Cults Myths and Legends of Ancient Sicily
7.1  Nymphs and river gods: Ciane

Cyane was the nymph companion of Persephone (Demeter's daughter) who, in an attempt to oppose Pluto who wanted to kidnap Persephone, was transformed into a spring: the current Cyane stream which is found in Syracuse, where a temple was even built [1].

The connection between the cult of Cyane and that of Persephone is also drawn from the story of Diodorus [2] who, speaking of the journey of Hercules in Sicily, says that the hero placed one of his bulls in the source of Cyane in Syracuse to sacrifice it to Persephone, ordering the inhabitants to perform the same sacrifice every year in honour of Persephone and Cyane. It is probable that behind the sacrifice of the bull was hidden, in reality, the ancient memory of human sacrifices that were performed at the source, as often happened in oriental cultures. This fact and the reference to the Phoenician Hercules, would give an oriental imprint to the cult of Cyane.

The other version of the Ciane myth also has human sacrifice as its argument, seen as atonement for sins committed. It is said, in fact, that in Syracuse there lived a girl named Ciane, daughter of a certain Cianippo who one night, in a state of drunkenness, raped her daughter, thus staining herself with incest. The girl, during the violence, managed to tear off the ring that her father wore on his finger, allowing her, with great pain, to recognize the author of the rape the next day. In the meantime, having struck the plague on the city, the oracle of Apollo argued that to appease the epidemic a sacrifice was needed and the victim had to be guilty of incest. Ciane saw in this the sign of his destiny, he killed his father and then followed his fate by killing himself.

In Sicily, Diodorus [3] speaks of a temple dedicated to Ciane with reference to the events which saw the tyrant Dionysus oppose the Carthaginians who were at the gates of Syracuse in 396 BC. From excavations carried out in 1887 near the source of the river Ciane, on the Cozzo Scanderra hill , remains of a building in square masonry were found, which can probably be identified with the sanctuary cited by Diodorus [4].

[1] Diodorus Siculus lib. XIV.72

[2] Diodorus Siculus lib. IV.23

[3] Diodorus Siculus lib. XIV.72

[4] Biagio Bace: Art and Civilization of Ancient Sicily p. 464 vol III.