Egeria

Aricia becomes the setting for Egeria's retreat after Numa's death. His passing is mourned in the city by matrons, people and senators; Egeria, his wife, instead hides in a valley. Her grief reaches the sanctuary: cries and lamentation disrupt Diana's rites there, a worship said to have been brought to Aricia by Orestes. The Nymphs associated with the grove and lake try repeatedly to quiet her. Hippolytus joins them, asking her to view her loss among the calamities others endure. He offers his own experience as a comparison, while wishing another example could lighten her burden. These efforts fail to ease her mourning.

At the hill's foot, Egeria continues to cry. Her story ends not in comfort but in a change of form: moved by Egeria's attachment, Diana reshapes her as a spring. The water is cool; Egeria's limbs dissolve into a stream whose movement does not end.