He height-
ened the interest of the battle by declaring that the boulder proved
ineffectual and he related the anger of Mars more definitely to the
subsequent tales of Thebes.
ened the interest of the battle by declaring that the boulder proved
ineffectual and he related the anger of Mars more definitely to the
subsequent tales of Thebes.
Ovid - 1934 - Metamorphoses in European Culture - v1
But by Alexandrian times the re-
semblance was observed, and, although Europa had gone only to the
outlying island of Crete, she was supposed to have given her name to
the entire continent with which Crete was then associated.
Profiting by this new idea, Moschus retold the myth in an elaborate
and beautiful form. He carefully related the abduction to the future
name of the continent and made it the result of well planned action by
several deities. While telling of the events in the meadow he expanded
the earlier account pleasantly and gave an interesting description of
the bull. The creature cast the spell by licking Europa's neck. As
she was being carried over the sea, Moschus continued, Europa la-
mented her fate, and the bull replied, informing her of his identity and
her illustrious future. This version inspired a treatment by Horace.
But Horace imagined that Europa did not complain until after reach-
ing Crete and that she was reassured by Venus. From Moschus Ovid
may have taken some details for his Fasti, including the idea that
Europa's name suggested the name of the continent.
A different version of the myth had been implied by Herodotus. He
made Europa the daughter of Agenor, king of Sidon, and the sister
of Cadmus, who later founded Thebes. Her brothers, Cadmus and Cilix,
he said, had been sent out to recover her. In the Phcenissce, Euripides
made further changes. Phoenix, he declared, was not Europa's father
but a third brother, and Europa's great-great grandmother was Io.
The Manual repeated this genealogy, adding that the mother of
Europa was Telephassa. It retold the story given in the Catalogues
but said nothing of Jupiter's using magic. Not only the brothers, but
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK II
Telephassa and a youth named Thasus, took part in the quest. This
account Nicander repeated. He may have added that, after Jupiter
brought the princess to Crete, the bull entered heaven as the constella-
tion Taurus. This event Ovid was to use in his Fasti.
In ancient art the myth was exceedingly popular. It appeared in
sculpture, painting, and representations of jewelry and coins.
In the Metamorphoses Ovid assumed that his readers were familiar
with the tale. He began abruptly with the arrival of Jupiter in the
field; gave no account of Europa's attractiveness; and did not even
mention her name. He felt the incongruity of the great god Jupiter's
descending to a clandestine love affair and was amused at his un-
dignified masquerade as a bull. The outline of the tale he took from
the Manual. But the white color and pleasing appearance of the bull
and the yellow sand of the shore he found in works of art. Realizing
the improbability of Europa's trusting herself to an unknown bull,
Ovid tried to make the incident plausible. He took care to show that
the creature was very mild and that Europa was at first a little afraid
and only gradually became so bold as to ride on his back. For the
brief description of the voyage Ovid turned again to a work of art.
A better description he reserved for the tale of Arachne (Bk. 6) and
the Fasti. In the tale of Scylla (Bk. 8) he added that Europa was
the mother of King Minos of Crete.
In later times the story of Europa continued to be very popular.
Many of its details could be gathered from the Fasti and numerous
references in Ovid's other poems; but the Metamorphoses afforded the
most convenient, and during many centuries the only, source of in-
formation for the story as a whole.
Dante, looking down from the constellation of the Twins, beheld
the Earth from Cadiz eastward almost to the shore where Europa
made herself a welcome load. Chaucer referred to the story twice in
his Troilus. Spenser, describing a pageant of the seasons, said of
April
Upon a bull he rode, the same which led
Europa floating through the Argolic floods;
His horns were gilden all with golden studs,
And garnished with garlands goodly dight
Of all the fairest flowers and freshest buds
Which the earth brings forth; and wet he seemed in sight
With waves, through which he waded for his Love's delight.
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? EUROPA AND JUPITER
Shakespeare was impressed chiefly by the undignified metamorphosis
of Jove and often used it as a matter for jest. He referred to it in
The Merry Wives of Windsor, Much Ado About Nothing, and Troilus
and Cressida. But he treated the myth seriously in the following
lines from his Taming of the Shrew
O yes, I saw sweet beauty in her face,
Such as the daughter of Agenor had
That made great Jove to humble him to her hand,
When with his knees he kissed the Cretan strand;
Hawthorne used Ovid's description of the bull and of the stages by
which Europa was persuaded to mount on his back for a delightful
version in The Wonder Book. Landor retold the tale in his poem
Europa and Her Mother. Ovid's myth inspired in part a carefully
finished lyric of Andre Chenier and this in turn suggested the Europa
of Victor Hugo.
In modern art the myth was a favorite theme. Filarete sculptured
Europa riding on the bull for a door panel of St. Peter's. The story
was treated in various ways by the painters Riccio, Albani, Titian,
Van Baelen, Van Poelenburgh, Le Clerc, Claude Lorrain, and Genelli.
It suggested two pictures by Guido Reni and two of Moreau. It in-
spired masterpieces of Paolo Veronese and Rubens, and Boucher de-
picted it in one of six glorious tapestries entitled The Loves of the
Gods.
For the Second Book Ovid used many tales which were old and
often treated in Greek literature. But he combined them with others
which were of purely Alexandrian origin. Although seldom men-
tioned by Roman authors, the stories were often familiar to Ovid's
contemporaries and allowed him to take much for granted. In every
tale he followed an Alexandrian version. The Manual helped him
occasionally; but his chief source was Nicander.
In the treatment of his material, much adjustment was necessary.
Although Ovid found a number of tales combined by Nicander, many
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK II
others were quite unrelated. Ovid needed often to supply the con-
nection, to arrange the stories in order of time, and to beware of in-
consistency with other parts of his work. In almost every case he had
to avoid duplication of material which he was to use for the Fasti.
The story as told by Ovid's predecessor was often brief and dry: Ovid
had to animate the characters; reveal the motive; and describe the
scene. When possible he borrowed from other great poets--the Iliad,
Euripides, Callimachus, and Vergil and often he profited by ancient
works of art. But even while borrowing he frequently improved what
he took and quite as often he relied on his own invention.
Although some stories were hardly noticed by later times, the book
as a whole had an important effect. It influenced authors such as
Andre Chenier and Blackmore, who seem otherwise to have ignored
Ovid entirely. Many tales interested Dante and Shakespeare and
some affected markedly the work of Chaucer, Spenser, Corneille, and
Milton. Addison translated the entire book. Macaulay pronounced
it by far the best in the poem.
Modern painters showed special fondness for the Second Book and
created from it a number of masterpieces.
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? BOOK THREE
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? BOOK THREE
Four cities became especially prominent in the lore of prehistoric
Greece--Argos, Thebes, Athens, and Troy. About their dimly re-
membered past gathered remarkable tales of the royal family under
which each was supposed to have been established; to have grown in
power; and sometimes to have fallen. Even in oral tradition, indi-
vidual myths probably became related somewhat to one another.
Greek poets retold them singly or in groups; Greek prose writers
began to organize them with regard for chronological order; and at
length the Manual recorded four quite elaborate mythical histories,
each narrating the supposed adventures of a royal family from the
founding of the city to the dawn of recorded history.
Through Greek poetry and the Manual Ovid was familiar with the
myths that had gathered round all four of these storied cities. They
offered him many tales of marvellous transformation, which were
combined already with some regard for sequence of time. And at
many points the traditions of one city were related to those of the
others. It was possible to use one or more of the most attractive
stories from the lore of a given city and then pass without special
difficulty to attractive stories in the tradition of another. For his
Metamorphoses, Ovid selected good stories from the mythology of all
these famous cities. Argos furnished him the tale of Io (Bk. 1) and
many adventures of Perseus (Bks. 4--5). Thebes, Athens, and Troy
proved even more congenial. From them he chose so many stories
that he made each tradition the chief subject for two books of his
poem and he retold a considerable part of their history. The first
tradition to which he gave prominence was that of Thebes.
In Greek literature Theban myth received attention from the begin-
ning and soon became famous. The subject included adventures of
the royal family from Cadmus to the fall of the city and also the
eventful careers of the wise Tiresias and the mighty Hercules. To
Theban stories the Iliad and the Odyssey referred more than once.
The Oedipodaa and the Epigoni related at some length the strange
and terrible misfortunes of Oedipus and his successors at the close of
Theban history. The Theogony and the Shield of Hercules told still
other stories, dealing especially with adventures of Hercules. And
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK III
Pindar often recalled the traditional glories of his native city. These
poets took special interest in the closing period of Theban history.
For the great drama of Athens Theban myth proved a storehouse
of tragic material. It suggested many dramas of Aeschylus; it in-
spired masterpieces of Sophocles; and it provided Euripides with the
subjects of many interesting, though rather unsuccessful, plays.
Athenian drama treated almost the whole range of Theban myth; but,
like the older Greek poetry, it found most congenial the later period--
the misfortunes of Oedipus and his successors and the adventurous
career of Hercules.
The Alexandrians made further use of the famous tradition. Their
poets, anxious to avoid material which might seem too well known,
looked chiefly to myths in the earlier history of Thebes. Theocritus
and others retold individual tales with originality and charm. Nicander
found new versions for almost all the earlier tales and also for a num-
ber of the later ones.
Although Ovid profited gladly by Theban myth, he did not retell it
in full. Like the Alexandrians, he gave his attention chiefly to the
earlier tales. These he selected carefully and arranged in a new and
more effective order. The improved Theban material he treated in his
Third Book and about half of the Fourth. Then he passed to other
themes. But in later passages of his poem he used still other Theban
myths for his tales of Niobe (Bk. 6), the Teumessian Fox (Bk. 7), the
death of Orion's daughters (Bk. 13), and a few adventures of Her-
cules (Bk. 9).
Cadmus and the Deagon
A small company of Phoenicians appear to have made the original
settlement at Thebes. They established a citadel, known as the
Cadmea, and brought in a higher form of culture than any which had
existed before in central Greece. According to Aeschylus, they intro-
duced the worship of Mars. And with him they associated a common
Semitic belief that a snake was guardian of their spring. They re-
garded the creature as sacred to Mars and often spoke of it as his son.
Although the earliest settlers were Phoenician, they soon intermarried
with the natives and became a Greek people. The author of the Iliad
referred to them as inhabitants of the Cadmea and worshippers of
Mars. The Odyssey mentioned their enclosing the city with the
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? CADMUS AND THE DRAGON
famous wall and its seven gates. But thus far we hear nothing of
Cadmus.
A century or more later, his story appears in rather definite form.
The Theogony declared that Cadmus married Harmonia, daughter of
Mars and Venus, and that their children were four daughters named
Ino, Semele, Agave, and Autonoe and a son named Polydorus. This
part of the story was followed by all subsequent authors, including
Ovid.
Pindar added that the gods attended the wedding bringing gifts
but that the later life of Cadmus was unhappy through the misfor-
, tune of his daughters. Pindar alluded also to a tradition that some
of the Thebans were descended from the sacred snake.
This part of the tale was first recorded by the mythographer
Pherecydes. Cadmus, he said, had put the reptile to death. Then
Athena, coming to his aid, advised him to plant a number of the crea-
ture's teeth. A crop of fierce warriors grew up, and Cadmus in alarm
threw stones among them. The warriors, believing that their neigh-
bors had struck them, engaged in a sanguinary battle until only
Echion and four others were left. These Athena persuaded to make
peace and aid in the founding of Thebes. The rest of the teeth Athena
conveyed to Aeetes of Colchis, and later they were planted by Jason
(cf. Bk. 7).
In the PhosnisscB Euripides added many further details. Before
going to Thebes, he said, Cadmus had visited the Delphic Oracle and
learned that he was to follow an unbroken heifer and settle where she
lay down. Before founding the city, Euripides continued, Cadmus
desired to sacrifice the heifer, and while obtaining water for the cere-
mony, he met with the snake and crushed its head with a boulder.
Mars, resenting the loss of his favorite, was appeased only many
generations later by the voluntary death of a youth named Menceceus.
Apollonius agreed in all essential details with Pherecides and
Euripides. But Nicander made two important changes.
He height-
ened the interest of the battle by declaring that the boulder proved
ineffectual and he related the anger of Mars more definitely to the
subsequent tales of Thebes. Immediately after the battle, he said, the
god addressed Cadmus, indicating his displeasure and announcing
that later the hero himself was to become a snake. This change
allowed Nicander to relate the misfortunes of Cadmus' children and
grandchildren as effects of a single divine cause and to end the series
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK m
with the transformation predicted in the beginning. Ovid followed
both Nicander's innovations and he made the sudden warning im-
pressive. But he would have done better to make it clear that the
voice was that of Mars and that the prophecy referred to all the
ensuing tales. The prophecy should have been not only an effective
incident but the turning point in the cycle.
Meanwhile Herodotus had related Cadmus to Europa, and
Euripides had made him a descendant of Io. The Manual, after re-
peating and adding to this genealogy, declared that Agenor forbade
his sons to return without Europa. After a detailed account of the
search through Asia Minor and the Aegean isles, it recorded that
Cadmus settled in Thrace until the death of his mother. In the rest
of the tale the Manual differed from other versions considerably.
Cadmus, according to the Manual, did not travel alone, but was ac-
companied by other Phoenicians. After leaving the Delphic Oracle,
they wandered in a southeasterly direction for a considerable distance
and were entering the region later known as Boeotia, when they met
with the heifer. The district took its name from the famous cow.
Arriving at Thebes, Cadmus at first despatched his followers in search
of water. The snake destroyed the greater part of them. Then Cad-
mus himself battled with the reptile. After the warriors grew up
from the teeth, continued the Manual, a chance quarrel among them
may have led to the battle. Although Mars was offended at the death
of the, snake and its offspring, Cadmus appeased him by eight years'
service. The Manual added that Athena made Cadmus king of Thebes
and recorded the marriage of his three older daughters--Ino to Atha-
mas, Autonoe to Aristasus, and Agave to Echion.
From the Manual Ovid took the greater part of his tale. He
omitted the genealogy of Cadmus and all details of the quest for
Europa. The incidents of the oracle and the heifer he abridged and
he imagined that Cadmus found her immediately after leaving Delphi
and followed her from there to the site of his future citadel--an in-
credible distance. Ovid suggested effectively the awe and wonder of
Cadmus when he looked at the unfamiliar and beautiful country which
was to be his home.
Ovid reported that all the followers of Cadmus perished and so
made it more plausible that Athena should provide new followers
from the teeth. In describing the snake, he profited by Vergil's
memorable account of a serpent in the Cvlex, but he added many effec-
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? CADMUS AND THE DRAGON
tive details of his own and greatly magnified the creature's size and
power. In this he proceeded dangerously far: he made it unlikely
that a single warrior, even a giant, could overcome such a monster.
But this fault Ovid shared with Vergil and with many authors of later
times who wished to tell graphically of a hero overcoming a dragon.
The chief incidents of the battle and the prophecy of Mars, Ovid took
from Nicander.
In picturing the strange growth of warriors from the soil, Ovid
compared it to the gradual appearance of figures outlined on the
curtain of a theater. To the Romans the comparison would have
seemed happy and exact, for at the end of their performance the
curtain was drawn upward from the floor until it hid the stage. Such
apt illustration from the civilized life of his time Ovid was to use occa-
sionally in other parts of his poem. For his contemporaries, the
device was very effective; but for readers of a later time, it often was
made obscure by a change of fashion. The older poets of Greece and
Rome had followed the safer practice of using illustration from proc-
esses of nature or from general human experience.
During the subsequent battle of the warriors, Ovid was anxious to
make the conflict differ where possible from a similar combat in the
story of Jason (Bk. 7). Tradition had made the two battles alike,
except that five of the Theban warriors survived, while the Colchian
warriors were exterminated. Ovid introduced further changes. In
the Theban battle he described Cadmus as alarmed at the sudden ap-
pearance of the warriors; in the Colchian, he described the alarm of
the spectators. The Theban warriors, he said, warned Cadmus to
remain neutral and began their conflict with a chance quarrel: the
Colchians fought blindly when Jason hurled a stone. He recounted
the Theban battle in some detail but merely summarized the other.
The founding of Thebes, the marriage of Cadmus and Harmonia,
and the subsequent genealogy Ovid dismissed briefly. But he indicated
well the happy, prosperous state of Cadmus immediately after the
founding of the City. The early Athenian poet and statesman, Solon,
had observed that it is unwise to call any man happy before his death.
Sophocles repeated the idea impressively at the close of his Oedipus
and probably made it widely known among the later Greeks. With
this fitting proverb Ovid pointed forward from the tale of Cadmus
to those which were to follow.
In later times, Ovid's tale of Cadmus was well known. The Flamenca
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK in
named it as a favorite in thirteenth century Provence. In a sonnet to
Laura, Petrarch reminded himself that no man should be called happy
until his final day has sped. Tasso compared Armida rising from the
lake to a figure rising with the curtain of a theater. Camoens rebuked
the Europeans of his time for fighting like those warrior brothers
who sprang from the dragon's teeth sown by Cadmus. In Corneille's
Psyche, Agenor and Cleomene, recalling the example of Cadmus, found
courage to await a dragon.
Referring in the Areopagitica to censorship of books, Milton
granted that "they are as lively and as vigorously productive as those
fabulous dragon's teeth, and, being sown up and down, may chance
to spring up armed men. " In Paradise Lost he used Ovid's descrip-
tion of the snake for a fine portrayal of the Tempter approaching
Eve
Not with indented wave
Prone on the ground, but on his rear,
Circular base of rising folds, that towered
Fold above fold, a surging maze; his head
Crested aloft, and carbuncle his eyes;
With burnished neck of verdant gold, erect
Amid his circling spires, that on the grass
Floated redundant.
Hawthorne used Ovid in part for his own charming paraphrase of
the story. Cadmus and Athena were painted by Salvator Rosa.
Actaeon
After the marriage of Cadmus, the Manual had told of his daugh-
ters Semele and Ino, whose careers began happily but ended in disaster.
Both these tales Ovid reserved until later. He felt that the marriage
of Cadmus was the happiest moment and the turning point in the
hero's life. And, to make the idea of subsequent misfortune as
emphatic as possible, he recorded immediately afterward the tragic
fate of his grandson Acta? on.
This myth had been a favorite in Greek literature and art. The
cause of Action's strange misfortune was given variously. Stesichorus
declared that the youth had been a rival of Jupiter in the courtship of
Semele. As punishment, Jupiter caused him to offend Diana. The
goddess transformed Action into a stag and allowed him to perish
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? ACTAEON
by his own hounds. Aeschylus repeated the tale in a play, now lost.
In the fifth century B. C. , the Greeks had accepted a form of the
Theban myths which made Semele Actaeon's aunt. That Actaeon
should court her was no longer acceptable and so this part of the tale
was omitted. Actaeon was thought to have suffered only for his
offense against Diana.
According to Euripides in the Bacchce, Actaeon offended the god-
dess by declaring that he excelled her in hunting. But later it was
supposed ordinarily that he intruded on her accidentally while she
was bathing. This version Callimachus told in his Bath of Pallas.
He added that Actaeon had been a companion of the goddess in her
hunting. After the tragedy, he continued, Actaeon's father and
mother sought, lamenting, for the scattered bones of their son. This
form of the myth Ovid did not use.
The Manual told also of Actaeon's intrusion and punishment, add-
ing that the goddess maddened the hounds. After Actaeon's death,
it continued, the dogs sought their master, whining piteously, until
the centaur Chiron appeased them by making an image of him. Ovid
followed the outline in the Manual, wisely omitting these details. He
added the circumstance of Actaeon's meeting with Diana in the vale
of Gargaphie and the description of the nymphs attending on the
goddess. And his was the famous conception of the nymphs hasten-
ing to conceal Diana, and the goddess standing divinely tall in the
middle of the group.
Stesichorus appears to have named at least a few of Actaeon's
hounds. Aeschylus followed his example, and early mythographers
added many more. The Manual mentioned fifty, and later Hyginus
was to name more than eighty! Though realizing the danger of ex-
cess, Ovid felt that a skillful enumeration would add much to the vivid-
ness and terror of the hunt. He tried, therefore, to enliven the cata-
logue in many ways and reduced the number of names to thirty-six.
Nicander also had told the story, adding the circumstance that
Actaeon retained his human mind and that he tried in vain to speak.
Ovid profited by these hints for his description of Actaeon's dismay
after the transformation and for the pathetic circumstances of his
death. Nicander may have suggested also the noonday heat which led
Actaeon to end his hunting. Ovid described this well, but he did not
make it seem probable that Actaeon should leave his followers and
wander at random through the forest.
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK III
Ovid improved on what was best in the work of his predecessors and
was the first to develop the myth into an admirable narrative poem.
His version made the story popular in Roman and later times and
was always the chief source of later allusion. Recalling the myth in
the Tristia, Ovid declared that he himself resembled Actaeon, for
without evil intent he saw what was forbidden and incurred a cruel
punishment.
Statius included the tale in his Thebaiad.
In the Middle Ages, writers were inclined to interpret the story
allegorically, as an example of a young man pursued and destroyed
by his vices, and this suggested to Dante the incident of the prodigal
overtaken and torn to pieces by black hounds in the suicides' grove.
Petrarch imitated the story of Actaeon in an allegory of his courtship
of Laura and of the remorse following his repulse. Castillejo retold
Ovid's myth as an allegorical narrative, and Camoens referred to it
at some length in order to warn his sovereign against neglecting
affairs of state. In Twelfth Night Shakespeare used the myth as an
allegory of unhappy love. When the courtiers advised Orsino to hunt
the hart, he replied
Why, so I do, the noblest that I have:
O, when mine eyes did see Olivia first,
Methought she purged the air of pestilence:
That instant was I turned into a hart;
And my desires, like fell and cruel hounds,
E'er since pursue me.
Often, however, the great poets recalled Ovid in a more ordinary
sense. The wonder and pleasure experienced by Actaeon when he
suddenly beheld Diana was felt by Petrarch, when he chanced to see
his lady washing a veil. Chaucer mentioned Actaeon repeatedly
in the Knight's Tale. Camoens declared that some maidens surprised
by the Portuguese pretended to feel the shame of Diana when she saw
the young hunter. To Spenser the myth suggested two incidents of
his Faerie Queene. In one of these Diana and her nymphs, while bath-
ing, were unpleasantly surprised by Venus. In the other, Faunus spied
on Diana and for punishment was arrayed as a stag and pursued with
hounds. Shelley compared to Actaeon the unfortunate shepherd who
came to mourn over Adonais. Tennyson imagined the story sculptured
on a gate of the feminine college in his Princess.
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? SEMELE AND JUPITER
The moment when Diana stood embarrassed among her nymphs
made a deep impression on both Dante and Shakespeare. Dante used
Ovid's description of her blush to suggest the indignant hue of Para-
dise when St. Peter rebuked the corruption of the papacy. Shake-
speare in Titus Andronicus distinguished Tamora as excelling other
Roman ladies
Like stately Phoebe mongst her nymphs.
And in his Henry Sixth Warwick advised the king to remain protected
by the citizens of London
Like modest Dian circled by her nymphs ( ! )
Ovid's myth of Actaeon inspired the modern painters Pittone,
Domenichino, Gaspard Poussin, Allegrain, and G. Caesar. It sug-
gested two masterpieces of Titian. The French painter Dampt varied
the myth so far as to show Diana mourning the death of her victim.
In the town hall of Dantzig Actaeon was represented by the unusual
device of a colored relief bearing the antlers of a real stag.
Semele and Jupiter
By a transition of his own inventing, Ovid passed from Actaeon
to Juno's plot against Semele. This allowed him to recount the myth
of Semele and also the birth and nurture of the god Bacchus.
Both the god and his worship were of foreign origin and had been
introduced into the Greek world not long before the dawn of historical
times. In fact the worship of Bacchus was the first of many oriental
and mystical cults which were to influence Greek civilization. Its
alien character impressed the historian Herodotus, and he suggested
that Cadmus had introduced the cult of Bacchus after some acquain-
tance with the worship of Osiris. Bacchus indeed had much in com-
mon with the Egyptian deity; but he entered the Greek world from the
more northern region of Phrygia and Thrace.
In these countries the god became known first as a spirit associated
with trees and worshiped in forests and wild places. At times he
revealed himself in the shape of a bull, a goat, a snake, or some other
animal form. He caused fertility in useful plants, in domestic animals,
and even in human beings. Through the warm summers he inhabited
the forests and the neighboring fields, making them green and fruit-
ful. When the colder, darker autumn came, he departed yearly with
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK III
the falling leaves to the world of the dead. But later he returned to
life with the new leaves of spring.
The signs of this marvellous resurrection were welcomed by a festi-
val of wild noise and frantic dancing. At first it probably occurred
every year in the spring; but during historical times it appears to
have been held only every second year. The clamor, the frenzy, and
often the license of these orgies made their name proverbial. According
to persistent tradition, the festival reached a climax, when the mad-
dened worshipers fell upon a living bull and tore him to pieces with
their hands and teeth. His flesh and blood were devoured raw by the
eager throng. That savages would not shrink from such ferocity, we
have only too good evidence. Even human beings met a similar fate
during a festival held annually by the Khonds of modern India. But
the practice ascribed to the Bacchanals seems to be physically im-
possible and may have been misunderstood by those who wrote long
after and from hearsay. A goat, or some other animal, might serve
as the victim instead of a bull. The flesh of the animal was consumed
as a sacrament, for at other times the worshipers often abstained
entirely from meat of any kind. To them the victim seemed a tempo-
rary incarnation of Bacchus, the tree spirit, who was reviving with
the new leaves. It was a feast of communion with the life giving deity
and was thought to infuse his spirit into all who took part.
The idea that Bacchus, the tree spirit, died and revived annually
suggesAed a belief that he might confer similar immortality on those
of his votaries who obtained his favor and ate sacramentally the flesh
inspired by his spirit. But a gift so wonderful was not to be had
easily or by everyone.
semblance was observed, and, although Europa had gone only to the
outlying island of Crete, she was supposed to have given her name to
the entire continent with which Crete was then associated.
Profiting by this new idea, Moschus retold the myth in an elaborate
and beautiful form. He carefully related the abduction to the future
name of the continent and made it the result of well planned action by
several deities. While telling of the events in the meadow he expanded
the earlier account pleasantly and gave an interesting description of
the bull. The creature cast the spell by licking Europa's neck. As
she was being carried over the sea, Moschus continued, Europa la-
mented her fate, and the bull replied, informing her of his identity and
her illustrious future. This version inspired a treatment by Horace.
But Horace imagined that Europa did not complain until after reach-
ing Crete and that she was reassured by Venus. From Moschus Ovid
may have taken some details for his Fasti, including the idea that
Europa's name suggested the name of the continent.
A different version of the myth had been implied by Herodotus. He
made Europa the daughter of Agenor, king of Sidon, and the sister
of Cadmus, who later founded Thebes. Her brothers, Cadmus and Cilix,
he said, had been sent out to recover her. In the Phcenissce, Euripides
made further changes. Phoenix, he declared, was not Europa's father
but a third brother, and Europa's great-great grandmother was Io.
The Manual repeated this genealogy, adding that the mother of
Europa was Telephassa. It retold the story given in the Catalogues
but said nothing of Jupiter's using magic. Not only the brothers, but
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK II
Telephassa and a youth named Thasus, took part in the quest. This
account Nicander repeated. He may have added that, after Jupiter
brought the princess to Crete, the bull entered heaven as the constella-
tion Taurus. This event Ovid was to use in his Fasti.
In ancient art the myth was exceedingly popular. It appeared in
sculpture, painting, and representations of jewelry and coins.
In the Metamorphoses Ovid assumed that his readers were familiar
with the tale. He began abruptly with the arrival of Jupiter in the
field; gave no account of Europa's attractiveness; and did not even
mention her name. He felt the incongruity of the great god Jupiter's
descending to a clandestine love affair and was amused at his un-
dignified masquerade as a bull. The outline of the tale he took from
the Manual. But the white color and pleasing appearance of the bull
and the yellow sand of the shore he found in works of art. Realizing
the improbability of Europa's trusting herself to an unknown bull,
Ovid tried to make the incident plausible. He took care to show that
the creature was very mild and that Europa was at first a little afraid
and only gradually became so bold as to ride on his back. For the
brief description of the voyage Ovid turned again to a work of art.
A better description he reserved for the tale of Arachne (Bk. 6) and
the Fasti. In the tale of Scylla (Bk. 8) he added that Europa was
the mother of King Minos of Crete.
In later times the story of Europa continued to be very popular.
Many of its details could be gathered from the Fasti and numerous
references in Ovid's other poems; but the Metamorphoses afforded the
most convenient, and during many centuries the only, source of in-
formation for the story as a whole.
Dante, looking down from the constellation of the Twins, beheld
the Earth from Cadiz eastward almost to the shore where Europa
made herself a welcome load. Chaucer referred to the story twice in
his Troilus. Spenser, describing a pageant of the seasons, said of
April
Upon a bull he rode, the same which led
Europa floating through the Argolic floods;
His horns were gilden all with golden studs,
And garnished with garlands goodly dight
Of all the fairest flowers and freshest buds
Which the earth brings forth; and wet he seemed in sight
With waves, through which he waded for his Love's delight.
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? EUROPA AND JUPITER
Shakespeare was impressed chiefly by the undignified metamorphosis
of Jove and often used it as a matter for jest. He referred to it in
The Merry Wives of Windsor, Much Ado About Nothing, and Troilus
and Cressida. But he treated the myth seriously in the following
lines from his Taming of the Shrew
O yes, I saw sweet beauty in her face,
Such as the daughter of Agenor had
That made great Jove to humble him to her hand,
When with his knees he kissed the Cretan strand;
Hawthorne used Ovid's description of the bull and of the stages by
which Europa was persuaded to mount on his back for a delightful
version in The Wonder Book. Landor retold the tale in his poem
Europa and Her Mother. Ovid's myth inspired in part a carefully
finished lyric of Andre Chenier and this in turn suggested the Europa
of Victor Hugo.
In modern art the myth was a favorite theme. Filarete sculptured
Europa riding on the bull for a door panel of St. Peter's. The story
was treated in various ways by the painters Riccio, Albani, Titian,
Van Baelen, Van Poelenburgh, Le Clerc, Claude Lorrain, and Genelli.
It suggested two pictures by Guido Reni and two of Moreau. It in-
spired masterpieces of Paolo Veronese and Rubens, and Boucher de-
picted it in one of six glorious tapestries entitled The Loves of the
Gods.
For the Second Book Ovid used many tales which were old and
often treated in Greek literature. But he combined them with others
which were of purely Alexandrian origin. Although seldom men-
tioned by Roman authors, the stories were often familiar to Ovid's
contemporaries and allowed him to take much for granted. In every
tale he followed an Alexandrian version. The Manual helped him
occasionally; but his chief source was Nicander.
In the treatment of his material, much adjustment was necessary.
Although Ovid found a number of tales combined by Nicander, many
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK II
others were quite unrelated. Ovid needed often to supply the con-
nection, to arrange the stories in order of time, and to beware of in-
consistency with other parts of his work. In almost every case he had
to avoid duplication of material which he was to use for the Fasti.
The story as told by Ovid's predecessor was often brief and dry: Ovid
had to animate the characters; reveal the motive; and describe the
scene. When possible he borrowed from other great poets--the Iliad,
Euripides, Callimachus, and Vergil and often he profited by ancient
works of art. But even while borrowing he frequently improved what
he took and quite as often he relied on his own invention.
Although some stories were hardly noticed by later times, the book
as a whole had an important effect. It influenced authors such as
Andre Chenier and Blackmore, who seem otherwise to have ignored
Ovid entirely. Many tales interested Dante and Shakespeare and
some affected markedly the work of Chaucer, Spenser, Corneille, and
Milton. Addison translated the entire book. Macaulay pronounced
it by far the best in the poem.
Modern painters showed special fondness for the Second Book and
created from it a number of masterpieces.
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? BOOK THREE
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? BOOK THREE
Four cities became especially prominent in the lore of prehistoric
Greece--Argos, Thebes, Athens, and Troy. About their dimly re-
membered past gathered remarkable tales of the royal family under
which each was supposed to have been established; to have grown in
power; and sometimes to have fallen. Even in oral tradition, indi-
vidual myths probably became related somewhat to one another.
Greek poets retold them singly or in groups; Greek prose writers
began to organize them with regard for chronological order; and at
length the Manual recorded four quite elaborate mythical histories,
each narrating the supposed adventures of a royal family from the
founding of the city to the dawn of recorded history.
Through Greek poetry and the Manual Ovid was familiar with the
myths that had gathered round all four of these storied cities. They
offered him many tales of marvellous transformation, which were
combined already with some regard for sequence of time. And at
many points the traditions of one city were related to those of the
others. It was possible to use one or more of the most attractive
stories from the lore of a given city and then pass without special
difficulty to attractive stories in the tradition of another. For his
Metamorphoses, Ovid selected good stories from the mythology of all
these famous cities. Argos furnished him the tale of Io (Bk. 1) and
many adventures of Perseus (Bks. 4--5). Thebes, Athens, and Troy
proved even more congenial. From them he chose so many stories
that he made each tradition the chief subject for two books of his
poem and he retold a considerable part of their history. The first
tradition to which he gave prominence was that of Thebes.
In Greek literature Theban myth received attention from the begin-
ning and soon became famous. The subject included adventures of
the royal family from Cadmus to the fall of the city and also the
eventful careers of the wise Tiresias and the mighty Hercules. To
Theban stories the Iliad and the Odyssey referred more than once.
The Oedipodaa and the Epigoni related at some length the strange
and terrible misfortunes of Oedipus and his successors at the close of
Theban history. The Theogony and the Shield of Hercules told still
other stories, dealing especially with adventures of Hercules. And
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK III
Pindar often recalled the traditional glories of his native city. These
poets took special interest in the closing period of Theban history.
For the great drama of Athens Theban myth proved a storehouse
of tragic material. It suggested many dramas of Aeschylus; it in-
spired masterpieces of Sophocles; and it provided Euripides with the
subjects of many interesting, though rather unsuccessful, plays.
Athenian drama treated almost the whole range of Theban myth; but,
like the older Greek poetry, it found most congenial the later period--
the misfortunes of Oedipus and his successors and the adventurous
career of Hercules.
The Alexandrians made further use of the famous tradition. Their
poets, anxious to avoid material which might seem too well known,
looked chiefly to myths in the earlier history of Thebes. Theocritus
and others retold individual tales with originality and charm. Nicander
found new versions for almost all the earlier tales and also for a num-
ber of the later ones.
Although Ovid profited gladly by Theban myth, he did not retell it
in full. Like the Alexandrians, he gave his attention chiefly to the
earlier tales. These he selected carefully and arranged in a new and
more effective order. The improved Theban material he treated in his
Third Book and about half of the Fourth. Then he passed to other
themes. But in later passages of his poem he used still other Theban
myths for his tales of Niobe (Bk. 6), the Teumessian Fox (Bk. 7), the
death of Orion's daughters (Bk. 13), and a few adventures of Her-
cules (Bk. 9).
Cadmus and the Deagon
A small company of Phoenicians appear to have made the original
settlement at Thebes. They established a citadel, known as the
Cadmea, and brought in a higher form of culture than any which had
existed before in central Greece. According to Aeschylus, they intro-
duced the worship of Mars. And with him they associated a common
Semitic belief that a snake was guardian of their spring. They re-
garded the creature as sacred to Mars and often spoke of it as his son.
Although the earliest settlers were Phoenician, they soon intermarried
with the natives and became a Greek people. The author of the Iliad
referred to them as inhabitants of the Cadmea and worshippers of
Mars. The Odyssey mentioned their enclosing the city with the
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? CADMUS AND THE DRAGON
famous wall and its seven gates. But thus far we hear nothing of
Cadmus.
A century or more later, his story appears in rather definite form.
The Theogony declared that Cadmus married Harmonia, daughter of
Mars and Venus, and that their children were four daughters named
Ino, Semele, Agave, and Autonoe and a son named Polydorus. This
part of the story was followed by all subsequent authors, including
Ovid.
Pindar added that the gods attended the wedding bringing gifts
but that the later life of Cadmus was unhappy through the misfor-
, tune of his daughters. Pindar alluded also to a tradition that some
of the Thebans were descended from the sacred snake.
This part of the tale was first recorded by the mythographer
Pherecydes. Cadmus, he said, had put the reptile to death. Then
Athena, coming to his aid, advised him to plant a number of the crea-
ture's teeth. A crop of fierce warriors grew up, and Cadmus in alarm
threw stones among them. The warriors, believing that their neigh-
bors had struck them, engaged in a sanguinary battle until only
Echion and four others were left. These Athena persuaded to make
peace and aid in the founding of Thebes. The rest of the teeth Athena
conveyed to Aeetes of Colchis, and later they were planted by Jason
(cf. Bk. 7).
In the PhosnisscB Euripides added many further details. Before
going to Thebes, he said, Cadmus had visited the Delphic Oracle and
learned that he was to follow an unbroken heifer and settle where she
lay down. Before founding the city, Euripides continued, Cadmus
desired to sacrifice the heifer, and while obtaining water for the cere-
mony, he met with the snake and crushed its head with a boulder.
Mars, resenting the loss of his favorite, was appeased only many
generations later by the voluntary death of a youth named Menceceus.
Apollonius agreed in all essential details with Pherecides and
Euripides. But Nicander made two important changes.
He height-
ened the interest of the battle by declaring that the boulder proved
ineffectual and he related the anger of Mars more definitely to the
subsequent tales of Thebes. Immediately after the battle, he said, the
god addressed Cadmus, indicating his displeasure and announcing
that later the hero himself was to become a snake. This change
allowed Nicander to relate the misfortunes of Cadmus' children and
grandchildren as effects of a single divine cause and to end the series
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK m
with the transformation predicted in the beginning. Ovid followed
both Nicander's innovations and he made the sudden warning im-
pressive. But he would have done better to make it clear that the
voice was that of Mars and that the prophecy referred to all the
ensuing tales. The prophecy should have been not only an effective
incident but the turning point in the cycle.
Meanwhile Herodotus had related Cadmus to Europa, and
Euripides had made him a descendant of Io. The Manual, after re-
peating and adding to this genealogy, declared that Agenor forbade
his sons to return without Europa. After a detailed account of the
search through Asia Minor and the Aegean isles, it recorded that
Cadmus settled in Thrace until the death of his mother. In the rest
of the tale the Manual differed from other versions considerably.
Cadmus, according to the Manual, did not travel alone, but was ac-
companied by other Phoenicians. After leaving the Delphic Oracle,
they wandered in a southeasterly direction for a considerable distance
and were entering the region later known as Boeotia, when they met
with the heifer. The district took its name from the famous cow.
Arriving at Thebes, Cadmus at first despatched his followers in search
of water. The snake destroyed the greater part of them. Then Cad-
mus himself battled with the reptile. After the warriors grew up
from the teeth, continued the Manual, a chance quarrel among them
may have led to the battle. Although Mars was offended at the death
of the, snake and its offspring, Cadmus appeased him by eight years'
service. The Manual added that Athena made Cadmus king of Thebes
and recorded the marriage of his three older daughters--Ino to Atha-
mas, Autonoe to Aristasus, and Agave to Echion.
From the Manual Ovid took the greater part of his tale. He
omitted the genealogy of Cadmus and all details of the quest for
Europa. The incidents of the oracle and the heifer he abridged and
he imagined that Cadmus found her immediately after leaving Delphi
and followed her from there to the site of his future citadel--an in-
credible distance. Ovid suggested effectively the awe and wonder of
Cadmus when he looked at the unfamiliar and beautiful country which
was to be his home.
Ovid reported that all the followers of Cadmus perished and so
made it more plausible that Athena should provide new followers
from the teeth. In describing the snake, he profited by Vergil's
memorable account of a serpent in the Cvlex, but he added many effec-
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? CADMUS AND THE DRAGON
tive details of his own and greatly magnified the creature's size and
power. In this he proceeded dangerously far: he made it unlikely
that a single warrior, even a giant, could overcome such a monster.
But this fault Ovid shared with Vergil and with many authors of later
times who wished to tell graphically of a hero overcoming a dragon.
The chief incidents of the battle and the prophecy of Mars, Ovid took
from Nicander.
In picturing the strange growth of warriors from the soil, Ovid
compared it to the gradual appearance of figures outlined on the
curtain of a theater. To the Romans the comparison would have
seemed happy and exact, for at the end of their performance the
curtain was drawn upward from the floor until it hid the stage. Such
apt illustration from the civilized life of his time Ovid was to use occa-
sionally in other parts of his poem. For his contemporaries, the
device was very effective; but for readers of a later time, it often was
made obscure by a change of fashion. The older poets of Greece and
Rome had followed the safer practice of using illustration from proc-
esses of nature or from general human experience.
During the subsequent battle of the warriors, Ovid was anxious to
make the conflict differ where possible from a similar combat in the
story of Jason (Bk. 7). Tradition had made the two battles alike,
except that five of the Theban warriors survived, while the Colchian
warriors were exterminated. Ovid introduced further changes. In
the Theban battle he described Cadmus as alarmed at the sudden ap-
pearance of the warriors; in the Colchian, he described the alarm of
the spectators. The Theban warriors, he said, warned Cadmus to
remain neutral and began their conflict with a chance quarrel: the
Colchians fought blindly when Jason hurled a stone. He recounted
the Theban battle in some detail but merely summarized the other.
The founding of Thebes, the marriage of Cadmus and Harmonia,
and the subsequent genealogy Ovid dismissed briefly. But he indicated
well the happy, prosperous state of Cadmus immediately after the
founding of the City. The early Athenian poet and statesman, Solon,
had observed that it is unwise to call any man happy before his death.
Sophocles repeated the idea impressively at the close of his Oedipus
and probably made it widely known among the later Greeks. With
this fitting proverb Ovid pointed forward from the tale of Cadmus
to those which were to follow.
In later times, Ovid's tale of Cadmus was well known. The Flamenca
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK in
named it as a favorite in thirteenth century Provence. In a sonnet to
Laura, Petrarch reminded himself that no man should be called happy
until his final day has sped. Tasso compared Armida rising from the
lake to a figure rising with the curtain of a theater. Camoens rebuked
the Europeans of his time for fighting like those warrior brothers
who sprang from the dragon's teeth sown by Cadmus. In Corneille's
Psyche, Agenor and Cleomene, recalling the example of Cadmus, found
courage to await a dragon.
Referring in the Areopagitica to censorship of books, Milton
granted that "they are as lively and as vigorously productive as those
fabulous dragon's teeth, and, being sown up and down, may chance
to spring up armed men. " In Paradise Lost he used Ovid's descrip-
tion of the snake for a fine portrayal of the Tempter approaching
Eve
Not with indented wave
Prone on the ground, but on his rear,
Circular base of rising folds, that towered
Fold above fold, a surging maze; his head
Crested aloft, and carbuncle his eyes;
With burnished neck of verdant gold, erect
Amid his circling spires, that on the grass
Floated redundant.
Hawthorne used Ovid in part for his own charming paraphrase of
the story. Cadmus and Athena were painted by Salvator Rosa.
Actaeon
After the marriage of Cadmus, the Manual had told of his daugh-
ters Semele and Ino, whose careers began happily but ended in disaster.
Both these tales Ovid reserved until later. He felt that the marriage
of Cadmus was the happiest moment and the turning point in the
hero's life. And, to make the idea of subsequent misfortune as
emphatic as possible, he recorded immediately afterward the tragic
fate of his grandson Acta? on.
This myth had been a favorite in Greek literature and art. The
cause of Action's strange misfortune was given variously. Stesichorus
declared that the youth had been a rival of Jupiter in the courtship of
Semele. As punishment, Jupiter caused him to offend Diana. The
goddess transformed Action into a stag and allowed him to perish
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? ACTAEON
by his own hounds. Aeschylus repeated the tale in a play, now lost.
In the fifth century B. C. , the Greeks had accepted a form of the
Theban myths which made Semele Actaeon's aunt. That Actaeon
should court her was no longer acceptable and so this part of the tale
was omitted. Actaeon was thought to have suffered only for his
offense against Diana.
According to Euripides in the Bacchce, Actaeon offended the god-
dess by declaring that he excelled her in hunting. But later it was
supposed ordinarily that he intruded on her accidentally while she
was bathing. This version Callimachus told in his Bath of Pallas.
He added that Actaeon had been a companion of the goddess in her
hunting. After the tragedy, he continued, Actaeon's father and
mother sought, lamenting, for the scattered bones of their son. This
form of the myth Ovid did not use.
The Manual told also of Actaeon's intrusion and punishment, add-
ing that the goddess maddened the hounds. After Actaeon's death,
it continued, the dogs sought their master, whining piteously, until
the centaur Chiron appeased them by making an image of him. Ovid
followed the outline in the Manual, wisely omitting these details. He
added the circumstance of Actaeon's meeting with Diana in the vale
of Gargaphie and the description of the nymphs attending on the
goddess. And his was the famous conception of the nymphs hasten-
ing to conceal Diana, and the goddess standing divinely tall in the
middle of the group.
Stesichorus appears to have named at least a few of Actaeon's
hounds. Aeschylus followed his example, and early mythographers
added many more. The Manual mentioned fifty, and later Hyginus
was to name more than eighty! Though realizing the danger of ex-
cess, Ovid felt that a skillful enumeration would add much to the vivid-
ness and terror of the hunt. He tried, therefore, to enliven the cata-
logue in many ways and reduced the number of names to thirty-six.
Nicander also had told the story, adding the circumstance that
Actaeon retained his human mind and that he tried in vain to speak.
Ovid profited by these hints for his description of Actaeon's dismay
after the transformation and for the pathetic circumstances of his
death. Nicander may have suggested also the noonday heat which led
Actaeon to end his hunting. Ovid described this well, but he did not
make it seem probable that Actaeon should leave his followers and
wander at random through the forest.
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK III
Ovid improved on what was best in the work of his predecessors and
was the first to develop the myth into an admirable narrative poem.
His version made the story popular in Roman and later times and
was always the chief source of later allusion. Recalling the myth in
the Tristia, Ovid declared that he himself resembled Actaeon, for
without evil intent he saw what was forbidden and incurred a cruel
punishment.
Statius included the tale in his Thebaiad.
In the Middle Ages, writers were inclined to interpret the story
allegorically, as an example of a young man pursued and destroyed
by his vices, and this suggested to Dante the incident of the prodigal
overtaken and torn to pieces by black hounds in the suicides' grove.
Petrarch imitated the story of Actaeon in an allegory of his courtship
of Laura and of the remorse following his repulse. Castillejo retold
Ovid's myth as an allegorical narrative, and Camoens referred to it
at some length in order to warn his sovereign against neglecting
affairs of state. In Twelfth Night Shakespeare used the myth as an
allegory of unhappy love. When the courtiers advised Orsino to hunt
the hart, he replied
Why, so I do, the noblest that I have:
O, when mine eyes did see Olivia first,
Methought she purged the air of pestilence:
That instant was I turned into a hart;
And my desires, like fell and cruel hounds,
E'er since pursue me.
Often, however, the great poets recalled Ovid in a more ordinary
sense. The wonder and pleasure experienced by Actaeon when he
suddenly beheld Diana was felt by Petrarch, when he chanced to see
his lady washing a veil. Chaucer mentioned Actaeon repeatedly
in the Knight's Tale. Camoens declared that some maidens surprised
by the Portuguese pretended to feel the shame of Diana when she saw
the young hunter. To Spenser the myth suggested two incidents of
his Faerie Queene. In one of these Diana and her nymphs, while bath-
ing, were unpleasantly surprised by Venus. In the other, Faunus spied
on Diana and for punishment was arrayed as a stag and pursued with
hounds. Shelley compared to Actaeon the unfortunate shepherd who
came to mourn over Adonais. Tennyson imagined the story sculptured
on a gate of the feminine college in his Princess.
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? SEMELE AND JUPITER
The moment when Diana stood embarrassed among her nymphs
made a deep impression on both Dante and Shakespeare. Dante used
Ovid's description of her blush to suggest the indignant hue of Para-
dise when St. Peter rebuked the corruption of the papacy. Shake-
speare in Titus Andronicus distinguished Tamora as excelling other
Roman ladies
Like stately Phoebe mongst her nymphs.
And in his Henry Sixth Warwick advised the king to remain protected
by the citizens of London
Like modest Dian circled by her nymphs ( ! )
Ovid's myth of Actaeon inspired the modern painters Pittone,
Domenichino, Gaspard Poussin, Allegrain, and G. Caesar. It sug-
gested two masterpieces of Titian. The French painter Dampt varied
the myth so far as to show Diana mourning the death of her victim.
In the town hall of Dantzig Actaeon was represented by the unusual
device of a colored relief bearing the antlers of a real stag.
Semele and Jupiter
By a transition of his own inventing, Ovid passed from Actaeon
to Juno's plot against Semele. This allowed him to recount the myth
of Semele and also the birth and nurture of the god Bacchus.
Both the god and his worship were of foreign origin and had been
introduced into the Greek world not long before the dawn of historical
times. In fact the worship of Bacchus was the first of many oriental
and mystical cults which were to influence Greek civilization. Its
alien character impressed the historian Herodotus, and he suggested
that Cadmus had introduced the cult of Bacchus after some acquain-
tance with the worship of Osiris. Bacchus indeed had much in com-
mon with the Egyptian deity; but he entered the Greek world from the
more northern region of Phrygia and Thrace.
In these countries the god became known first as a spirit associated
with trees and worshiped in forests and wild places. At times he
revealed himself in the shape of a bull, a goat, a snake, or some other
animal form. He caused fertility in useful plants, in domestic animals,
and even in human beings. Through the warm summers he inhabited
the forests and the neighboring fields, making them green and fruit-
ful. When the colder, darker autumn came, he departed yearly with
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK III
the falling leaves to the world of the dead. But later he returned to
life with the new leaves of spring.
The signs of this marvellous resurrection were welcomed by a festi-
val of wild noise and frantic dancing. At first it probably occurred
every year in the spring; but during historical times it appears to
have been held only every second year. The clamor, the frenzy, and
often the license of these orgies made their name proverbial. According
to persistent tradition, the festival reached a climax, when the mad-
dened worshipers fell upon a living bull and tore him to pieces with
their hands and teeth. His flesh and blood were devoured raw by the
eager throng. That savages would not shrink from such ferocity, we
have only too good evidence. Even human beings met a similar fate
during a festival held annually by the Khonds of modern India. But
the practice ascribed to the Bacchanals seems to be physically im-
possible and may have been misunderstood by those who wrote long
after and from hearsay. A goat, or some other animal, might serve
as the victim instead of a bull. The flesh of the animal was consumed
as a sacrament, for at other times the worshipers often abstained
entirely from meat of any kind. To them the victim seemed a tempo-
rary incarnation of Bacchus, the tree spirit, who was reviving with
the new leaves. It was a feast of communion with the life giving deity
and was thought to infuse his spirit into all who took part.
The idea that Bacchus, the tree spirit, died and revived annually
suggesAed a belief that he might confer similar immortality on those
of his votaries who obtained his favor and ate sacramentally the flesh
inspired by his spirit. But a gift so wonderful was not to be had
easily or by everyone.
