The Stuff of Legend

Little Pine Creek in Fall Run Park is in the most beautiful state of dress that I can recall in my 20 years of visiting with her.  This morning as I prepare for my walk, I listen to the weather report through the wall as my husband watches the news on KDKA in the next room.  November 2018 is one of the rainiest months we've had in Pittsburgh.  

Today as I looked on the main waterfall, I thought of the Greek myth of Artemis and Actaeon.  In the wilderness beneath a waterfall, Artemis was bathing naked with the Oceanids, beings who were charged by Zeus to protect Artemis, his daughter.  Nearby, the mighty hunter Actaeon sought prey with his pack of hunting dogs.  As he traversed the woods, he heard the sound of the waterfall mingling with the dulcet tones of laughter and singing from the virgin goddess and her maidens.  

Lured by the sweet music, he stepped into the creek where they frolicked.  The ripple in the water from his footprint alerted the women that they were no longer alone.  As they stepped from behind the waterfall to see who was there, Actaeon accidentally spied the virgin Artemis in her nakedness.  Enraged, she turned the hunter into a stag who was then hunted down and mauled by his own dogs.

The Big Sister embodies today the full range of her glory, bedecked in the finest of her wardrobe, and enrobed in luminescent swaths of water.  I can almost hear the voices of the Goddess Artemis and her virgin maids laughing behind the cascade's veil.  

I do not blame Actaeon for his misstep or for his accidental viewing of Artemis in her nakedness.  I cannot stay away from here for very long.  I can hardly turn my gaze from the falls nor can I turn a deaf ear to their song.