Editing Lotis (mythology) (section)

== Mythology ==
In [[Ovid]]'s ''[[Fasti (poem)|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.<ref>[[Ovid]], ''[[Fasti (poem)|Fasti]]'' [https://topostext.org/work/143#1.381 1.391 ff]</ref> 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 (daughter of Dryops)|Dryope]] picked a flower off the tree Lotis had become, and was transformed into a [[black poplar]].<ref>[[Ovid]], ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Ov.+Met.+9&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0028 9.347 ff]</ref> This narrative is only found in one more author, [[Servius (grammarian)|Servius]].<ref>[[Servius (grammarian)|Servius]], ''On Georgics'' [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2007.01.0092%3Abook%3D2%3Acommline%3D84 2.84]</ref>

In Book 6 of the ''Fasti'' Ovid tells much the same story, but with the goddess [[Vesta (mythology)|Vesta]] rather than Lotis as the intended victim. According to some sources, Lotis was the daughter of [[Nereus]].{{Citation needed|date=October 2021}} Ovid suggests that Priapus later kills the donkey.

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 [[Nelumbo nucifera|Indian lotus]] and the [[Nymphaeaceae|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.<ref name="ann" /><ref name="will">{{cite book | page = [https://books.google.com/books?id=0RUhlNVR758C&pg=PA442 442] | title = Metamorphoses | author = Ovid | author-link = Ovid | translator = William S. Anderson | publisher = [[University of Oklahoma Press]] | isbn = 0-8061-1456-8 | date = 1972 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=0RUhlNVR758C}}</ref> 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).<ref name="ann">{{cite book | page = [https://books.google.com/books?id=AUgkBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA123 123] | title = The Mythology of Plants: Botanical Lore from Ancient Greece and Rome | first = Annette | last = Giesecke | publisher = [[Getty Publications]] | date = April 1, 2014 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=AUgkBAAAQBAJ | isbn = 978-1606063217}}</ref> Servius, on the other hand, writes that Lotis became the tree.