The girls noticed all the coins in the fountain and asked me, "Why is there money in here?" I stumbled for words. "People think it gives them good luck?" I happened to have my ipod in my pocket, and there was a wifi network in the gallery, so I googled "throwing coins in fountain" and it pulled up a New York Times article that cited one of the Met historians on the origin of the practice:
I learned something, and enjoyed yet another trip to the Met.Joan Mertens, the Met’s curator of Greek and Roman art, came up with a story, appropriately enough, from ancient Greece. Amasis, the king of Egypt in the sixth century B.C., predicted trouble for his ally Polykrates unless Polykrates showed some humility. Amasis, Ms. Mertens said, told Polykrates he should throw into the sea his most valued possession: an emerald ring.
“Sort of as proof or a sign, someone in Polykrates’s household came in with a big fish who had the ring in his stomach,” she said, “so it came back to him.”
From that, she said, came the notion of “casting away something that is meaningful to you, and if you’re lucky, you will be reunited with it.”
Andrew Dahl: Can't wait to see you guys again in just over a week..
- July 29, 2010 12:34AM