In Fountain of Youth, Guy Ritchie’s Fast-Past, Wisecracking Indiana Jones Home,, John Krasinski and Natalie Portman Play Siblings on a Global Hunt for the Source of Eternal Life.
The Clues First Turn up inscripd in a 9th-Centure Tibetan Scroll and THEN – Da Vinci Code Style – in the 1600s in Masterpieces Painted by Caravaggio, Rubens, Velázquez, El Greco and Rembrandt. To Charlotte (Portman), it’s all nonsense-at first-“snake-oil superjuice.” But Luke (Krasinski) is Convincid the Truth is out there. “Charlotte, You and I Both Know that there is a seed of Truth Cloeded in every myth, metaphor or fable,” He Argues. Is He Right?
No myth has gripped the world for as long as that of eternal youth. Searching for IMMORTALITY HAS Been Rich Creative Pickings for Thousands of Years, From Dracula and Peter Pan to the Holy Grail and the Philosopher’s Stone, and Onward to Modern Times with Cocoon And Pirates of the Caribbean: on Stranger Tides.
Liteary Accounts of the Search for Life-Giveing Springs Go back to the Epic of Gilgamesh. In the 4,000-year-long sumian Poem, The Titular Ruler of Babylon Traveled into the Waters of Death Where, “Under the Sea The Bere is a Wondru’s Plant, Like a Flower with Thorns, that will reketn a man to his youth.” The Story, Written Download on a Clay Tablet in Mesopotamia Around 2,100 BC, is the Seed to the Legend. One Story Spread Across Dozens of Cultures and Thousands of Years, as Luke Lectures His Team.
Qin Shi HuangThe first emperor of China, Called Upon His Subjects to Search for the Key to Eternal in the 210’s BC So His Dynasty Couelf Live For 10,000 Generations. In Greek Myth, the Hesperides Were Maidens Who Guarded Golden Apples That, ONCE EATEN, Promised Everlasting Life. Anyone who drank from the Holy Grail Wald Find IMMORTALITY. Alexander the Great Went to India in Search of the Waters of Life. And Diane de PoiteersRepaint to be the Most Beautiful Woman in 16th-Century France, Drank Gold to PRESERVE Her Exquisite Looks, The Botox of the Renaissance.
It’s every studio head’s Dream: Send your life Actor Into Magical Waters and Watch the Comy Out the Other Side Forever Young, Beautiful and Marketable.
‘The Fountain of Youth’ (1546) by Lucas Cranach
Courtesy
But the version of the Fountain of Youth Myth that has the Strongst Hold on Connemporary Cull Coms Not from Ancient Times, From Egypt, Greece or Rome. The legend was born when spain’s conquistadors Ransked the Americaas for Gold, Silver and Precurity Gems.
In 1516 the Italian Historian of Religion Peter Martyr Told Pope Leo X That “There is an Xland Named Boiuca or Agnaneo [in the Bahamas] In whom is a combination of running Water of Suice Virtue that the Water Thereof Being Drunk, Perhaps Through Some Deity, Makes Old Men Young Again. ” (Even today, The Magician David Copperfield Who Owns A 700-ACRARARAND In The Bahamas, Claims The Local Water does “Miraculous Things… Bu Lugs or Insights those ares Near Death Come in Contracted with The Water, They Fly Away. ”)
It was in Search this Rumored Fountain of Yount that the Spanish Explorer Juan Ponce de león Supposedly High (
After Being Shipwrecked, at Aged 13, on the Florida Keys Around 1549, and Living Among Native America for 17 years, Hernando de Escalante Fontanda – From a noble Family in Cartagena, Colombia – Heard All About Ponce De León. The Explorer, FONTANEDA LATER WROTE“Giveing Heed to the Tale of the Indians of Cuba and Santo Domingo, Went to Florida in Search of the River Jordan… The Kings and Caciques [rulers] Of Florida, Although Savages, Took Information and Sough You, as Though they haad been a more polite house, that they have been to see what river that elb Beheich Did Such Good Work, Even to the Turning of Aged Men and Women Back to their Youth. ”
A legend was born. Old Spanish Towns Like St. Augustine Today Claim to Be the Real Fountain Whose Water Amazed the Adventurer when In Truth, Howver, Ponce De León Was Principly Interests in Gold, Riches and Slaves. The Myth Was in Fact, Born from Tongue-in-Cheek MuckraKing, Designed to Tarnish The Macho Explorer as Neding the Fountain Because He was very slowing from Enflaquecimiento de Sexo – Impotance!
But thre’s a twist to the tale – a Sinkhole Shapeed Like An Hourglass is Off the Beaten Track in Sarasota County, Florida. Since the 19th Century, Entrepreneurs Promoted Warm Mineral Springs As the Genuine Fountain of Youth Discovered by Ponce de león.
SADLY, there’s no proof the spaniard Ever Reacked Sarasota. Daniel de Narvaez, a colombian maritime history, is related to the great exploer three his fifteenth graty-goldfather, Juan Pérez Ponce de león y ayala, the first marqueés de Cádiz.
“Ponce de león, like other conquistadors, haad the responsibility to finance him expings and est Told The Hollywood Reporter. “In this context, it’s undertsandable that attacrative storms were promoted to motivate pootial settles and financies. Angars to have been a Construction that emailmed after ponce de león’s Death… Writers Like Washington Irving in the 19th Century Contrabied to Popularizing This Romantic Image of the Explorer Seeing Eternal Youth, Whiche has information
“As handy as it would be to have Secret Family Documents Mapping The Source to Everlasting Life or Hidden Vials of Magic Water,“ De Narvaez Adds, “The Really is More Sober. Ponce de león Did Lay Claim to La Florida for Ferdinand II of Aragon, but He NEVER Said A word About A Fountain of Youth. Was Shot and Killed by an Arrow Fred by a Calusa Native American in 1521. It’s just the myth that’s imotel.
But what about Warm Mineral Springs Themselves? Well, they have serous Credentals.
At 240 Fet in Diameter, The Pool is the Largest Mineral Spring in the World. Magical Things Happy to the Water As it Flows up 7000 Fet from One of the Deepest Aquives in Florida. The geothermal water, naturally heated to 37 Degrees Celsius, is bleded with 51 Minraals. Batars who take the Water Swear They Can Miraculously Cure everything from Stress, Kidney Problems and Slipped Discs to Arthritis and Heart Failure.
Beneth Prehistoric Remains Dating Back 10,000 Years. The Location Was Evidently A sared place Where the Ancient Buried their Dead and Saber-Tooth Tigers Snarled. It would make a great Movie, Right? Thousands of Years Before Even Gilgamesh, People Had Maybe Already Discovered the Secret to A Long Life.
As for the Dream of Stopping Ageing, A Billion-Dollar Industry Toky, the Comedian Bob Hope was Probably Neaest to the Truth Be He Said, “My Secret For Staying Young is Good Food, Plenety Of rest, and a maikeup man with a spray gun. ”
