Album: Three Sides Live

The Fountain Of Salmacis

Hermaphrodite: a flower containing both male and female organs; a person or animal of both sexes.
The child Hermaphroditus was the son of Hermes and Aphrodite, the result of a secret love affair. For this reason he was entrusted to the nymphs of the isolated Mount Ida, who allowed him to grow up as a wild creature of the woods. After his encounter with the water-nymph Salmacis, he laid a curse upon the water. According to fable, all persons who bathed in the water became hermaphrodites.
From a dense forest of tall dark pinewood,
Mount Ida rises like an island.
Within a hidden cave, nymphs had kept a child;
Hermaphroditus, son of gods, so afraid of their love.
As the dawn creeps up the sky
The hunter caught sight of a doe.
In desire for conquest,
He found himself within a glade he'd not beheld before.
Hermaphroditus: Narrator:
";Where are you, my father? ";Then he could go no farther
Give wisdom to your son"; Now lost, the boy was guided by the sun";
And as his strength began to fail
He saw a shimmering lake.
A shadow in the dark green depths
Disturbed the strange tranquility.
Salmacis: Narrator:
";The waters are disturbed ";The waters are disturbed
Some creature has been stirred"; Naiad queen Salmacis has been stirred";
As he rushed to quench his thirst,
A fountain spring appeared before him
And as his heated breath brushed through the cool mist,
A liquid voice called, ";Son of gods, drink from my spring";.
The water tasted strangely sweet.
Behind him the voice called again.
He turned and saw her, in a cloak of mist alone
And as he gazed, her eyes were filled with the darkness of the lake.
Salmacis: Narrator:
";We shall be one ";She wanted them as one
We shall be joined as one"; Yet he had no desire to be one";
Hermaphroditus: ";Away from me cold-blooded woman
Your thirst is not mine";
Salmacis: ";Nothing will cause us to part
Hear me, O Gods";
Unearthly calm descended from the sky
And then their flesh and bones were strangely merged
Forever to be joined as one.
The creature crawled into the lake.
A fading voice was heard:
";And I beg, yes I beg that all who touch this spring
May share my fate";
Salmacis: Narrator:
";We are the one ";The two are now made one,
We are the one"; Demi-god and nymph are now made one";
Both had given everything they had.
A lover's dream had been fulfilled at last,
Forever still beneath the lake.