Sea, so the legends tell us, was once a gigantic lake that grew from a single tear.
One day, during the first winter cycle, many aeons ago, Sun and Moon were fighting over who was the most pleasing to the creatures living on the planet below.
Sun claimed that, because she gave the world warmth, she was the best.
Moon argued that, because she bathed the planet in her splendid silver light, she was the most pleasing.
And so they quarrelled, back and forth, neither giving way. Until one day Sun, losing her temper and being the more powerful of the two, banished Moon to the night cycle.
Alone and unhappy, Moon cried and cried, her tears falling through the dark night skies onto the earth below. Every night when Moon rose, she would look about her lonely domain and begin to weep again.
As time passed, Moon’s tears began to form a lake, which grew at a steady rate, driving all before it.
Seeing this and feeling sorry for what she had done to her friend, Sun tried to make amends.
Breaking off myriad small pieces of herself, Sun threw them into the night sky so that Moon might not feel so alone and sad. These brilliant points of light, twinkling against the deep dark background, delighted Moon so much that she finally stopped her crying.
But by now the lake of tears had become so huge that it threatened to drown all those living on the lands below.
The Prime Mover, seeing the threat to Her creatures, gathered the tears and split them into seven portions. naming them: Adriatic, Aegean, Alboran, Balearic, Black, Corsica, Ionian and Tyrrhenian, placing each in its own special location.
Having finished her work, The Prime Mover sprinkled them with salt to assuage their anger at being confined in such small spaces and left them in peace.
The seas were unhappy at being split into parts this way but could do little to rejoin their companions, although now and then - when the winds lent them strength - they would try their best, crashing against the shore-line with angry swipes.
Moon now visits the seas every night, and they are always glad to see her, bulging up, keen to be caressed by her golden essence, wanting to be at one with her once more.
But when Sun slowly slides her red fringes across the morning sky, Moon is forced to take her leave, calming the seas with soft words and gentle pats.
And this is as it should be, for if sea were ever to escape, it would wash away all the lands, and with them, all life.