In Greek mythology, Lotis (Ancient Greek: Λωτίς) was a nymph mentioned by Ovid.Ovid, Fasti 1.416 & 1.423; Metamorphoses 9.347
Mythology In Ovid's 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.Ovid, Fasti 1.391 ff 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 picked a flower off the tree Lotis had become, and was transformed into a black poplar.Ovid, Metamorphoses 9.347 ff This narrative is only found in one more author, Servius.Servius, On Georgics 2.84
In Book 6 of the Fasti Ovid tells much the same story, but with the goddess Vesta rather than Lotis as the intended victim. According to some sources, Lotis was the daughter of Nereus. Ovid suggests that Priapus later kills the donkey.
Analysis 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 Indian lotus and the 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. 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). 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),Bull, 242 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,Hall, 253 Palumba has it out in the open, as Parmigianino originally did, but this has been altered subsequently,Bayer, 196; British Museum collection database as very explicit details often were in art. There are also some depictions of Lotis as a tree.Bayer, 196
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References Bayer, Andrea, Art and Love in Renaissance Italy, 2008, Metropolitan Museum of Art, , 9781588393005, google books Bull, Malcolm, The Mirror of the Gods, How Renaissance Artists Rediscovered the Pagan Gods, Oxford UP, 2005, Hall, James, Hall's Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art, 1996 (2nd edn.), John Murray, Publius Ovidius Naso, Fasti translated by James G. Frazer. 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. Latin text available at the Perseus Digital Library. Publius Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoses translated by Brookes More (1859–1942). Boston, Cornhill Publishing Co. 1922. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Publius Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoses. Hugo Magnus. Gotha (Germany). Friedr. Andr. Perthes. 1892. Latin text available at the Perseus Digital Library.