The Manual retold the myth with the
following
important changes:
197
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197
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Ovid - 1934 - Metamorphoses in European Culture - v1
At this
the Pierids grew still more insolent, and the Muses changed them into
nine varieties of birds, one of which was a magpie.
Taking his outline from Nicander, Ovid made several changes for
the better. He began dramatically with the sudden arrival of the new
birds lamenting their fate. This interrupted the conversation between
Athena and Urania and gave occasion for the story. Ovid probably
enlivened very much the account of the metamorphosis and he showed
all nine of the Pierids changing appropriately into the noisy and gar-
rulous magpies.
As a theme for the Pierid song, Nicander imagined first the cele-
brated war between the gods and the Giants. This Ovid had told
elsewhere (Bk. 1) and so he merely stated that the Pierid made the
story sound as unfavorable as possible for the gods. But for the lat-
ter half of the song Nicander used a recent myth dealing with the war
between the gods and Typhoeus.
In the Iliad Typhoeus was mentioned as an enemy of Jupiter" who
lay buried "in Arimi"--meaning apparently in a volcanic region of
Asia Minor inhabited by the Arimi. Much later Lycophron identified
this locality with Inarime, a volcanic island in the Bay of Naples, and
Vergil and Lucan followed his example. Meanwhile the Theogony had
given a long acount of Typhoeus--his terrible appearance and his
desperate battle with the gods. Thus he became in Greek tradition the
chief enemy of Jupiter, and Aeschylus showed him pictured on the
shield of the impious Capaneus. Pindar mentioned Typhoeus on sev-
eral occasions. He spoke of him as inhabiting a cave in Cilicia and
related his defeat with a great contemporary eruption of Mt. Aetna,
of which he gave a wonderful description. The monster, he said, lay
buried under this great mountain and was convulsing it with his furious
struggles. Aeschylus repeated the idea at some length in his
Prometheus Bound. The Manual agreed substantially with both the
Theogony and Pindar. It recorded in detail the war between Typhoeus
and the gods and then the burial of Typhoeus under the Sicilian vol-
cano. To this account Ovid alluded briefly in his Epistle of Sappho
and at greater length in the Fasti. In the, Metamorphoses he was to
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? THE MUSES AND THE PIERIDS
use the idea again; but he reserved it appropriately for Calliope's
answer. 1
In the fifth century B. C. ancient Greece became acquainted with the
venerable civilization of Egypt. Both Greeks and Egyptians soon
found resemblances between their mythologies and both were ready to
give their deities added prestige by identifying them with one another.
Thus Herodotus declared Jupiter to be a Greek equivalent of Ammon,
the great sheep deity of Thebes and Libyan Ethiopia. And he pro-
ceeded to identify many others, notably Apollo with Horus, Diana
with Bubastis, and Typhoeus with Seb. When the Greek Alexander
conquered Egypt, such identification gained a political value. It
helped the new ruler and his successors to assure the permanence of
their conquest by making Greek institutions congenial to their Egyp-
tian subjects. Alexander himself made a pilgrimage to the chief shrine
of Ammon; worshipped him as Jupiter; and pretended that he him-
self was a son of the great Egyptian deity. The Egyptians had ex-
plained their strange worship of gods in animal form by reporting that
Seb at one time threatened the other divinities and caused them to
abscond in their now familiar animal shapes. Profiting by this tra-
dition, the Alexandrian Greeks revised their account of Typhoeus. At
first, they said, Typhoeus had the advantage. The adherents of Jupi-
ter fled to the Nile valley and there assumed various animal disguises,
still held sacred by the inhabitants of Egypt. This myth was repeated
briefly in the Manual.
Nicander made it the second part of the Pierid song. For his pur-
pose the tale was doubly appropriate. It suited the impious character
of the Pierid and it included a number of remarkable transformations.
Accordingly he gave the latter part of the story in some detail, telling
how each god became the well known likeness of his Egyptian counter-,
part. Apollo, he said, became a hawk (Horus), Bacchus a goat
(Mendes), Diana a cat (Bubastis), and Mercury an ibis (Thoth).
For Ovid's Roman contemporaries the feeling towards Egyptian
myth had changed. Antony and Cleopatra had made Egypt a dan-
gerous rival of Rome. Even after their defeat, Augustus and Other
1 This was not the only explanation of volcanic activity in Mt. Aetna. Euripides
in the Cyclops related it to the buried Giant Bnceladus; Callimachus repeated the
idea; and Vergil made it famous in the Aeneid. Ovid himself followed Vergil in a
Pontic Epistle. There were also attempts by Alexandrian scientists to account for
the eruptions by natural means. Varro dealt with this material, and the young
Vergil treated it in his long andTjuite interesting poem called Aetna.
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK V
patriotic Romans thought it wise to frown on the religion and civili-
zation of the Nile. Hence in the tale of Andromeda Ovid had called
Ammon unjust. In the tale of the Pierid he tried to discredit all
identification of Roman and Egyptian deities. But he gladly repeated
Nicander's story in detail, changing Apollo from a hawk to a raven;
and he even added further metamorphoses. He included the famous
identification of Jupiter with the ram (Ammon) and invented a new
likeness of Juno to the cow (Isis), and he observed that Venus became
a fish. This transformation he probably added from the Syrian myth
of Derceto (cf. Bk. 4). In the Fasti he was to show how Typhoeus
drove Venus and Cupid to the Euphrates valley and how they escaped
on the backs of two fishes, which became the well known constellation
of the zodiac. In the song of the Pierid, Ovid mentioned all suitable
detail, yet he was careful to make the narrative brief and dry. This
emphasized the beauty of Calliope's answer.
Ovid's account of the Muses and the Pierids proved interesting for
a number of medieval poets. Jean de Meun retold it in the Romavge
of the Rose. In the Purgatorio Dante referred to Calliope and the
other Muses as vanquishing the Pierids so clearly that they despaired
of pardon. In De Vulgare Eloquio he noted the incident of the mag-
pies talking, as illustration of his belief that animals occasionally
mimic the sounds of human speech, but not intelligently, for the expres-
sion of ideas. Chaucer showed his man of law hesitating lest he appear
as much inferior to the earlier story tellers as the Pierids were to the
Muses.
The flight of the gods to Egypt also had its admirers. Jean de
Meun repeated the story. Milton alluded to it while enumerating the
followers of Satan:
After these appeared
A crew, who under names of old renown,
Osiris, Isis, Orus, and their train,
With monstrous shapes and sorceries abused
Fanatic Egypt and her priests, to seek
Their wandering gods disguised in brutish forms.
Ceres and Proserpina
In answer to the Pierid song, Ovid showed the Muse Calliope pre-
paring to sing of other mythical events. And as a contrast to the
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? CERES AND PROSERPINA
impious Pierid, he showed her beginning with the praise of a deity. In
this case it was a eulogy of Ceres. Callimachus had observed that the
goddess was the first to instruct men in agriculture and laws and so to
begin human civilization. Lucretius alluded to this idea, and Tibullus
made it the theme of an invocation to the goddess. Following both
Callimachus and Tibullus, Ovid introduced such an invocation in his
Amores and again in his Fasti. With a third passage of this kind he
now began Calliope's answer. Later he was to have Orpheus com-
mence with a similar invocation of Jupiter (Bk. 10).
The Pierid had sung of Typhoeus and his driving the gods in panic
to the Nile. In reply the Muse showed him lying vanquished beneath
Mt. Aetna. But Ovid magnified the traditional conception. He im-
agined that Typhoeus lay not only beneath the volcano but under the
entire island of Sicily and he mentioned the right hand weighted down
by the northernmost promontory Pelorus, the left hand by the far
southern Pachynus, and his feet under Lilybaeum in the west. He
added that the monster struggled under the ground, vomiting fire from
Aetna and convulsing the whole island with earthquakes.
In the tale of Callisto (Bk. 2), Ovid had shown how the ruin caused
by Phaethon led Jupiter to examine Arcadia and so to meet with
Callisto. Recalling the passage, he now showed how the earthquakes
caused by Typhoeus led Pluto to examine Sicily and meet with Proser-
pina. But this timehe added further happenings. While reconnoitering
the island, he said, Pluto passed near Mt. Eryx, a celebrated home of
Venus. In the Aeneid Vergil had imagined that the goddess feared
opposition from Dido and persuaded Cupid to inflame her with love for
Aeneas. Following Vergil's example, Ovid showed Venus dreading the
opposition of Pluto and persuading her son to inflame him with love
for Proserpina. In the tale of Daphne (Bk. 1) Cupid vanquished
Apollo by shooting him. This suggested his shooting Pluto and ex-
plained the god's sudden love. With this interesting prelude Ovid
began the tale of Ceres and Proserpina.
Both goddesses had appeared occasionally in the Iliad and the
Odyssey. Ceres was a humble deity of the country folk and a former
favorite of Jove. Proserpina was Jupiter's daughter and a dread
goddess of the Lower World. But nothing suggests that Ceres was
regarded as the mother of Proserpina. This relation did not appear
until somewhat later.
In a number of countries the simple harvesters have imagined that
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK V
there were two spirits of the ripe grain. With the piles of dry stalks
they associated an old woman; with the seed grain, her young and
beautiful daughter. Often they represented the two spirits by weav-
ing the fallen grain into rude images or by dressing an old woman and
a young girl with freshly cut stalks and ears. And they honored them
with simple rites on the harvest field. India and the Malay Countries
gave such worship to the Rice Mother and the Rice Baby; Scotland
to the Harvest Mother and the Maiden; Greece to Ceres and the
Maiden, Proserpina.
During the autumn the seed grain disappeared beneath the ground.
There followed the winter, a sad period when fruits were no longer
produced. But with the spring the new grain appeared and brought
in a time of rejoicing. This change of seasons the early Greeks per-
sonified. They imagined that Proserpina was carried off by the dread
god of the Lower World; that Ceres mourned her loss and withheld
the fruits of the fields; and that Proserpinareturned bringing glad-
ness in the spring. Beginning with the seventh century B. C. , this
myth was commemorated annually at the shrine of Eleusis near Athens.
A temple was built, which became one of the most beautiful examples
of sacred architecture. And the abduction of Proserpina was repre-
sented dramatically in the elaborate rites of the Eleusinian Mysteries.
These we^e influenced in part by similar Egyptian rites commemorat-
ing the search of Isis for her lost Osiris. And the return of Proserpina
from the Lower World, like the recovery of Osiris, was associated
with the possibility of human immortality (cf. Semele Bk. 3).
The god of the Lower World, who carried off Proserpina, was at
first called Hades. He was brother of Jupiter and had acquired by
lot a third of the world. But his portion was the gloomy region of
the dead. Ceres and Proserpina were thought of as conferring wealth;
and Hades by contrast was sterile and destructive. But in time he was
associated with the riches of various kinds which men hoped to draw
from beneath the surface of the earth. Hence he was called Pluto,
the god of wealth. And this name the Romans translated as Dives,
which they shortened to Dis.
The Odyssey had said only that Proserpina's father was Jove. The
Eleusinian Mysteries had said only that her mother was Ceres. Both
parents appeared in the Theogony, and the poet referred also to the
abduction by Pluto. Jupiter, he said, allowed Pluto to carry off
Proserpina and make her his queen.
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? CERES AND PROSERPINA
The Homeric Hymn to Ceres told the story in detail and with
obvious reference to the ceremony at Eleusis. It localized the event in
a mythical island of Nysa. Jupiter and Pluto arranged for the abduc-
tion and caused Earth to grow a supernatural plant, called a narcissus.
Proserpina, accompanied by Athena, Diana, and the Ocean nymphs,
went out to gather flowers and unwarily touched the magic plant.
The ground opened, and Pluto carried her away. As he did so, Proser-
pina called loudly the name of her father. Alarmed by the cry, Ceres
kindled torches and sought her daughter, fasting, for nine days. Then
Hecate, a goddess of night, informed her that Proserpina had been ab-
ducted. By her counsel Ceres inquired further of the Sun. He? told her
that the ravisher was Pluto and advised her to be content, for she had
gained a worthy son-in-law--her own brother and the ruler of a third
of the world. But Ceres remained disconsolate and wandered in the
disguise of an old woman to Eleusis. Here she was received into the
palace of King Celeus and established the famous Mysteries. Still
disconsolate, she withheld fruits from the ground and so threatened
to deprive the gods of the sustenance which they obtained from offer-
ings (cf. Lycaon Bk. 1). In vain Jupiter sent Iris and others^ to
appease her. Finally he sent Mercury to call Proserpina back from
the Lower World. \
Pluto consented to her return but secretly caused her to eat a
pomegranate seed. This was an act of great significance. To savage
tribes throughout the world it has seemed possible for living men to
visit the realm of the dead, and to return. But according to almost
all these peoples they must remain below, if they eat the food of the
dead; For this reason Pluto gave the pomegranate seed to his queen.
Yet he seems to have given her so little that the law applied only^ in
part. She might go with Mercury to her mother; but must return to
Pluto for the four months of winter. Ceres guessed what Pluto
had done, and Proserpina admitted that it was so. Then Rhea, the
mother of Ceres, persuaded her to reenter Olympus and give an ample
harvest.
Part of this myth Euripides retold somewhat differently in his
Helen. He said that Athena and Diana aided Ceres in the quest but
that Jupiter thwarted them. Among the snowy thickets of Trojan Ida,
the Goddess at length despaired and brought on a famine. But Jupiter
consoled her by sending Venus with the Muses and the Graces.
The Manual retold the myth with the following important changes:
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK V
The event occurred near Hermione in southeastern Greece. Pluto saw
Proserpina by chance and, falling suddenly in love, carried her away.
This misfortune Ceres learned eventually from the people of Hermione.
When Mercury descended in quest of Proserpina, a certain Ascalaphus,
child of the river Acheron, witnessed the eating of the pomegranate
seed and testified against her. Displeased, Proserpina laid a rock on
him and later metamorphosed him ij? to a screech owl.
Meanwhile Timreus had localized the myth in Sicily. Proserpina, he
said, was abducted near Henna, a town in the center of the island and
famous for the worship of Ceres and Proserpina. Pluto drove off
with her in his chariot and, finding that his steeds were dazzled by the
unfamiliar sunlight, he descended into the earth through a chasm still
visible near the town. For the quest, Ceres did not use ordinary
torches but pines kindled in the flames of Mt. Aetna.
In a Hymn to Ceres Callimachus mentioned a number of localities
which the goddess visited during her search. For the Origins he used
several earlier versions and retold the whole story to the following
effect: At the time of the abduction, the nymph Arethusa had invited
Ceres and other goddesses to a banquet on the isle Ortygia, near
Syracuse. Proserpina, accompanied by some other girls, went out
from Henna to gather flowers. She strayed from the rest. Pluto saw
her and carried her down the chasm near the village. Although Proser-
pina called for help from her father, no one heard. Unable to find
her, the other girls told Ceres that she was missing. At first the
mother tried to discover her daughter by following the prints of her
bare feet. But they were obscured by numerous tracks of a pig. This
event Callimachus probably gave as the reason why swine were the
victims offered regularly at festivals of Ceres and Proserpina.
Then Ceres kindled pines on Mt. Aetna and wandered over the
whole of Sicily. From there she proceeded in her dragon car to Eleusis
and established the Mysteries. Thence she continued her search
throughout the known world. She visited Callisto, the Great Bear,
who watches through the night; and finally the Sun, who sees all things
by (fay. Learning the truth from him, she appealed to Jupiter.
Mercury, departing immediately to Hades, returned with the news
that Proserpina had eaten food of the dead. But she had not eaten
one seed, requiring her to remain four months. She had eaten three,
requiring her to remain twelve months. At this Ceres threatened to
leave the world and enter Hades. Jupiter, alarmed at the prospect,
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? CERES AND PROSERPINA
arranged a compromise by which Proserpina was to spend six months
with Pluto and the other six with her mother.
The Sicilian versions of the myth became well known to the Romans.
Cicero dealt with them at some length in an oration against Verres.
Ovid himself had referred to the story in his Amores. Later he
went with his friend Macer to Sicily and passed more than a year
visiting places of interest. "Uno'V your guidance," he writes in a
Pontic Epistle, "I became acquainted with Sicily: You and I looked
at a sky glowing with Aetna's flame, vomited forth by the giant lying
under the mountain. We saw the lakes of Henna, the pools of
sulphury Palicus, and where Anapus joins Cyane to his waters. And
not far from there is the nymph (Arethusa) who fleeing the Elean
river runs even now hidden beneath the level of the sea. " Doubtless
he heard much about the myth of Proserpina from the Greek inhabi-
tants of Sicily. From them he probably learned how the Sun tried to
comfort Ceres and how during the latter part of her quest she caused
a famine.
Ovid treated the story at some length in the Fasti. In this version
he followed Callimachus closely and he gave special attention to the
places visited by Ceres and the events which later were commemorated
by ritual.
For the Metamorphoses he used Callimachus again. But he tried
to vary wherever possible from the account in the Fasti. After invent-
ing the myth of Cupid's wounding Pluto, he dealt almost entirely with
the events which would make interesting narrative. And he often
departed from Callimachus to profit by other authors or by personal
observation.
Beginning with the country near Henna, he described it attractively
from his own recollection, adding that here, as in the Golden Age,
there was perpetual spring. He indicated the pleasant rivalry between
Proserpina and her companions as to who should gather the most
flowers. Callimachus does not seem to have told who these other girls
were, and Ovid, too, was indefinite, but later he implied that among
them were the Sirens. He said in this version that Proserpina re-
mained with her companions and that they witnessed the sudden abduc-
tion. To this incident Ovid added his famous detail of Proserpina's
dropping the flowers from her tunic and grieving at their loss. Calli-
machus had imagined her calling for help from her father; but Ovid
showed her calling, more appropriately, for help from her mother.
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK V
Then Ovid departed from the traditional account. Instead of hav-
ing Pluto descend almost immediately to Hades, he showed him driving
a long distance through the country. The course lay in a southeast-
erly direction and passed near many places, which Ovid had found in-
teresting in his own experience. It went over two small lakes of the
Palici, which reeked with naphtha and sulphur, and boiled up with car-
bon dioxide gas. It passed within view of the famed city of Syracuse,
with its Great and Little Harbor. And at length it brought the
ravisher to the deep, clear spring which welled up continually and
formed the Cyane River. Ovid implied that the spring was on the
shore of the Great Harbor, although actually it lay inland about two
miles. Here he invenred a new incident. He showed the nymph Cyane
protesting and barring the way. At this, he said, Pluto opened the
earth and vanished into the Lower World. But Cyane pined and
melted into the waves of her spring. Transformation of a water nymph
into water seems to have been without precedent; but it gave a chance
for vivid description and proved convenient in the later handling of
the story.
How Ceres learned of the abduction, Ovid did not tell. The other
girls had seen Pluto lift Proserpina into his chariot and drive away
among the mountains. But Ovid implied that they did not know who
he was and could give no idea of his probable destination. Therefore,
Ceres undertook the world-wide search. A full account of this Ovid was
to give in the Fasti. He contented himself, therefore, with a very poetic
description of the manner in which the goddess carried it on and with
repeating one little known incident.
Nicander had recorded that, when Ceres visited Attica, she did not
go immediately to Eleusis. She stopped first at the cottage of an
old woman named Misme. The old woman kindly gave her water mixed
with barley. But her son, named Ascalabus, acted so rudely that at
last the goddess dashed the liquor in his face and turned him into a
spotted newt. Wishing to keep his reader's attention on Sicily, Ovid
made the locality indefinite and left nameless the old woman and her
son. This gave him the further advantage of avoiding possible confu-
sion between Ascalabus, the rude boy, and Ascalaphus, the telltale,
who was later to report the eating of the seed. While repeating
Nicander's incident, Ovid was able, by quoting an unusual phrase, to
remind his contemporaries pleasantly of a similar incident in the Self
Avenger, a much admired comedy by Terence.
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? CERES AND PROSERPINA
Callimachus had shown Ceres visiting Callisto and then the Sun,
from whom she learned her daughter's fate. These incidents Ovid
reserved for his Fasti. In the Metamorphoses he invented a quite
different story. After a world-wide quest, he said, Ceres came again
to Sicily and arrived at Cyane's pool. The friendly nymph displayed
to her Proserpina's girdle floating in the water. Ovid then used the
older tradition that Ceres despaired and caused a famine. He de-
scribed it realistically and in some detail. In the Homeric Hymn the
famine had alarmed Jupiter and caused him to intervene. But Ovid
imagined a different outcome. Inferring that her daughter was still
hidden within the limits of Sicily, the goddess punished the island with
special severity. And this brought intervention from the nymph
Arethusa, who now regarded Sicily as her home. From her Ceres
learned that Proserpina was queen of Hades.
From the time when Pluto drove off with Proserpina until the mo-
ment when Ceres learned her daughter's residence, Ovid had left the
version of Callimachus to profit by other accounts or by his own in-
vention. He now returned to it briefly. Departing in her dragon car
to heaven, Ceres appealed to Jupiter. But Ovid added some further
details. In the Homeric Hymn the Sun had tried to make Ceres con-
tent with having Pluto as a son-in-law. This attempted consolation
Ovid introduced at the time of her appeal to Jove and as coming from
Jupiter. While making this change, Ovid may have realized that in
the Theogony and elsewhere Jupiter had consented in advance to the
abduction. But in any case Jupiter was both father of Proserpina
and brother of Pluto, so that he might be expected to sympathize
with the anxiety of Ceres and yet appreciate the merits of the
abductor.
Tradition had shown Pluto giving his wife the pomegranate seed.
But Ovid invented a new incident. He imagined that even in Hades
there was a garden near the palace and that while wandering there
Proserpina ate the seeds of her own accord. He changed their num-
ber also to seven. The Manual had made Ascalaphus report Proser-
pina's action. Ovid repeated this incident, but he imagined that
Proserpina transformed him immediately by splashing him with water
of Phlegethon, and he indicated that Ascalaphus was changed into a
bird because of his malice.
But the Sirens, he declared, were transformed into birds on account
of their sympathy. This had not been the usual tradition. In several
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK V
countries men have imagined water spirits who by their seductive music
lured voyagers to destruction. South Germany told of a maiden called
the Lorelei, and Java of two celestial Gandharvis, half women and
half birds, who subjected the traveler to the fatal fascination of their
song. Similar to both of these were the Sirens. In the Odyssey they
were two maidens inhabiting an isle to the north of Sicily. They sat
in a flowery meadow and sang music which no listening mariner could
resist. The Catalogues declared that they were three maidens and
that the isle was called Anthemoessa. This became the usual tra-
dition. Greek artists of the fifth century B. C. pictured the Sirens as
birds with only the heads of women. And Lycophron made them daugh-
ters of the river Achelous. Vergil gave the Sirens their traditional
character, while telling the wanderings of Aeneas. And in a similar
context Ovid was to follow his example (Bk. 14). But Apollonius had
spoken of them as human attendants of Proserpina, who entertained
her with their singing and later were partly metamorphosed. Finding
this in the translation by Varro of Atax, Ovid declared that they
accompanied Proserpina when she was gathering flowers and after-
wards desired wings in order to join in the search. This new, attrac-
tive metamorphoses added much interest to the story. But it could
have been introduced more appropriately during the quest for Proser-
pina. At that point it would have been accurate in time and valuable
for concealing the necessary omission of other detail. By withholding
it until the reader was concerned with Proserpina's release, Ovid
tended to interrupt and confuse his main effect.
Returning again to Callimachus, Ovid mentioned the compromise by
which Proserpina was able to rejoin her mother for half the year. In
the Fasti he was to describe the delight of Ceres. And so here he
described the joy of Proserpina.
In later times the myth of Ceres and Proserpina continued to be a
favorite. Almost all subsequent authors used Ovid at least in part
and many used him entirely. Both the Fasti and the Metamorphoses
were admired. But the Metamorphoses proved at once more accessible
and more interesting.
Claudian borrowed abundantly from Ovid while composing an am-
bitious epic, The Abduction of Proserpina. He localized the tale in
Sicily and related it to Cyane, the Sirens, and Arethusa, adding that
the loss of Proserpina embittered the Sirens and gave them their well
known malevolence. Although the myth hardly bears the weight of
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? CERES AND PROSERPINA
epic treatment, Claudian's version had great charm and was preferred
even to Ovid's by both Chaucer and the youthful Milton.
Jean de Meun retold the first half of Ovid's myth in the Romance of
the Rose. Guillaume de Machaut told the whole of it briefly in his
Comfort d'Ami. In a sonnet to Laura, Petrarch alluded to Jove's de-
light at seeing his daughter return with the spring. And in the
Triumph of Love both Pluto and Proserpina followed among those
vanquished by the triumphant god. To Schiller Ovid's narrative sup-
plied a few details for his noble Lament of Ceres and his Festival at
Eleusis. To Shelley it suggested a Song of Proserpina. Tennyson
used Ovid in part for his beautiful monologue, Demeter, and the story
inspired a number of lesser poets during the nineteenth century.
Many authors recalled separately one or more of Ovid's striking
events. Dante rejected the idea that Aetna erupted because of
Typhoeus, preferring the suggestion in Ovid's speech of Pythagoras
(Bk. 15) that such activity was due to burning sulphur. But Camoens
gladly repeated Ovid's whole description.
In the Tempest Shakespeare remembered the conspiracy of Venus
and Cupid. He showed Ceres mistrusting them ever since they planned
The means, that dusky Dis my daughter got.
The events in the beautiful valley of Henna delighted many subse-
quent authors. Dante, seeing Matilda gathering flowers in the
Earthly Paradise, compared her to Proserpina at the moment when
her Mother lost her and she herself lost the springtime. And Milton
likened Eden to that fair field
Of Enna, where Proserpin gathering flowers,
Herself a fairer flower, by gloomy Dis
Was gathered--which cost Ceres all that pain
To seek her through the world.
In A Winter's Tale Shakespeare's Perdita remembered the blossoms
which Proserpina let fall from Dis' wagon and proceeded to name the
beautiful kinds which might have been among the number.
the Pierids grew still more insolent, and the Muses changed them into
nine varieties of birds, one of which was a magpie.
Taking his outline from Nicander, Ovid made several changes for
the better. He began dramatically with the sudden arrival of the new
birds lamenting their fate. This interrupted the conversation between
Athena and Urania and gave occasion for the story. Ovid probably
enlivened very much the account of the metamorphosis and he showed
all nine of the Pierids changing appropriately into the noisy and gar-
rulous magpies.
As a theme for the Pierid song, Nicander imagined first the cele-
brated war between the gods and the Giants. This Ovid had told
elsewhere (Bk. 1) and so he merely stated that the Pierid made the
story sound as unfavorable as possible for the gods. But for the lat-
ter half of the song Nicander used a recent myth dealing with the war
between the gods and Typhoeus.
In the Iliad Typhoeus was mentioned as an enemy of Jupiter" who
lay buried "in Arimi"--meaning apparently in a volcanic region of
Asia Minor inhabited by the Arimi. Much later Lycophron identified
this locality with Inarime, a volcanic island in the Bay of Naples, and
Vergil and Lucan followed his example. Meanwhile the Theogony had
given a long acount of Typhoeus--his terrible appearance and his
desperate battle with the gods. Thus he became in Greek tradition the
chief enemy of Jupiter, and Aeschylus showed him pictured on the
shield of the impious Capaneus. Pindar mentioned Typhoeus on sev-
eral occasions. He spoke of him as inhabiting a cave in Cilicia and
related his defeat with a great contemporary eruption of Mt. Aetna,
of which he gave a wonderful description. The monster, he said, lay
buried under this great mountain and was convulsing it with his furious
struggles. Aeschylus repeated the idea at some length in his
Prometheus Bound. The Manual agreed substantially with both the
Theogony and Pindar. It recorded in detail the war between Typhoeus
and the gods and then the burial of Typhoeus under the Sicilian vol-
cano. To this account Ovid alluded briefly in his Epistle of Sappho
and at greater length in the Fasti. In the, Metamorphoses he was to
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? THE MUSES AND THE PIERIDS
use the idea again; but he reserved it appropriately for Calliope's
answer. 1
In the fifth century B. C. ancient Greece became acquainted with the
venerable civilization of Egypt. Both Greeks and Egyptians soon
found resemblances between their mythologies and both were ready to
give their deities added prestige by identifying them with one another.
Thus Herodotus declared Jupiter to be a Greek equivalent of Ammon,
the great sheep deity of Thebes and Libyan Ethiopia. And he pro-
ceeded to identify many others, notably Apollo with Horus, Diana
with Bubastis, and Typhoeus with Seb. When the Greek Alexander
conquered Egypt, such identification gained a political value. It
helped the new ruler and his successors to assure the permanence of
their conquest by making Greek institutions congenial to their Egyp-
tian subjects. Alexander himself made a pilgrimage to the chief shrine
of Ammon; worshipped him as Jupiter; and pretended that he him-
self was a son of the great Egyptian deity. The Egyptians had ex-
plained their strange worship of gods in animal form by reporting that
Seb at one time threatened the other divinities and caused them to
abscond in their now familiar animal shapes. Profiting by this tra-
dition, the Alexandrian Greeks revised their account of Typhoeus. At
first, they said, Typhoeus had the advantage. The adherents of Jupi-
ter fled to the Nile valley and there assumed various animal disguises,
still held sacred by the inhabitants of Egypt. This myth was repeated
briefly in the Manual.
Nicander made it the second part of the Pierid song. For his pur-
pose the tale was doubly appropriate. It suited the impious character
of the Pierid and it included a number of remarkable transformations.
Accordingly he gave the latter part of the story in some detail, telling
how each god became the well known likeness of his Egyptian counter-,
part. Apollo, he said, became a hawk (Horus), Bacchus a goat
(Mendes), Diana a cat (Bubastis), and Mercury an ibis (Thoth).
For Ovid's Roman contemporaries the feeling towards Egyptian
myth had changed. Antony and Cleopatra had made Egypt a dan-
gerous rival of Rome. Even after their defeat, Augustus and Other
1 This was not the only explanation of volcanic activity in Mt. Aetna. Euripides
in the Cyclops related it to the buried Giant Bnceladus; Callimachus repeated the
idea; and Vergil made it famous in the Aeneid. Ovid himself followed Vergil in a
Pontic Epistle. There were also attempts by Alexandrian scientists to account for
the eruptions by natural means. Varro dealt with this material, and the young
Vergil treated it in his long andTjuite interesting poem called Aetna.
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK V
patriotic Romans thought it wise to frown on the religion and civili-
zation of the Nile. Hence in the tale of Andromeda Ovid had called
Ammon unjust. In the tale of the Pierid he tried to discredit all
identification of Roman and Egyptian deities. But he gladly repeated
Nicander's story in detail, changing Apollo from a hawk to a raven;
and he even added further metamorphoses. He included the famous
identification of Jupiter with the ram (Ammon) and invented a new
likeness of Juno to the cow (Isis), and he observed that Venus became
a fish. This transformation he probably added from the Syrian myth
of Derceto (cf. Bk. 4). In the Fasti he was to show how Typhoeus
drove Venus and Cupid to the Euphrates valley and how they escaped
on the backs of two fishes, which became the well known constellation
of the zodiac. In the song of the Pierid, Ovid mentioned all suitable
detail, yet he was careful to make the narrative brief and dry. This
emphasized the beauty of Calliope's answer.
Ovid's account of the Muses and the Pierids proved interesting for
a number of medieval poets. Jean de Meun retold it in the Romavge
of the Rose. In the Purgatorio Dante referred to Calliope and the
other Muses as vanquishing the Pierids so clearly that they despaired
of pardon. In De Vulgare Eloquio he noted the incident of the mag-
pies talking, as illustration of his belief that animals occasionally
mimic the sounds of human speech, but not intelligently, for the expres-
sion of ideas. Chaucer showed his man of law hesitating lest he appear
as much inferior to the earlier story tellers as the Pierids were to the
Muses.
The flight of the gods to Egypt also had its admirers. Jean de
Meun repeated the story. Milton alluded to it while enumerating the
followers of Satan:
After these appeared
A crew, who under names of old renown,
Osiris, Isis, Orus, and their train,
With monstrous shapes and sorceries abused
Fanatic Egypt and her priests, to seek
Their wandering gods disguised in brutish forms.
Ceres and Proserpina
In answer to the Pierid song, Ovid showed the Muse Calliope pre-
paring to sing of other mythical events. And as a contrast to the
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? CERES AND PROSERPINA
impious Pierid, he showed her beginning with the praise of a deity. In
this case it was a eulogy of Ceres. Callimachus had observed that the
goddess was the first to instruct men in agriculture and laws and so to
begin human civilization. Lucretius alluded to this idea, and Tibullus
made it the theme of an invocation to the goddess. Following both
Callimachus and Tibullus, Ovid introduced such an invocation in his
Amores and again in his Fasti. With a third passage of this kind he
now began Calliope's answer. Later he was to have Orpheus com-
mence with a similar invocation of Jupiter (Bk. 10).
The Pierid had sung of Typhoeus and his driving the gods in panic
to the Nile. In reply the Muse showed him lying vanquished beneath
Mt. Aetna. But Ovid magnified the traditional conception. He im-
agined that Typhoeus lay not only beneath the volcano but under the
entire island of Sicily and he mentioned the right hand weighted down
by the northernmost promontory Pelorus, the left hand by the far
southern Pachynus, and his feet under Lilybaeum in the west. He
added that the monster struggled under the ground, vomiting fire from
Aetna and convulsing the whole island with earthquakes.
In the tale of Callisto (Bk. 2), Ovid had shown how the ruin caused
by Phaethon led Jupiter to examine Arcadia and so to meet with
Callisto. Recalling the passage, he now showed how the earthquakes
caused by Typhoeus led Pluto to examine Sicily and meet with Proser-
pina. But this timehe added further happenings. While reconnoitering
the island, he said, Pluto passed near Mt. Eryx, a celebrated home of
Venus. In the Aeneid Vergil had imagined that the goddess feared
opposition from Dido and persuaded Cupid to inflame her with love for
Aeneas. Following Vergil's example, Ovid showed Venus dreading the
opposition of Pluto and persuading her son to inflame him with love
for Proserpina. In the tale of Daphne (Bk. 1) Cupid vanquished
Apollo by shooting him. This suggested his shooting Pluto and ex-
plained the god's sudden love. With this interesting prelude Ovid
began the tale of Ceres and Proserpina.
Both goddesses had appeared occasionally in the Iliad and the
Odyssey. Ceres was a humble deity of the country folk and a former
favorite of Jove. Proserpina was Jupiter's daughter and a dread
goddess of the Lower World. But nothing suggests that Ceres was
regarded as the mother of Proserpina. This relation did not appear
until somewhat later.
In a number of countries the simple harvesters have imagined that
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK V
there were two spirits of the ripe grain. With the piles of dry stalks
they associated an old woman; with the seed grain, her young and
beautiful daughter. Often they represented the two spirits by weav-
ing the fallen grain into rude images or by dressing an old woman and
a young girl with freshly cut stalks and ears. And they honored them
with simple rites on the harvest field. India and the Malay Countries
gave such worship to the Rice Mother and the Rice Baby; Scotland
to the Harvest Mother and the Maiden; Greece to Ceres and the
Maiden, Proserpina.
During the autumn the seed grain disappeared beneath the ground.
There followed the winter, a sad period when fruits were no longer
produced. But with the spring the new grain appeared and brought
in a time of rejoicing. This change of seasons the early Greeks per-
sonified. They imagined that Proserpina was carried off by the dread
god of the Lower World; that Ceres mourned her loss and withheld
the fruits of the fields; and that Proserpinareturned bringing glad-
ness in the spring. Beginning with the seventh century B. C. , this
myth was commemorated annually at the shrine of Eleusis near Athens.
A temple was built, which became one of the most beautiful examples
of sacred architecture. And the abduction of Proserpina was repre-
sented dramatically in the elaborate rites of the Eleusinian Mysteries.
These we^e influenced in part by similar Egyptian rites commemorat-
ing the search of Isis for her lost Osiris. And the return of Proserpina
from the Lower World, like the recovery of Osiris, was associated
with the possibility of human immortality (cf. Semele Bk. 3).
The god of the Lower World, who carried off Proserpina, was at
first called Hades. He was brother of Jupiter and had acquired by
lot a third of the world. But his portion was the gloomy region of
the dead. Ceres and Proserpina were thought of as conferring wealth;
and Hades by contrast was sterile and destructive. But in time he was
associated with the riches of various kinds which men hoped to draw
from beneath the surface of the earth. Hence he was called Pluto,
the god of wealth. And this name the Romans translated as Dives,
which they shortened to Dis.
The Odyssey had said only that Proserpina's father was Jove. The
Eleusinian Mysteries had said only that her mother was Ceres. Both
parents appeared in the Theogony, and the poet referred also to the
abduction by Pluto. Jupiter, he said, allowed Pluto to carry off
Proserpina and make her his queen.
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? CERES AND PROSERPINA
The Homeric Hymn to Ceres told the story in detail and with
obvious reference to the ceremony at Eleusis. It localized the event in
a mythical island of Nysa. Jupiter and Pluto arranged for the abduc-
tion and caused Earth to grow a supernatural plant, called a narcissus.
Proserpina, accompanied by Athena, Diana, and the Ocean nymphs,
went out to gather flowers and unwarily touched the magic plant.
The ground opened, and Pluto carried her away. As he did so, Proser-
pina called loudly the name of her father. Alarmed by the cry, Ceres
kindled torches and sought her daughter, fasting, for nine days. Then
Hecate, a goddess of night, informed her that Proserpina had been ab-
ducted. By her counsel Ceres inquired further of the Sun. He? told her
that the ravisher was Pluto and advised her to be content, for she had
gained a worthy son-in-law--her own brother and the ruler of a third
of the world. But Ceres remained disconsolate and wandered in the
disguise of an old woman to Eleusis. Here she was received into the
palace of King Celeus and established the famous Mysteries. Still
disconsolate, she withheld fruits from the ground and so threatened
to deprive the gods of the sustenance which they obtained from offer-
ings (cf. Lycaon Bk. 1). In vain Jupiter sent Iris and others^ to
appease her. Finally he sent Mercury to call Proserpina back from
the Lower World. \
Pluto consented to her return but secretly caused her to eat a
pomegranate seed. This was an act of great significance. To savage
tribes throughout the world it has seemed possible for living men to
visit the realm of the dead, and to return. But according to almost
all these peoples they must remain below, if they eat the food of the
dead; For this reason Pluto gave the pomegranate seed to his queen.
Yet he seems to have given her so little that the law applied only^ in
part. She might go with Mercury to her mother; but must return to
Pluto for the four months of winter. Ceres guessed what Pluto
had done, and Proserpina admitted that it was so. Then Rhea, the
mother of Ceres, persuaded her to reenter Olympus and give an ample
harvest.
Part of this myth Euripides retold somewhat differently in his
Helen. He said that Athena and Diana aided Ceres in the quest but
that Jupiter thwarted them. Among the snowy thickets of Trojan Ida,
the Goddess at length despaired and brought on a famine. But Jupiter
consoled her by sending Venus with the Muses and the Graces.
The Manual retold the myth with the following important changes:
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK V
The event occurred near Hermione in southeastern Greece. Pluto saw
Proserpina by chance and, falling suddenly in love, carried her away.
This misfortune Ceres learned eventually from the people of Hermione.
When Mercury descended in quest of Proserpina, a certain Ascalaphus,
child of the river Acheron, witnessed the eating of the pomegranate
seed and testified against her. Displeased, Proserpina laid a rock on
him and later metamorphosed him ij? to a screech owl.
Meanwhile Timreus had localized the myth in Sicily. Proserpina, he
said, was abducted near Henna, a town in the center of the island and
famous for the worship of Ceres and Proserpina. Pluto drove off
with her in his chariot and, finding that his steeds were dazzled by the
unfamiliar sunlight, he descended into the earth through a chasm still
visible near the town. For the quest, Ceres did not use ordinary
torches but pines kindled in the flames of Mt. Aetna.
In a Hymn to Ceres Callimachus mentioned a number of localities
which the goddess visited during her search. For the Origins he used
several earlier versions and retold the whole story to the following
effect: At the time of the abduction, the nymph Arethusa had invited
Ceres and other goddesses to a banquet on the isle Ortygia, near
Syracuse. Proserpina, accompanied by some other girls, went out
from Henna to gather flowers. She strayed from the rest. Pluto saw
her and carried her down the chasm near the village. Although Proser-
pina called for help from her father, no one heard. Unable to find
her, the other girls told Ceres that she was missing. At first the
mother tried to discover her daughter by following the prints of her
bare feet. But they were obscured by numerous tracks of a pig. This
event Callimachus probably gave as the reason why swine were the
victims offered regularly at festivals of Ceres and Proserpina.
Then Ceres kindled pines on Mt. Aetna and wandered over the
whole of Sicily. From there she proceeded in her dragon car to Eleusis
and established the Mysteries. Thence she continued her search
throughout the known world. She visited Callisto, the Great Bear,
who watches through the night; and finally the Sun, who sees all things
by (fay. Learning the truth from him, she appealed to Jupiter.
Mercury, departing immediately to Hades, returned with the news
that Proserpina had eaten food of the dead. But she had not eaten
one seed, requiring her to remain four months. She had eaten three,
requiring her to remain twelve months. At this Ceres threatened to
leave the world and enter Hades. Jupiter, alarmed at the prospect,
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? CERES AND PROSERPINA
arranged a compromise by which Proserpina was to spend six months
with Pluto and the other six with her mother.
The Sicilian versions of the myth became well known to the Romans.
Cicero dealt with them at some length in an oration against Verres.
Ovid himself had referred to the story in his Amores. Later he
went with his friend Macer to Sicily and passed more than a year
visiting places of interest. "Uno'V your guidance," he writes in a
Pontic Epistle, "I became acquainted with Sicily: You and I looked
at a sky glowing with Aetna's flame, vomited forth by the giant lying
under the mountain. We saw the lakes of Henna, the pools of
sulphury Palicus, and where Anapus joins Cyane to his waters. And
not far from there is the nymph (Arethusa) who fleeing the Elean
river runs even now hidden beneath the level of the sea. " Doubtless
he heard much about the myth of Proserpina from the Greek inhabi-
tants of Sicily. From them he probably learned how the Sun tried to
comfort Ceres and how during the latter part of her quest she caused
a famine.
Ovid treated the story at some length in the Fasti. In this version
he followed Callimachus closely and he gave special attention to the
places visited by Ceres and the events which later were commemorated
by ritual.
For the Metamorphoses he used Callimachus again. But he tried
to vary wherever possible from the account in the Fasti. After invent-
ing the myth of Cupid's wounding Pluto, he dealt almost entirely with
the events which would make interesting narrative. And he often
departed from Callimachus to profit by other authors or by personal
observation.
Beginning with the country near Henna, he described it attractively
from his own recollection, adding that here, as in the Golden Age,
there was perpetual spring. He indicated the pleasant rivalry between
Proserpina and her companions as to who should gather the most
flowers. Callimachus does not seem to have told who these other girls
were, and Ovid, too, was indefinite, but later he implied that among
them were the Sirens. He said in this version that Proserpina re-
mained with her companions and that they witnessed the sudden abduc-
tion. To this incident Ovid added his famous detail of Proserpina's
dropping the flowers from her tunic and grieving at their loss. Calli-
machus had imagined her calling for help from her father; but Ovid
showed her calling, more appropriately, for help from her mother.
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK V
Then Ovid departed from the traditional account. Instead of hav-
ing Pluto descend almost immediately to Hades, he showed him driving
a long distance through the country. The course lay in a southeast-
erly direction and passed near many places, which Ovid had found in-
teresting in his own experience. It went over two small lakes of the
Palici, which reeked with naphtha and sulphur, and boiled up with car-
bon dioxide gas. It passed within view of the famed city of Syracuse,
with its Great and Little Harbor. And at length it brought the
ravisher to the deep, clear spring which welled up continually and
formed the Cyane River. Ovid implied that the spring was on the
shore of the Great Harbor, although actually it lay inland about two
miles. Here he invenred a new incident. He showed the nymph Cyane
protesting and barring the way. At this, he said, Pluto opened the
earth and vanished into the Lower World. But Cyane pined and
melted into the waves of her spring. Transformation of a water nymph
into water seems to have been without precedent; but it gave a chance
for vivid description and proved convenient in the later handling of
the story.
How Ceres learned of the abduction, Ovid did not tell. The other
girls had seen Pluto lift Proserpina into his chariot and drive away
among the mountains. But Ovid implied that they did not know who
he was and could give no idea of his probable destination. Therefore,
Ceres undertook the world-wide search. A full account of this Ovid was
to give in the Fasti. He contented himself, therefore, with a very poetic
description of the manner in which the goddess carried it on and with
repeating one little known incident.
Nicander had recorded that, when Ceres visited Attica, she did not
go immediately to Eleusis. She stopped first at the cottage of an
old woman named Misme. The old woman kindly gave her water mixed
with barley. But her son, named Ascalabus, acted so rudely that at
last the goddess dashed the liquor in his face and turned him into a
spotted newt. Wishing to keep his reader's attention on Sicily, Ovid
made the locality indefinite and left nameless the old woman and her
son. This gave him the further advantage of avoiding possible confu-
sion between Ascalabus, the rude boy, and Ascalaphus, the telltale,
who was later to report the eating of the seed. While repeating
Nicander's incident, Ovid was able, by quoting an unusual phrase, to
remind his contemporaries pleasantly of a similar incident in the Self
Avenger, a much admired comedy by Terence.
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? CERES AND PROSERPINA
Callimachus had shown Ceres visiting Callisto and then the Sun,
from whom she learned her daughter's fate. These incidents Ovid
reserved for his Fasti. In the Metamorphoses he invented a quite
different story. After a world-wide quest, he said, Ceres came again
to Sicily and arrived at Cyane's pool. The friendly nymph displayed
to her Proserpina's girdle floating in the water. Ovid then used the
older tradition that Ceres despaired and caused a famine. He de-
scribed it realistically and in some detail. In the Homeric Hymn the
famine had alarmed Jupiter and caused him to intervene. But Ovid
imagined a different outcome. Inferring that her daughter was still
hidden within the limits of Sicily, the goddess punished the island with
special severity. And this brought intervention from the nymph
Arethusa, who now regarded Sicily as her home. From her Ceres
learned that Proserpina was queen of Hades.
From the time when Pluto drove off with Proserpina until the mo-
ment when Ceres learned her daughter's residence, Ovid had left the
version of Callimachus to profit by other accounts or by his own in-
vention. He now returned to it briefly. Departing in her dragon car
to heaven, Ceres appealed to Jupiter. But Ovid added some further
details. In the Homeric Hymn the Sun had tried to make Ceres con-
tent with having Pluto as a son-in-law. This attempted consolation
Ovid introduced at the time of her appeal to Jove and as coming from
Jupiter. While making this change, Ovid may have realized that in
the Theogony and elsewhere Jupiter had consented in advance to the
abduction. But in any case Jupiter was both father of Proserpina
and brother of Pluto, so that he might be expected to sympathize
with the anxiety of Ceres and yet appreciate the merits of the
abductor.
Tradition had shown Pluto giving his wife the pomegranate seed.
But Ovid invented a new incident. He imagined that even in Hades
there was a garden near the palace and that while wandering there
Proserpina ate the seeds of her own accord. He changed their num-
ber also to seven. The Manual had made Ascalaphus report Proser-
pina's action. Ovid repeated this incident, but he imagined that
Proserpina transformed him immediately by splashing him with water
of Phlegethon, and he indicated that Ascalaphus was changed into a
bird because of his malice.
But the Sirens, he declared, were transformed into birds on account
of their sympathy. This had not been the usual tradition. In several
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK V
countries men have imagined water spirits who by their seductive music
lured voyagers to destruction. South Germany told of a maiden called
the Lorelei, and Java of two celestial Gandharvis, half women and
half birds, who subjected the traveler to the fatal fascination of their
song. Similar to both of these were the Sirens. In the Odyssey they
were two maidens inhabiting an isle to the north of Sicily. They sat
in a flowery meadow and sang music which no listening mariner could
resist. The Catalogues declared that they were three maidens and
that the isle was called Anthemoessa. This became the usual tra-
dition. Greek artists of the fifth century B. C. pictured the Sirens as
birds with only the heads of women. And Lycophron made them daugh-
ters of the river Achelous. Vergil gave the Sirens their traditional
character, while telling the wanderings of Aeneas. And in a similar
context Ovid was to follow his example (Bk. 14). But Apollonius had
spoken of them as human attendants of Proserpina, who entertained
her with their singing and later were partly metamorphosed. Finding
this in the translation by Varro of Atax, Ovid declared that they
accompanied Proserpina when she was gathering flowers and after-
wards desired wings in order to join in the search. This new, attrac-
tive metamorphoses added much interest to the story. But it could
have been introduced more appropriately during the quest for Proser-
pina. At that point it would have been accurate in time and valuable
for concealing the necessary omission of other detail. By withholding
it until the reader was concerned with Proserpina's release, Ovid
tended to interrupt and confuse his main effect.
Returning again to Callimachus, Ovid mentioned the compromise by
which Proserpina was able to rejoin her mother for half the year. In
the Fasti he was to describe the delight of Ceres. And so here he
described the joy of Proserpina.
In later times the myth of Ceres and Proserpina continued to be a
favorite. Almost all subsequent authors used Ovid at least in part
and many used him entirely. Both the Fasti and the Metamorphoses
were admired. But the Metamorphoses proved at once more accessible
and more interesting.
Claudian borrowed abundantly from Ovid while composing an am-
bitious epic, The Abduction of Proserpina. He localized the tale in
Sicily and related it to Cyane, the Sirens, and Arethusa, adding that
the loss of Proserpina embittered the Sirens and gave them their well
known malevolence. Although the myth hardly bears the weight of
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? CERES AND PROSERPINA
epic treatment, Claudian's version had great charm and was preferred
even to Ovid's by both Chaucer and the youthful Milton.
Jean de Meun retold the first half of Ovid's myth in the Romance of
the Rose. Guillaume de Machaut told the whole of it briefly in his
Comfort d'Ami. In a sonnet to Laura, Petrarch alluded to Jove's de-
light at seeing his daughter return with the spring. And in the
Triumph of Love both Pluto and Proserpina followed among those
vanquished by the triumphant god. To Schiller Ovid's narrative sup-
plied a few details for his noble Lament of Ceres and his Festival at
Eleusis. To Shelley it suggested a Song of Proserpina. Tennyson
used Ovid in part for his beautiful monologue, Demeter, and the story
inspired a number of lesser poets during the nineteenth century.
Many authors recalled separately one or more of Ovid's striking
events. Dante rejected the idea that Aetna erupted because of
Typhoeus, preferring the suggestion in Ovid's speech of Pythagoras
(Bk. 15) that such activity was due to burning sulphur. But Camoens
gladly repeated Ovid's whole description.
In the Tempest Shakespeare remembered the conspiracy of Venus
and Cupid. He showed Ceres mistrusting them ever since they planned
The means, that dusky Dis my daughter got.
The events in the beautiful valley of Henna delighted many subse-
quent authors. Dante, seeing Matilda gathering flowers in the
Earthly Paradise, compared her to Proserpina at the moment when
her Mother lost her and she herself lost the springtime. And Milton
likened Eden to that fair field
Of Enna, where Proserpin gathering flowers,
Herself a fairer flower, by gloomy Dis
Was gathered--which cost Ceres all that pain
To seek her through the world.
In A Winter's Tale Shakespeare's Perdita remembered the blossoms
which Proserpina let fall from Dis' wagon and proceeded to name the
beautiful kinds which might have been among the number.
