The nymph Egeria met Numa Pompilius by night in her sacred grove near the Porta Capena, whispering the divine laws and rituals he would impose on Rome. When Numa died, she dissolved into tears and was transformed into a spring by Diana.
The nymph Egeria was associated with Diana's sacred grove at Nemi. In Ovid's Metamorphoses, after King Numa's death, the grieving Egeria fled to Diana's grove, where the goddess transformed her into a spring.
After Numa died, the nymph Egeria fled Rome and withdrew to the dense woods around Lake Nemi, where her ceaseless weeping so disturbed Diana's rites that the goddess transformed her into a cool spring flowing through the sacred grove.
The nymph Egeria guided King Numa Pompilius in establishing Rome's religious institutions, including the order of the Vestal Virgins and the Temple of Vesta.
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