In a field of the Cares of Hispania sprout two sources a couple of the other, the one all rejects it, all the other absorbs it. Among the same people another source presents all your fish gold color, being so that outside them anything are distinguished from others this enigmatic phrase wrote the Roman historian Pliny in his Naturalis history when referring to ancient Cantabria. Eutimio Martino in his book Rome against Cantabrians and asturians managed partly decipher us this enigma. This historian, of sajambriego origin, arrives more far and identifies Juansabeli with Fonte Sacra Belli, i.e. the sacred source of the war.
The so-called sources of war were the places where the Cantabrian tribes met in Assembly at those ten long years, in which, at the same time that the astures, fought against the invasion of the Romans. It is known that these tribes, those warriors, unable to raise a battle field open to the powerful Roman legions, and faced with the advance of these, refuge is in Mons Vindius) Monte blanco), a would where, according to them, arrive before the waves of the sea that the legions of Roma.Aunque there is no unanimity as to the location of Vindio, it is very possible that were the Picos de Europa, (for snows, by then) and therefore of our land is at this time of the Vindio siege, when the Romans built routes of entry driveways, one of which is the road of Caoru in order to rob these inaccessible mountains and subdue these indomitable warriors. It is necessary, before continuing our narration, clarify that the Cantabrian adjective means inhabitant of the mountains, and the Cantabria at that time came from the current Castro Urdiales to the River Sella. Our Cabrales consisted, therefore in the pre-Roman Cantabria. And Cabrales is where that river that Cantabrian mythology, presented its gold color fish is located: is none other than the River Casano, another of the so-called sources of war. These fish showed that color because it mimetizaban with the stones on the bottom of the River.
But the myth does not end there because among those same people believed that those fish that drew ground coinciding with the birth of the first Primroses (springs abundant in our environment flower), they became gold and this was the highest trophy that is awarded to the most thrown and courageous warriors. The legend of river Casano still holds for us more surprises: was, for those tribes, a sacred river from its birth in the mother Oyu, in the land of Onis. The mother’s Oyu name makes reference to the myth of the birth of mother earth. This is something that we also find in Greek mythology, when Rhea, the mother of the gods, tells him to Gaia, the Earth: Gaia, beloved, gives birth to you too, that the pains of childbirth are lightweight. He said and goddess tending to atop his vast arm struck the mountain with the sceptre. That was divided into two halves and there sprang a great stream of water. (Callimachus of Cyrene: hymn to Zeus) Cabrales, territory of myths…and also of rites, but this, of the rites, discussed on another occasion. You can read more articles and stories like this on our blog about Cabrales, esCabrales.