What is "eunoe"

Eunoë, according to Greek mythology is a nymph, a daughter of the river god Sangarius, sometimes associated with Persephone as her mother. Eunoë is the wife of the Phrygian king Dymas, and the mother of Hecuba, the wife of King Priam of Troy.

Eunoe ( Greek: ) is a feature of Dante's Divine Comedy created by Dante as the fifth river of the dead (taking into consideration that Cocytus was described as a lake rather than a river). In the Purgatorio, the second cantica of Dante's poem, penitents reaching the Garden of Eden at the top of Mount Purgatory are first washed in the waters of the river Lethe in order to forget the memories of their mortal sins. They then pass through Eunoe to have the memories of their good deeds in life strengthened.

Upon completing his or her sentence in Purgatory, a soul is washed in the rivers Lethe and Eunoe (in that order) by Matilda. It is unclear who Matilda was in real life, but, nonetheless, her function is to cause the penitent to forget his or her sins (now that these sins have been purgated) and then sip from the waters of Eunoe so that the soul may enter heaven full of the strength of his or her life's good deeds.

In Purg. XXXIII, in the concluding lines of that canto and of the entire cantica, Dante makes particular reference to the dolce ber ("sweet draught") of Eunoe when he explains that he wished he possessed greater space to write of the water that "ne'er would satiate me."

The word "eunoe" is one of Dante's many neologisms presumably derived from Greek " eu-," meaning "good" and "noe," meaning "mind."

Eunoë, who was descended from Moors, was the wife of Bogudes, King of Mauretania, and a mistress of Julius Caesar, according to Suetonius. She may have replaced Cleopatra in Caesar's affections, when he arrived in North Africa prior to the Battle of Thapsus on April 6, 46 BC. Only a brief romance for the Roman, both Eunoe and Bogudes profited through gifts bestowed on them by Caesar.

Eunoe and Cleopatra were among several queens courted by Caesar. Caesar departed from Africa in June 46 BC, five and a half months after he landed.