Cyane or Kyane was a naiad, a nymph presiding over freshwater bodies. According to Diodorus Siculus, her portion was the meadows about Enna in the centre of the island of Sicily. Cyane was present when Hades appeared and tried to save Persephone. She stood in water that circled her white thighs and beseeched Hades to ask Demeter’s permission rather than kidnap her daughter against her will. She then stretched her arms to shield Kore. But what could a single naiad do before the almighty ruler of the Underworld? Hades blazed with uncontrolled anger and vanished underground with his valuable prize. Cyane felt terrible that the goddess had been taken and dissolved in many tears. So many, in fact, that she wasted away: her nails got soft, her hair and fingers and legs melted in the pool, her breasts and back and shoulders dissolved and vanished into rivulets. According to the Roman poet Ovid “nothing that a hand could hold remained.” Diodorus Siculus claimed that Cyane was the name of a fountain (Azure Fount) that gushed forth on the spot where the earth opened to receive Hades and Persephone. When Heracles came by, on his way back with the cattle of Geryon, he instructed the locals to sacrifice bulls by plunging the beasts into the pool. Fortunately for the less well-off, private individuals could offer lesser victims.