A Nymph of Latium, the personification of song. She was married to King Picus, who ruled over Laurentum, south of Ostia, and they loved each other deeply. One day during a hunt the sorceress Circe saw Picus and fell in love with him; to separate him from his attendants she changed him into a wild boar, not doubting that she would later be able to change him back to his normal form. Picus, separated from his wife, grieved deeply; when Circe declared her love for him he repulsed her and in her anger she changed him into a green woodpecker. In the meantime Canens despaired; she wandered for six days and nights in search of Picus and finally collapsed, her strength finished, on the banks of the Tiber where she sang for the last time and then vanished into thin air.
{E2 DICTIONARY OF CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY}
Table of Sources
- Ovid, Met. 14, 320ff.
- See also Picus.