Priapus and Lotis'' by Wilton Album
File:Palumba lotis.jpg|alt=|The story of [[Priapus]] and Lotis, engraving by [[Giovanni Battista Palumba]], c. 1510
File:Tintoretto, tavole per un soffitto a palazzo pisani in san paterniano a venezia, 1541-42, priapo insidia lotide addormentata.jpg|alt=|''<nowiki>''Priapo Insidia Lotide Addormentata''</nowiki>'' by [[Tintoretto]]
</gallery>

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
*Bayer, Andrea, ''Art and Love in Renaissance Italy'', 2008, Metropolitan Museum of Art, {{ISBN|1588393003}}, 9781588393005, [https://books.google.com/books?id=-X3eGY5W1WkC&pg=PA196 google books]
*Bull, Malcolm, ''The Mirror of the Gods, How Renaissance Artists Rediscovered the Pagan Gods'', Oxford UP, 2005, {{ISBN|0195219236}}
*Hall, James, ''Hall's Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art'', 1996 (2nd edn.), John Murray, {{ISBN|0719541476}}
*[[Ovid|Publius Ovidius Naso]], ''Fasti'' translated by James G. Frazer. [https://topostext.org/work/143 Online version at the Topos Text Project.]
*Publius Ovidius Naso, ''Fasti.'' Sir James George Frazer. London; Cambridge, MA. William Heinemann Ltd.; Harvard University Press. 1933. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:2008.01.0547 Latin text available at the Perseus Digital Library].
*[[Ovid|Publius Ovidius Naso]], ''Metamorphoses'' translated by Brookes More (1859–1942). Boston, Cornhill Publishing Co. 1922. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0028 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.]
*Publius Ovidius Naso, ''Metamorphoses.'' Hugo Magnus. Gotha (Germany). Friedr. Andr. Perthes. 1892. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0029 Latin text available at the Perseus Digital Library].

{{Metamorphoses in Greek mythology}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Nereids]]
[[Category:Metamorphoses into trees in Greek mythology]]
[[Category:Metamorphoses into flowers in Greek mythology]]