The idea of these two fountains is perhaps taken from Claudian’s picture of the gardens of Venus:
Labuntur gemini fontes: hic dulcis; amarus
Alter, et infusis corrumpit mella venenis;
Unde Cupidineas armavit Fama sagittas.
Two fountains glitter to the solar beam;
This spouts a sweet, and that a bitter stream;
Where Cupid dips his darts, as poets dream.
The idea of miraculous fountains, originating probably in the physical effects of some waters, (since a small substratum of truth is sufficient foundation for a lie), seems to have been a favourite classical fiction, as exemplified in the two springs in Bœotia, of which one was supposed to increase, and the other to take away, the memory. The belief in these was rife during the middle ages, and indeed extended to a later period; as we find the early discoverers reported, among other wonders, a fountain of youth.
It is possible, moreover, that with the idea of Claudian’s two fountains may have been mixed up that of Cupid’s two arrows, one of lead and the other of gold; of which the golden one was supposed to instil love, and the leaden hate.
