Fountain of Youth

Entrance to Fountain of Youth Park

St. Augustine, Florida

OK so we all know about the legendary Fount of Youth that and the Spanish explorer, Ponce de leon, who was also the first Governor appointed to Puerto Rico. He led the first European expedition to the area (St. Augustine) he named Florida, in 1513; some have said in search of the magical fountain he would never find.

The Fountain of Youth wasn’t some new concept that just sprang up in the early 16^th century that suddenly gained prominence when the various Spanish explorers (including Chris Columbus) made contact with the inhabitance of the new found Americas.  So may-be everyone just looked in the wrong place.

Herodotus was a Greek historian who lived in the 5^th century BC (the 400’s); some of his writings mentions a fountain containing a very special kind of water located in the land of the Ethiopians, “which gives the Ethiopians their exceptional longevity”, or so he said. A story of the "Water of Life" appears in the Eastern versions of the stories which describe Alexander the Great, who lived from 356 to 323 BC, along with his servant crossing the “Land of Darkness” in search of the restorative spring.

The Land of Darkness is another mythical place where it’s always dark; some say this area is really located somewhere near the east coast of the Black Sea, perhaps within the Republic of modern day Abkhazia.

There are many other indirect sources for the legendary waters as well. Eternal youth is a gift frequently sought in myth as well as legend.  Such stories are common throughout both Europe and Asia and elsewhere in the world. The account of the Pool of Bethesda as reported in the Biblical text of the Gospel of John, in which Jesus heals a man at the pool located within Jerusalem, is yet another source for the strong belief in the reality of a Fountain of Youth.

Perhaps it should be noted that Ponce de León did not mention the Fountain in any of his written accounts of his Florida expedition; though he may well have heard of the Fountain and believed in it. Still, his name was not associated with the legend in writing until after his death. The connection was first made in 1535, in which it was written by a Spanish historian and writer alleging that Ponce de León was really looking for the waters of the fountain to cure his impotence.

Regardless, the early Spanish explorers must have not only been great plunders of gold and the many valuable artifacts found in the “new world”, as was effectively revealed by the absolute destruction of the Aztec Empire, but they must have been quite gullible or naive as well, as most reports of the era indicate Ponce de leon and others were advised of the Fountain of Youth’s location (along with much gold and silver) as being in Florida by the friendly natives, who would probably have made excellent jesters in any European Court of the day.

Sources …

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fountain_of_Youth                    http://www.fountainofyouthflorida.com/index.php