Ovid pictured Alpheus as
understanding
the ruse and himself deli-
quescing in pursuit.
quescing in pursuit.
Ovid - 1934 - Metamorphoses in European Culture - v1
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. Hawthorne
recalled the Joss of the flowers in his own charming account of Proser-
pina, and Swinburne remembered it in his monologue At Eleusis.
Another favorite incident of Ovid's myth was Proserpina's eating
the pomegranate seeds, which required her to spend half of every year
among the dead. Lucan suggested that this could not be the true
reason. He implied that Proserpina remained in the dark realm from
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? pjl ^ METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK V
a sense of guilt and he showed the witch Erichtho threatening to reveal
the secret food and dalliance which made her shun the light of day.
But most authors accepted Ovid's reason. Goethe treated the incident
of thejomegranate at great length in his comedy^J/VieTjrvumph of
Sensibility. Kossetti used it as~a theme for both poetry and painting.
And Hawthorne retold it, altering the number of seeds to six--one
for every month that Proserpina must remain with Dis.
Ovid's idea of an infernal garden probably inspired Spenser's long
and beautiful description of the Garden of Proserpina. And Chaucer
in the Troilus showed his hero noting that the screech owl is named
"Ascaphilo. "
In the field of painting Ovid's myth of Proserpina was treated by
Schiaffino, Rubens, Van Uden, Boulogne, and Walter Crane. And
Van Uden painted Cyane.
Bernini treated Proserpina in a beautiful piece of sculpture.
Arethusa
In the previous tale about Ceres, Ovid had introduced the nymph
Arethusa. Alluding to her migration from Elis to Ortygia, he de-
clared that her way took her through Hades, the realm of Pluto and
Proserpina. This much had been essential for his account of Ceres and
her daughter. But further detail would have interrupted an inter-
esting narrative. Therefore he showed Arethusa courteously deferring
the rest until a more favorable time. After the return of Proserpina,
he imagined that Ceres revisited the nymph and learned her marvellous
history.
The myth had originated in southern Greece and dealt with Alpheus,
a large river of Arcadia and Elis which flowed into the Adriatic Sea.
At first this river was supposed to have loved and pursued the goddess
Diana. In the earliest version she eluded him by daubing her face with
mud. When the Eleans founded a colony in Ortygia, they imagined
that Diana had taken refuge there. While coursing through Arcadia,
the Alpheus had a peculiar habit of disappearing underground and
then emerging unimpaired some distance farther on. And so the
Greeks imagined that he could follow Diana even to Ortygia. Instead
of mingling with the Adriatic, they said, he disappeared under Jhe
salt water and rose still fresh by the shores of the Sicilian isle. To
this myth Pindar alluded in a Nemean Ode.
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? ARETHUSA
With the advance of Greek civilization Diana became increasingly
important as a great maiden goddess. The idea of her being hard
pressed by Alpheus was no longer acceptable. But the Eleans were
familiar with such myths about her attendants. Daphne and Syrinx
had both been virgin huntresses who barely escaped the pursuit of a
divine lover. Hence they imagined that another attendant of Diana
had fled Alpheus and taken refuge in Ortygia. At Pisa in Elis there
was a spring called Arethusa, and the Elean colonists had given the
name also to a large spring which rose mysteriously near the shore
of Ortygia. It occurred to them that the huntress, unable to escape
by flight, could have become the Elean spring and then passed under-
ground to their island. And they imagined that Alpheus overtook
Arethusa at the place where the spring overflowed into the sea.
This version of the story became very well known. Callimachus may
have told it briefly in his account of Proserpina. Moschus alluded to
it; and Vergil mentioned it in both the Tenth Eclogue and the Aeneid.
In the Georgics Vergil introduced Arethusa under circumstances both
new and interesting. He said that she was once a fleet huntress but
had laid aside her arrows and become an attendant of Cyrene. When
Aristseus called on his mother, Arethusa was the first to raise her
golden head above the waves and heed the cry of distress.
Callimachus had made it natural to associate Arethusa with the
loss of Proserpina. Vergil had implied that she was quick to heed and
relieve the distressed. Therefore Ovid showed her intervening between
Ceres and the famine stricken people of Sicily. Vergil suggested also
Ovid's two descriptions of the manner in which she raised her head
above the waters. Ovid was able, however, to add further details and
give an even more pleasing effect. Callimachus and Vergil offered a
few hints as to the nature of the story. But Ovid himself had to
supply the animation and brilliant detail.
Profiting by the similar myths of Daphne and Syrinx, he described
Arethusa as beautiful yet averse to love and devoted to the chase. He
showed her hunting in the Stymphalian Wood, a place familiar through
the adventures of Hercules (cf. Bk. 9), and descending at noon to the
clear shady stream of Alpheus. In reality the Stymphalian Wood lay
very far from the river Alpheus; but Ovid could assume that his read-
ers would not inquire so curiously. The young Hermaphroditus, he
remembered, had been tempted to bathe in a similar pleasing body of
water and had won the love of the water spirit (Bk. 4). He imagined
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK V
a similar adventure of Arethusa, giving it appropriately different
details. But Arethusa was able to gain the shore and flee. Alpheus
left the stream and pursued.
Ovid indicated briefly a long, eager chase through Arcadia into Elis
with the pursuer at last on the point of overtaking the terrified nymph.
Daphne had felt the god's breath on her hair and appealed desperately
for aid. Ovid repeated this in the case of Arethusa. Then he imag-
ined the sudden mist shrouding her from the god and her rapid melting
into a stream. This change afforded him not only vivid description
but an interesting contrast with the earlier transformation of Cyane.
Ovid pictured Alpheus as understanding the ruse and himself deli-
quescing in pursuit. Thus it became necessary for Diana to open the
earth and conduct the nymph by way of Hades to Ortygia. Tradition
had allowed Alpheus to follow and overtake Arethusa, and in the
Amores Ovid himself mentioned this event. But in the Metamorphoses
he wisely implied the contrary.
Ovid's brilliant myth attracted a number of later authors. Hilde-
bert of Lavardin, a Latin poet of the twelfth century, gracefully imi-
tated the incident of Arethusa bathing for his account of Susannah.
In the Inferno Dante alluded conspicuously to the transformation of
Arethusa. From her Tasso took the character of Dafne, heroine of
his Aminta. Spenser followed Ovid in part for the tale of a huntress
changed into a spring, which the Palmer recounted to Sir Guyon.
Pope in Windsor Forest borrowed details of the pursuit for his myth
of Lodona. And to Shelley Ovid probably gave at least the subject of
his very original poem Arethusa.
At Rouen Ovid's myth inspired the sculpture of a public fountain.
Triptolemus and Lyncus
It had been usual to suppose that Ceres, comforted by the presence
of her daughter, restored fertility in the famine stricken fields. Ovid
added a further circumstance. Not content, he said, with renewing
agriculture where it had existed already, she extended the knowledge
of grain into new countries. Hitherto this had been told as a separate
event.
The earlier part of the myth grew out of a world-wide fear among
savage tribes that their children might suffer from witchcraft and
evil spells. In almost all countries it was thought an effective remedy
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? TRIPTOLEMUS AND LYNCUS
to pass the newborn child over the fire, bringing him as near as pos-
sible to the flames. Such a rite was dangerous; and a slight error
might be fatal to the child. Hence any sudden noise or interruption
was strictly forbidden. If a deity were to perform the rite, it was
thought possible, and even more beneficial, to lay the child in the fire
itself.
Out of such practices, there grew an important event in the Egyp-
tian myth of Isis. While seeking her lost husband, Isis took the dis-
guise of an old woman and sat mourning by the well of Byblus. Here
the King's daughters took pity on her and persuaded her to return
with them as nurse of their infant brother. Grateful for the kindness,
she planned to give the child supernatural protection. By day she
offered him no food but allowed him to suck her finger. By night she
laid him in the fire. But one night the queen observed the process and
cried out in alarm. This broke the spell and frustrated the divine pur-
pose. Isis revealed herself, however, and taught the king certain other
famous rites.
The Greeks related the idea of protection through exposure to fire
with a belief that under certain conditions it was possible to burn
away the perishable elements in a man's nature and leave him a pure
immortal spirit. This belief Ovid was to introduce later in his account
of Hercules (Bk. 9). Probably influenced by the myth of Isis, the
two ideas appeared in a similar adventure of Ceres. It was related at
some length in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter. While in quest of
Proserpina, the goddess took the form of an old woman and sat by
the well of Eleusis. Here the four daughters of King Celeus pitied her
and arranged to have her nurse their infant brother, Demophoon.
Ceres, too, gave the infant supernatural care. Instead of offering him
food, she anointed him with ambrosia and by night she laid him in
the fire, with the idea of giving him immortality. In this case, too,
the mother broke the spell. The goddess predicted, however, that the
child should obtain unusual honor. She then taught the Eleusinian
Mysteries to Celeus and his leading men, among whom was a certain
Triptolemus.
In the fifth century B. C. , Triptolemus had gained a much more
prominent place. He now was regarded as a child of King Celeus.
While he was still a very young man, it was said, the goddess allowed
him to ride in her magic car and caused him to go out from Athens
and teach all peoples the cultivation of grain. Sophocles made
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK V
Triptolemus the theme of his earliest tragedy. In Greek art the myth
was long popular. At Eleusis a beautiful relief showed the youth
standing between Ceres and Proserpina and obtaining from the elder
goddess the ears of grain which he was to distribute through the world.
Other works of art represented him as traveling through the air in
her magic car. Sometimes this was provided with wings. At other
times two dragons were shown drawing it rapidly between earth and
sky.
Following the newer tradition, the Manual declared Triptolemus an
older brother of the infant Demophoon. When the queen interrupted
the purification, it continued, Demophoon perished in the flames. But
the goddess transferred her favor to Triptolemus and sent him forth
as teacher of the art of agriculture.
Callimachus gave the myth a quite different form. He made
Triptolemus himself the infant nursling. Celeus he represented not
as a king but as an old and pious farmer. And he retold the myth
as a tale of humble life. Celeus and his daughter, returning from their
labor in the fields, found Ceres by the well of Eleusis and persuaded her
to pass the night in their simple home. Triptolemus was then lying
sick and at the point of death. The goddess healed him and later
tried to give him immortality by laying him in the fire. Prevented by
the mother's interference, she declared that he should be the first to
teach the raising of grain.
Among Roman poets the myth of Triptolemus was well known.
Lucretius noted that from Athens there first came laws and grain.
Vergil alluded to the mission of Triptolemus in both his Culex and his
Georgics. And in both the Amores^nd the Tristia Ovid longed for
the young man's dragon car. In the Fasti he was to repeat at some
length the version of Callimachus.
For the Metamorphoses this account "would have been unsuitable.
If Triptolemus himself had been the nursling, he must be a mere infant.
Ovid assumed with the Manual that he had been an older brother and
imagined him as the youth well known in works of art. Feeling con-
fident that Triptolemus would be immediately recognized, Ovid intro-
duced him abruptly without attempting any identification. And he
proceeded at once to the mission. After hearing the tale of Arethusa,
he said, Ceres flew to Athens and despatched Triptolemus in her car,
telling him not only to restore the losses of the famine but also to
teach agriculture in lands where hitherto it was unknown.
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? TRIPTOLEMUS AND LYNCUS
The idea of such a mission was picturesque, but Ovid used it chiefly
for the sake of one little known incident. Nicander had given this as
follows: In Scythia Triptolemus visited the court of a certain
King Lyncus. Learning his purpose, the king resolved to kill the
youth while he slept and himself get the credit of introducing grain.
He attempted this and Ceres transformed him into a lynx. This tale
Ovid repeated. Nicander added that the beast had spotted fur as an
emblem of the king's fickle mind. But, since the characteristic was not
evident from the story, Ovid wisely left it out.
The myth of Triptolemus and Lyncus drew little attention in later
times. Yet it was recalled quite interestingly by Scott. In his novel,
The Pirate, Scott had occasion to describe an agent despatched to
improve agriculture in the uncivilized north. And, recalling Ovid, he
named this character Triptolemus Yellowleigh.
While writing the Fifth Book, Ovid used a few tales, such as the
myths of Polydectes and Proserpina, which were of early origin and
often treated in Greek literature. But he took them from compara-
tively late versions. Most of the tales appeared first in Alexandrian
times. Callimachus furnished Ovid several of the best, and Nicander
provided many stories, which were valuable chiefly as incidents. The
Manual gave the mere outline for the material about Perseus and a
few episodes of the later tales. Throughout the book Greek art was of
considerable importance. None of this Greek material was known to
the Middle Ages and much of it perished altogether. And although
the tales were well known at Rome, they received little notice from
previous Roman literature. It was Ovid who preserved and made
them accessible for later times.
In Ovid's hands this earlier material gained very much. He im-
proved it by the example of other great poetry. The Iliad and the
Odyssey contributed frequently to the battle of Perseus and Phineusv
Vergil aided much both in the battle and in the story of Proserpina and
gave most valuable suggestions for Arethusa. Tibullus and Varro of
Atax provided attractive incident. With ideas from his own earlier
tales Ovid enlivened the important stories of Arethusa and Proserpina.
And, even more than usual, he profited by his own experience and in-
vention.
In the latter half of the book, Ovid found an unusually difficult
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK V
problem of adjustment. Several tales had been related to one another
by material which he needed for the Fasti and did not wish to repeat
And many tales were not related to one another at all. Ovid resorted
*o a device which had proved effective in the earlier half of the previous
book. He enclosed one story within another. But here he did this
more elaborately than anywhere else in his poem. In his own person
he told how Pallas visited the Muses. During the visit he allowed the
Muse Urania to narrate first the adventure with Pj'reneus and then
the contest with the Pierids. The latter included both the song of the
Pierid and Calliope's reply. Each of these permitted further en-
closure, for the Pierid recounted the war of the Giants and the flight
from Typhoeus, and Calliope sang of Proserpina, Arethusa, and
Triptolemus. But the process did not end even there, for the myth of
Proserpina comprised four lesser tales, and the mission of
Triptolemus included an adventure with Lyncus. A solution of this
kind must bring disadvantage. Artifice pushed so far became dan-
gerously obvious and it led finally to a crowding of denouements that
was even bewildering. Thus Ovid made three stories end together with
the transformation of Lyncus: immediately after he closed two more
simultaneously with the metamorphosis of the Pierids; and he avoided
still another termination only by the mechanical trick of concluding
the book. Nevertheless Ovid's boldness was justified by success.
Readers in all subsequent times have forgotten his artifice in wonder
at his skill. And men have been willing to pardon much in a device
which rewarded them with such remarkable tales.
In later periods the Fifth Book had an important effect. It influ-
enced to an unusual degree the Roman poets Lucan and Claudian.
It was popular during the Middle Ages and was much used in
the Renaissance and later times. More than the previous books it
was notable for giving hints which a modern author developed inde-
pendently with great success, as when Ovid's mention of an infernal
garden near Pluto's residence suggested Spenser's great dscription of
the Garden of Proserpina.
Among authors who seldom used Ovid, this book attracted both
Goethe and Scott. It suggested important passages of Tasso and
Spenser and some of the most beautiful poetry of Dante, Shakespeare,
and Milton. Jean de Meun retold more than half the book.
A few tales interested modern painters, and the tales of Proserpina
and Arethusa inspired works of sculpture.
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? CHIEF AUTHORS, ARTISTS, AND MUSICIANS:
Chronological Table
B. C. 900
Ionia
B. C. 800
Ionia and Attica
Boeotia
B. C. 600
Isles of Greece
B. C. 500
Athens and Thebes
B. C. 400
Athens
Alexandria
B. C. 300
Alexandria
Asia Minor
B. C. 200
Rome
B. C. 100
A. D. 1-100
A. D. 200
Greece and Rome
A. D. 500
A. D. 700
France
A. D. 1100
France and England
The Iliad
The Odyssey
Cyclic Epics (Continuing until the 6th century)
Homeric Hymns (Continuing until the 6th century)
Hesiod (The Works and-Days) Hesiodic Poems: The
Theogony, Catalogues, Shield of Hercules, etc.
Sappho
Anacreon Stesichorus Timaeus Bacchylides
Pindar (522-448) Aeschylus (525-456) Sophocles (496-
406) Herodotus Euripides (480-406) Aristophanes
Thucydides
Plato (427-347) Antimachus Praxiteles Menander
Phanocles Hermesianax Philetas
Theocritus Aratus Callimachus Herondas Eratos-
thenes Apollonius The Manual Bion Nicander
Ennius Pacuvius Moschus (Greek, Asia Minor)
Terence Accius
Lucretius Catullus Cicero (106-43) Varro (116-28)
Parthenius (Greek) Vergil (70-19) Gallus Tibullus
Horace (65-8) Propertius Varro of Atax
OVID (B. C. 43-A. D. 18) Elder Seneca Younger Seneca
Lucan Statius Martial
Apollodorus Hyginus Valerius Flaccus
Fulgentius Planciades
Charlemagne's Court (775-800)
Provengal Poets Benoit de St. Maure Joseph of Exeter
Chretien de Troyes (1140-1191) John of Salisbury
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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. Hawthorne
recalled the Joss of the flowers in his own charming account of Proser-
pina, and Swinburne remembered it in his monologue At Eleusis.
Another favorite incident of Ovid's myth was Proserpina's eating
the pomegranate seeds, which required her to spend half of every year
among the dead. Lucan suggested that this could not be the true
reason. He implied that Proserpina remained in the dark realm from
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? pjl ^ METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK V
a sense of guilt and he showed the witch Erichtho threatening to reveal
the secret food and dalliance which made her shun the light of day.
But most authors accepted Ovid's reason. Goethe treated the incident
of thejomegranate at great length in his comedy^J/VieTjrvumph of
Sensibility. Kossetti used it as~a theme for both poetry and painting.
And Hawthorne retold it, altering the number of seeds to six--one
for every month that Proserpina must remain with Dis.
Ovid's idea of an infernal garden probably inspired Spenser's long
and beautiful description of the Garden of Proserpina. And Chaucer
in the Troilus showed his hero noting that the screech owl is named
"Ascaphilo. "
In the field of painting Ovid's myth of Proserpina was treated by
Schiaffino, Rubens, Van Uden, Boulogne, and Walter Crane. And
Van Uden painted Cyane.
Bernini treated Proserpina in a beautiful piece of sculpture.
Arethusa
In the previous tale about Ceres, Ovid had introduced the nymph
Arethusa. Alluding to her migration from Elis to Ortygia, he de-
clared that her way took her through Hades, the realm of Pluto and
Proserpina. This much had been essential for his account of Ceres and
her daughter. But further detail would have interrupted an inter-
esting narrative. Therefore he showed Arethusa courteously deferring
the rest until a more favorable time. After the return of Proserpina,
he imagined that Ceres revisited the nymph and learned her marvellous
history.
The myth had originated in southern Greece and dealt with Alpheus,
a large river of Arcadia and Elis which flowed into the Adriatic Sea.
At first this river was supposed to have loved and pursued the goddess
Diana. In the earliest version she eluded him by daubing her face with
mud. When the Eleans founded a colony in Ortygia, they imagined
that Diana had taken refuge there. While coursing through Arcadia,
the Alpheus had a peculiar habit of disappearing underground and
then emerging unimpaired some distance farther on. And so the
Greeks imagined that he could follow Diana even to Ortygia. Instead
of mingling with the Adriatic, they said, he disappeared under Jhe
salt water and rose still fresh by the shores of the Sicilian isle. To
this myth Pindar alluded in a Nemean Ode.
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? ARETHUSA
With the advance of Greek civilization Diana became increasingly
important as a great maiden goddess. The idea of her being hard
pressed by Alpheus was no longer acceptable. But the Eleans were
familiar with such myths about her attendants. Daphne and Syrinx
had both been virgin huntresses who barely escaped the pursuit of a
divine lover. Hence they imagined that another attendant of Diana
had fled Alpheus and taken refuge in Ortygia. At Pisa in Elis there
was a spring called Arethusa, and the Elean colonists had given the
name also to a large spring which rose mysteriously near the shore
of Ortygia. It occurred to them that the huntress, unable to escape
by flight, could have become the Elean spring and then passed under-
ground to their island. And they imagined that Alpheus overtook
Arethusa at the place where the spring overflowed into the sea.
This version of the story became very well known. Callimachus may
have told it briefly in his account of Proserpina. Moschus alluded to
it; and Vergil mentioned it in both the Tenth Eclogue and the Aeneid.
In the Georgics Vergil introduced Arethusa under circumstances both
new and interesting. He said that she was once a fleet huntress but
had laid aside her arrows and become an attendant of Cyrene. When
Aristseus called on his mother, Arethusa was the first to raise her
golden head above the waves and heed the cry of distress.
Callimachus had made it natural to associate Arethusa with the
loss of Proserpina. Vergil had implied that she was quick to heed and
relieve the distressed. Therefore Ovid showed her intervening between
Ceres and the famine stricken people of Sicily. Vergil suggested also
Ovid's two descriptions of the manner in which she raised her head
above the waters. Ovid was able, however, to add further details and
give an even more pleasing effect. Callimachus and Vergil offered a
few hints as to the nature of the story. But Ovid himself had to
supply the animation and brilliant detail.
Profiting by the similar myths of Daphne and Syrinx, he described
Arethusa as beautiful yet averse to love and devoted to the chase. He
showed her hunting in the Stymphalian Wood, a place familiar through
the adventures of Hercules (cf. Bk. 9), and descending at noon to the
clear shady stream of Alpheus. In reality the Stymphalian Wood lay
very far from the river Alpheus; but Ovid could assume that his read-
ers would not inquire so curiously. The young Hermaphroditus, he
remembered, had been tempted to bathe in a similar pleasing body of
water and had won the love of the water spirit (Bk. 4). He imagined
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK V
a similar adventure of Arethusa, giving it appropriately different
details. But Arethusa was able to gain the shore and flee. Alpheus
left the stream and pursued.
Ovid indicated briefly a long, eager chase through Arcadia into Elis
with the pursuer at last on the point of overtaking the terrified nymph.
Daphne had felt the god's breath on her hair and appealed desperately
for aid. Ovid repeated this in the case of Arethusa. Then he imag-
ined the sudden mist shrouding her from the god and her rapid melting
into a stream. This change afforded him not only vivid description
but an interesting contrast with the earlier transformation of Cyane.
Ovid pictured Alpheus as understanding the ruse and himself deli-
quescing in pursuit. Thus it became necessary for Diana to open the
earth and conduct the nymph by way of Hades to Ortygia. Tradition
had allowed Alpheus to follow and overtake Arethusa, and in the
Amores Ovid himself mentioned this event. But in the Metamorphoses
he wisely implied the contrary.
Ovid's brilliant myth attracted a number of later authors. Hilde-
bert of Lavardin, a Latin poet of the twelfth century, gracefully imi-
tated the incident of Arethusa bathing for his account of Susannah.
In the Inferno Dante alluded conspicuously to the transformation of
Arethusa. From her Tasso took the character of Dafne, heroine of
his Aminta. Spenser followed Ovid in part for the tale of a huntress
changed into a spring, which the Palmer recounted to Sir Guyon.
Pope in Windsor Forest borrowed details of the pursuit for his myth
of Lodona. And to Shelley Ovid probably gave at least the subject of
his very original poem Arethusa.
At Rouen Ovid's myth inspired the sculpture of a public fountain.
Triptolemus and Lyncus
It had been usual to suppose that Ceres, comforted by the presence
of her daughter, restored fertility in the famine stricken fields. Ovid
added a further circumstance. Not content, he said, with renewing
agriculture where it had existed already, she extended the knowledge
of grain into new countries. Hitherto this had been told as a separate
event.
The earlier part of the myth grew out of a world-wide fear among
savage tribes that their children might suffer from witchcraft and
evil spells. In almost all countries it was thought an effective remedy
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? TRIPTOLEMUS AND LYNCUS
to pass the newborn child over the fire, bringing him as near as pos-
sible to the flames. Such a rite was dangerous; and a slight error
might be fatal to the child. Hence any sudden noise or interruption
was strictly forbidden. If a deity were to perform the rite, it was
thought possible, and even more beneficial, to lay the child in the fire
itself.
Out of such practices, there grew an important event in the Egyp-
tian myth of Isis. While seeking her lost husband, Isis took the dis-
guise of an old woman and sat mourning by the well of Byblus. Here
the King's daughters took pity on her and persuaded her to return
with them as nurse of their infant brother. Grateful for the kindness,
she planned to give the child supernatural protection. By day she
offered him no food but allowed him to suck her finger. By night she
laid him in the fire. But one night the queen observed the process and
cried out in alarm. This broke the spell and frustrated the divine pur-
pose. Isis revealed herself, however, and taught the king certain other
famous rites.
The Greeks related the idea of protection through exposure to fire
with a belief that under certain conditions it was possible to burn
away the perishable elements in a man's nature and leave him a pure
immortal spirit. This belief Ovid was to introduce later in his account
of Hercules (Bk. 9). Probably influenced by the myth of Isis, the
two ideas appeared in a similar adventure of Ceres. It was related at
some length in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter. While in quest of
Proserpina, the goddess took the form of an old woman and sat by
the well of Eleusis. Here the four daughters of King Celeus pitied her
and arranged to have her nurse their infant brother, Demophoon.
Ceres, too, gave the infant supernatural care. Instead of offering him
food, she anointed him with ambrosia and by night she laid him in
the fire, with the idea of giving him immortality. In this case, too,
the mother broke the spell. The goddess predicted, however, that the
child should obtain unusual honor. She then taught the Eleusinian
Mysteries to Celeus and his leading men, among whom was a certain
Triptolemus.
In the fifth century B. C. , Triptolemus had gained a much more
prominent place. He now was regarded as a child of King Celeus.
While he was still a very young man, it was said, the goddess allowed
him to ride in her magic car and caused him to go out from Athens
and teach all peoples the cultivation of grain. Sophocles made
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK V
Triptolemus the theme of his earliest tragedy. In Greek art the myth
was long popular. At Eleusis a beautiful relief showed the youth
standing between Ceres and Proserpina and obtaining from the elder
goddess the ears of grain which he was to distribute through the world.
Other works of art represented him as traveling through the air in
her magic car. Sometimes this was provided with wings. At other
times two dragons were shown drawing it rapidly between earth and
sky.
Following the newer tradition, the Manual declared Triptolemus an
older brother of the infant Demophoon. When the queen interrupted
the purification, it continued, Demophoon perished in the flames. But
the goddess transferred her favor to Triptolemus and sent him forth
as teacher of the art of agriculture.
Callimachus gave the myth a quite different form. He made
Triptolemus himself the infant nursling. Celeus he represented not
as a king but as an old and pious farmer. And he retold the myth
as a tale of humble life. Celeus and his daughter, returning from their
labor in the fields, found Ceres by the well of Eleusis and persuaded her
to pass the night in their simple home. Triptolemus was then lying
sick and at the point of death. The goddess healed him and later
tried to give him immortality by laying him in the fire. Prevented by
the mother's interference, she declared that he should be the first to
teach the raising of grain.
Among Roman poets the myth of Triptolemus was well known.
Lucretius noted that from Athens there first came laws and grain.
Vergil alluded to the mission of Triptolemus in both his Culex and his
Georgics. And in both the Amores^nd the Tristia Ovid longed for
the young man's dragon car. In the Fasti he was to repeat at some
length the version of Callimachus.
For the Metamorphoses this account "would have been unsuitable.
If Triptolemus himself had been the nursling, he must be a mere infant.
Ovid assumed with the Manual that he had been an older brother and
imagined him as the youth well known in works of art. Feeling con-
fident that Triptolemus would be immediately recognized, Ovid intro-
duced him abruptly without attempting any identification. And he
proceeded at once to the mission. After hearing the tale of Arethusa,
he said, Ceres flew to Athens and despatched Triptolemus in her car,
telling him not only to restore the losses of the famine but also to
teach agriculture in lands where hitherto it was unknown.
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? TRIPTOLEMUS AND LYNCUS
The idea of such a mission was picturesque, but Ovid used it chiefly
for the sake of one little known incident. Nicander had given this as
follows: In Scythia Triptolemus visited the court of a certain
King Lyncus. Learning his purpose, the king resolved to kill the
youth while he slept and himself get the credit of introducing grain.
He attempted this and Ceres transformed him into a lynx. This tale
Ovid repeated. Nicander added that the beast had spotted fur as an
emblem of the king's fickle mind. But, since the characteristic was not
evident from the story, Ovid wisely left it out.
The myth of Triptolemus and Lyncus drew little attention in later
times. Yet it was recalled quite interestingly by Scott. In his novel,
The Pirate, Scott had occasion to describe an agent despatched to
improve agriculture in the uncivilized north. And, recalling Ovid, he
named this character Triptolemus Yellowleigh.
While writing the Fifth Book, Ovid used a few tales, such as the
myths of Polydectes and Proserpina, which were of early origin and
often treated in Greek literature. But he took them from compara-
tively late versions. Most of the tales appeared first in Alexandrian
times. Callimachus furnished Ovid several of the best, and Nicander
provided many stories, which were valuable chiefly as incidents. The
Manual gave the mere outline for the material about Perseus and a
few episodes of the later tales. Throughout the book Greek art was of
considerable importance. None of this Greek material was known to
the Middle Ages and much of it perished altogether. And although
the tales were well known at Rome, they received little notice from
previous Roman literature. It was Ovid who preserved and made
them accessible for later times.
In Ovid's hands this earlier material gained very much. He im-
proved it by the example of other great poetry. The Iliad and the
Odyssey contributed frequently to the battle of Perseus and Phineusv
Vergil aided much both in the battle and in the story of Proserpina and
gave most valuable suggestions for Arethusa. Tibullus and Varro of
Atax provided attractive incident. With ideas from his own earlier
tales Ovid enlivened the important stories of Arethusa and Proserpina.
And, even more than usual, he profited by his own experience and in-
vention.
In the latter half of the book, Ovid found an unusually difficult
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK V
problem of adjustment. Several tales had been related to one another
by material which he needed for the Fasti and did not wish to repeat
And many tales were not related to one another at all. Ovid resorted
*o a device which had proved effective in the earlier half of the previous
book. He enclosed one story within another. But here he did this
more elaborately than anywhere else in his poem. In his own person
he told how Pallas visited the Muses. During the visit he allowed the
Muse Urania to narrate first the adventure with Pj'reneus and then
the contest with the Pierids. The latter included both the song of the
Pierid and Calliope's reply. Each of these permitted further en-
closure, for the Pierid recounted the war of the Giants and the flight
from Typhoeus, and Calliope sang of Proserpina, Arethusa, and
Triptolemus. But the process did not end even there, for the myth of
Proserpina comprised four lesser tales, and the mission of
Triptolemus included an adventure with Lyncus. A solution of this
kind must bring disadvantage. Artifice pushed so far became dan-
gerously obvious and it led finally to a crowding of denouements that
was even bewildering. Thus Ovid made three stories end together with
the transformation of Lyncus: immediately after he closed two more
simultaneously with the metamorphosis of the Pierids; and he avoided
still another termination only by the mechanical trick of concluding
the book. Nevertheless Ovid's boldness was justified by success.
Readers in all subsequent times have forgotten his artifice in wonder
at his skill. And men have been willing to pardon much in a device
which rewarded them with such remarkable tales.
In later periods the Fifth Book had an important effect. It influ-
enced to an unusual degree the Roman poets Lucan and Claudian.
It was popular during the Middle Ages and was much used in
the Renaissance and later times. More than the previous books it
was notable for giving hints which a modern author developed inde-
pendently with great success, as when Ovid's mention of an infernal
garden near Pluto's residence suggested Spenser's great dscription of
the Garden of Proserpina.
Among authors who seldom used Ovid, this book attracted both
Goethe and Scott. It suggested important passages of Tasso and
Spenser and some of the most beautiful poetry of Dante, Shakespeare,
and Milton. Jean de Meun retold more than half the book.
A few tales interested modern painters, and the tales of Proserpina
and Arethusa inspired works of sculpture.
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? CHIEF AUTHORS, ARTISTS, AND MUSICIANS:
Chronological Table
B. C. 900
Ionia
B. C. 800
Ionia and Attica
Boeotia
B. C. 600
Isles of Greece
B. C. 500
Athens and Thebes
B. C. 400
Athens
Alexandria
B. C. 300
Alexandria
Asia Minor
B. C. 200
Rome
B. C. 100
A. D. 1-100
A. D. 200
Greece and Rome
A. D. 500
A. D. 700
France
A. D. 1100
France and England
The Iliad
The Odyssey
Cyclic Epics (Continuing until the 6th century)
Homeric Hymns (Continuing until the 6th century)
Hesiod (The Works and-Days) Hesiodic Poems: The
Theogony, Catalogues, Shield of Hercules, etc.
Sappho
Anacreon Stesichorus Timaeus Bacchylides
Pindar (522-448) Aeschylus (525-456) Sophocles (496-
406) Herodotus Euripides (480-406) Aristophanes
Thucydides
Plato (427-347) Antimachus Praxiteles Menander
Phanocles Hermesianax Philetas
Theocritus Aratus Callimachus Herondas Eratos-
thenes Apollonius The Manual Bion Nicander
Ennius Pacuvius Moschus (Greek, Asia Minor)
Terence Accius
Lucretius Catullus Cicero (106-43) Varro (116-28)
Parthenius (Greek) Vergil (70-19) Gallus Tibullus
Horace (65-8) Propertius Varro of Atax
OVID (B. C. 43-A. D. 18) Elder Seneca Younger Seneca
Lucan Statius Martial
Apollodorus Hyginus Valerius Flaccus
Fulgentius Planciades
Charlemagne's Court (775-800)
Provengal Poets Benoit de St. Maure Joseph of Exeter
Chretien de Troyes (1140-1191) John of Salisbury
211
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 11:21 GMT / http://hdl. handle.
