Boiardo imi-
tated the adventure with fhe sea monster but reversed the roles of
hero and heroine.
tated the adventure with fhe sea monster but reversed the roles of
hero and heroine.
Ovid - 1934 - Metamorphoses in European Culture - v1
Before noticing single adventures it will be wise, therefore,
to repeat the story in the Manual, which Ovid used as the basis of his
own.
Acrisius, according to this version, learned from an oracle that he
was to die by the hand of his grandson. To prevent this, he confined
his daughter, Danae, in a strong and well guarded tower. But Jupiter
courted her, entering as a shower of gold. When Perseus was born,
Acrisius had the mother and child put in a chest and thrown into the
sea. The waves carried them to the island of Seriphus. There a
fisherman, Dictys, rescued and cared for them, aided by Polydectes,
the king. When Perseus was grown, the king began to court Danae
against her will and removed Perseus by directing him to bring as a
wedding present the head of the Gorgon Medusa. This he supposed
would assure the death of the youth. But Mercury and Athena came
to the aid of Perseus. By their direction he seized the single eye
which the three Graeae were using in turn and so compelled them to
inform him how he might obtain from certain nymphs a pair of winged
sandals, a helmet which would render him invisible, and a wallet for
carrying the Gorgon head. Mercury then furnished a sickle-shaped
sword and Athena a shield in which he was to see the Gorgon's reflec-
tion. Thus provided he was successful. While returning with the
head of Medusa he delivered and married Andromeda, daughter of
Cepheus, the Aethiopian king, and overcame the opposition of another
suitor) named Phineus. Continuing with Andromeda to Seriphus,
Perseus destroyed Polydectes and rescued his mother. From there he
departed to his native Argos. At the news of his approach, Acrisius
left the city. Perseus followed, hoping to reassure his grandfather,
but killed him accidentally with a discus.
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? PERSEUS AND ATLAS
Passing over the earlier half of the story in the Manual, Ovid began
at the moment when Perseus was returning with the head of Medusa.
He implied that, instead of enclosing it in a wallet, Perseus carried the
fearful object exposed in his hand. The idea was improbable for
more than one reason, but it enabled Ovid to include more easily sev-
eral new incidents. The first was the transformation of Medusa's
blood, which fell through the air to the sand of Libya far beneath. In
the Theogony drops of blood from the wounded Uranus had become
Furies as they touched the ground. Apollonius observed that by a
similar miracle the blood of Medusa became the many deadly serpents
of Libya. Varro of Atax repeated the tale, and Ovid gladly followed
his example.
Greek authors had differed greatly as to the places where Perseus
went in search of the Gorgons. At one time or another they localized
the Gorgons near each of the four limits of the world. Profiting by
these discordant suggestions, Ovid imagined that Perseus, while return-
ing across Libya, encountered violent and contrary winds which
swept him hither and thither throughout the known world and at last
drove him back to western Africa and the region of Atlas. The idea
was picturesque; but Ovid carried it to undesirable excess.
With the coming of night, Ovid continued, Perseus craved shelter
from the famous giant Atlas. This giant, according to the Odyssey,
had charge of the pillars which upheld the sky. The Theogony
declared that Atlas himself supported the heavens on fiis shoulders, and
this became the more usual view. Both Apollonius and the Manual
added that he was owner of the famous garden, from which Hercules
plundered the golden apples of the Hesperides. And Vergil described
Atlas as a giant who had assumed the likeness of a great, snowy moun-
tain commanding the western region of Africa. Profiting by these
hints, Ovid imagined that, when Perseus arrived, Atlas was still a giant
in human form, ruling a prosperous kingdom and alarmed by a
prophecy that one day his garden should be robbed by a son of Jove.
When Perseus described himself as a son of Jove, Atlas mistook him
for the destined robber and endeavored by violence to drive him away.
Unable to resist, Perseus transformed him into the well known moun-
tain described by Vergil. Telling later how Perseus visited the Graeae,
Ovid forgot his innovation and referred to Atlas as already a moun-
tain at this earlier time.
Ovid's transformations of the Gorgon blood and the giant Atlas
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK IV
attracted many authors of later times. Lucan repeated the account
of Medusa's blood changing to Libyan serpents and added a fearsome
list of the chief varieties. Milton, following both Ovid and Lucan, com-
pared the hall swarming with devils who had become serpents to the
soil bedropt with blood of Gorgon.
Petrarch declared himself petrified by the glance of Laura, as Atlas
by that of Medusa. To Camoens the fate of Atlas probably suggested
a fine account of Adamastor hardening into a mountain near the Cape
of Storms. Hawthorne included the metamorphosis of Atlas in his
delightful narrative, The Gorgon's Head. Browning's Pauline alluded
to a Giant standing vast in the sunset. And William Morris retold
the adventure in a very original manner as part of his Doom of
Acrisius.
Pebseus and Andromeda
Following the victory over Atlas, Ovid narrated the rescue of
Andromeda and then finished the book with a number of interesting
tales about the Gorgon Medusa.
Of all adventures of Perseus, the most famous was his rescue of
Andromeda from the jaws of the great sea monster. Behind this myth,
there lay a widespread practice in prehistoric times of offering human
victims to sharks, crocodiles, and various demons of the water. With
the approach ot civilization this inhuman practice was abandoned
and afterwards it was recalled with horror. Throughout Northern
Africa, Europe, and Asia it gave rise to myths of some princess ex-
posed on a sea cliff and a hero who intervened and saved her from
the approaching doom. In ancient Greece we hear of five such myths.
The oldest of them appears to have told of Hercules rescuing the Tro-
jan Princess Hesione, an adventure which Ovid was to recall among
the myths of Troy (Bk. 11). The tale of Andromeda appeared much
later but soon grew immensely popular and in Ovid's version became by
far the best known tale of this kind.
The story included many features typical of such primitive myths
of rescue from the sea. Thus a people living on the shore had offended
some god of the waters. He ravaged their country with inundations
and then sent a man eating sea monster. By direction of an oracle,
the Princess was offered in order to save her country. In earlier ver-
sions, when the monster approached with open mouth, the hero sud-
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? PERSEUS AND ANDROMEDA
denly leaped down his throat; fiercely attacked his vitals with the
sword; and at length emerged victorious after the creature's death.
To this form of the myth Lycophron still alluded in his Cassandra.
But in subsequent versions the older account of the battle gave place to
an idea which was more plausible and more attractive: Perseus swooped
down on the monster again and again and killed him by external
wounds.
Both Phrynichus and Sophocles treated the myth on the stage.
Euripides wrote an Andromeda which enjoyed prolonged popularity
in Greece and was adapted by the early Roman poet Ennius. In his
version, Andromeda's father, Cepheus, offended Neptune and later
opposed his daughter's marriage with Perseus. But Aratus thought
that Andromeda's mother, Cassiopeia, had given the offense by declar-
ing herself more beautiful than the sea nymphs. He added that the
five chief participants in the tale bcame five noted constellations. None
of these versions affected Ovid.
The Manual agreed with Aratus that Cassiopeia offended the
nymphs with her boasting. But it was uncertain whether she had
boasted of herself or of her daughter. According to the Manual, it
was the oracle of Ammon, which commanded the sacrifice. The latter
part of the tale differed greatly from the version of Euripides: Perseus
stipulated before the battle that he should have Andromeda for his
bride. Cepheus consented and after the battle promptly solemnized
the marriage.
Greek painters often treated the story. They were fond of picturing
Andromeda as a fair haired maiden chained naked against a somber
cliff.
The myth inspired beautiful references in the work of Propertius and
many allusions in the amatory poems of Ovid. Both poets assumed
that Cassiopeia had boasted of herself. Ovid imagined in these poems
that Andromeda, being a princess of Aethiopia, must have been dark
skinned and he often emphasized the fact that in spite of this disadvan-
tage she did not fail to please.
In the Metamorphoses Ovid again assumed that Cassiopeia had
provoked the sea nymphs by boasting of herself. With the Manual
he agreed that Amnion's oracle ordered the exposure of Andromeda
and that Perseus flying back on his winged sandals noticed the maiden
chained to the cliff. Greek paintings suggested the idea that he would
have thought her a statue, if her tears and her hair ruffled by the wind
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK IV
had not shown him that the beautiful figure was alive. Following Greek
art, Ovid implied that Andromeda was chained naked to the rock and
that her color resembled white marble, but he was careful merely to
suggest, without explicitly mentioning, these particulars.
Merely indicating the dialogue between Perseus and Andromeda
and the agreement with Cepheus, Ovid proceeded to a rather elaborate
account of the battle. Like the Manual, he showed Perseus attack-
ing the monster with his curving sword. But he invented many details,
including the graphic circumstance of the monster assailing the hero's
shadow in the water. The battle indicated well the valor and dexterity
of Perseus.
An Alexandrian poet seems to have imagined that, during the return
of Perseus with Medusa's head, the hero at one time laid the trophy on
some marine plants. They promptly hardened into stone. The sea
nymphs then amused themselves by transforming other sea plants; and
this was the origin of coral--a substance which was thought to re-
semble other sea weeds while growing beneath the waves but to harden
when exposed to the air. This event, said Ovid, occurred immediately
after the battle, when Perseus set down the head temporarily in order
to wash his blood stained hands. It would have been more natural
to suppose that Perseus set down the head before the battle in order
to fight unencumbered. This would account for the trophy during the
most important event of the cycle.
At the wedding feast in honor of Perseus and Andromeda, Ovid
showed Perseus answering the inquiries of Cepheus and his courtiers
with several stories about the Gorgon Medusa.
The first tale recorded briefly how Perseus obtained the Gorgon
head. This famous adventure was not mentioned by the earliest poets,
but later it became very popular in Greek literature and art. The
Iliad referred to a Gorgon as a terrifying design on the shield of
Athena and Agamemnon; and the Odyssey described a single Gorgon
as a formidable monster in the world of the dead; neither implied any
relation to Perseus. The Theogony first mentioned three Gorgons--
Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa, who alone was mortal--and it added
that Perseus cut off Medusa's head. These three Gorgons and the
death of Medusa became thereafter the accepted version of the myth.
In the Shield of Hercules and in many earlier reliefs and vase paint-
ings, the two surviving Gorgons pursued Perseus to avenge the death
of Medusa. But later versions omitted this detail. In older poetry
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? PERSEUS AND ANDROMEDA
and art the Gorgons were dreaded because of their formidable ap-
pearance, their snaky hair, great teeth, and claws. But a sufficiently
resolute hero might defy them, and many early paintings showed
Medusa fleeing from the curved sword of Perseus. Pindar was the first
to add that the Gorgons could turn all beholders into stone. The new
idea won general acceptance and was used in many adventures of
Perseus. The Manual recorded that, in order to avoid petrifaction,
the hero approached Medusa while the three Gorgons were asleep and
guided himself by looking at the reflected image in his shield. In repeat-
ing the famous story, Ovid followed the Manual. But he added the
picturesque detail that in the neighboring roads and fields Perseus
observed the shapes of men and beasts petrified by the glance of
Medusa. The other Gorgons he thought superfluous and did not
mention.
Another story told how Medusa obtained her snaky locks. The
older tradition seems to have been that she had them from the begin-
ning. But the Theogony had recorded the following myth: Neptune
consorted with Medusa in a soft meadow among the flowers of spring.
The offspring of this union were the winged horse Pegasus, and
Chrysaor. And when Perseus cut off Medusa's head, these two came
forth from the severed neck. This tale an Alexandrian poet retold as
the cause of the snaky tresses. At first, he said, Medusa was an attrac-
tive maiden, famed for her beautiful hair. Neptune courted her in the
form of a huge bird, and ravished her in a temple of Athena. The
goddess, angry at the desecration of her shrine, changed Medusa's
beautiful hair to serpents. This myth Ovid caused Perseus to repeat,
but he reserved the disguise as a huge bird for the tale of Arachne
(Bk. 6).
In conclusion Ovid spoke of Athena's Gorgon shield. The Iliad had
mentioned the device. In a tragedy called Ion Euripides gave the fol-
lowing explanation: During the battle with the Giants (cf. Bk. 1),
Athena killed a Gorgon; removed the skin from its head; and set the
gruesome trophy on the front of her shield. The Manual gave a differ-
ent account. The head in this version was that of Medusa. Perseus,
after using the trophy for the destruction of Polydectes, gave it to
Athena in return for her previous assistance. To this account Ovid
made allusion, forgetting that during the wedding feast the head was
still in the possession of Perseus.
Ovid's tales of Andromeda and Medusa were the only good versions
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK IV
available during the Middle Ages and they were the first read and
most interesting of the versions which became known to the Renais-
sance and later times. Accordingly, Ovid usually inspired and always
influenced any later treatment of these myths. But certain details
were often affected by other accounts.
In the Shield of Hercules Perseus was described as returning from
his quest of Medusa on winged sandals. Among the ancients this be-
came the usual view and was repeated by Euripides, the Manual, and
Ovid in his Metamorphoses. But a painting of the fifth century (B. C. )
had shown Perseus returning on the back of the winged Pegasus and
Ovid himself repeated the idea in his Amores. During the Renaissance
this became the accepted version and reappeared again and again in
great poetry and art. Boccaccio even asserted that Perseus rode out to
the west on the winged horse.
Greek authors had agreed that Andromeda was a princess of
Aethiopia, bordering the north coast of Africa. And this had been
Ovid's view. But a Syrian tradition made her princess of Joppa and
transferred thither the adventure with the beast of the sea. About a
century after Ovid's time, huge bones of a whale were discovered near
this port and were identified as remains of the famed sea monster.
Amid great popular excitement the bones were transported to Rome
and described by the scientist Pliny. The new scene of the adventure
seemed more plausible. It was accepted by Lope de Vega, Kingsley,
and William Morris. Calderon, still unsatisfied, made Andromeda a
princess of Sicily.
The story of Perseus and the sea monster had been older than the
idea that a Gorgon could turn the beholder to stone. It showed
Perseus battling with a sword, and so strong was the trfedition that
both the Manual and Ovid unhesitatingly repeated this account. But
it had become more probable that in such a crisis Perseus would rely
on the swift and effective power of the head. Lucian and Natalis
Comis made the change, and later Kingsley followed their example.
Calderon preferred to show Perseus using Athena's Gorgon shield.
On the whole, however, most authors followed Ovid.
Boiardo imi-
tated the adventure with fhe sea monster but reversed the roles of
hero and heroine. He showed Angelica hastening on the wing to save
Rinaldo. Ariosto imitated Ovid more closely, borrowing even his turns
of phrase. In his story, Rogero, flying on a hippogriff, saw Angelica
chained and rescued her from the monstrous ore. But Ariosto showed
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? PERSEUS AND ANDROMEDA
less delicacy in the treatment of his heroine. Lope de Vega and
Calderon used Ovid much in their dramatic versions of the tale.
Corneille studied him carefully, although he introduced many changes
of his own. For Lewis Morris Ovid became the chief model of an excel-
lent narrative poem. Kingsley and William Morris took only a few
details. Browning enjoyed the story greatly and alluded to it often,
especially in his Francis Fwrini.
In the field of painting the rescue of Andromeda was treated by
Cosimo, Palma Giovane, Guido Reni, Van Thulden, Lemoyne, Nattier,
Coypel, and Rossetti. It inspired masterpieces of Veronese, Titian,
Rubens, and Urueghel. In sculpture the event was a subject for
Cellini, Turnois, Lescorne, Marqueste, Chinard, Puget, and Canova.
Ovid's tales of Medusa were also quite interesting to men of later
times. Lucan borrowed from Ovid in a long account of Medusa's
death, dwelling much on the petrified shapes of men and beasts near
her residence and on Athena's use of the head in her famous shield.
Claudian and Camoens remembered that coral does not harden until
exposed to air; William Morris retold, with excellent effect, the trans-
formation of Medusa's tresses; and in Comus Milton identified Athena's
Gorgon shield with the chaste austerity of the goddess, which con-
founded the violence of her foes. Other poets recalled Medusa in a
more general sense. Dante made her the personification of Despair,
which the Furies summoned to petrify him before the city of Dis.
Petrarch often compared her petrifying gaze to that of Laura when
she reproved him. Rossetti described Medusa allegorically in his fine
lyric, Aspecta Medusae.
In painting Medusa was treated by Caravaggio, Sartorio, Rubens
and Brueghel, Stuck, and the Russian artist Svedomski. Perseus and
Medusa were subjects for a statue by Marqueste and the famous
bronze of Benvenuto Cellini.
In the Fourth Book most of the longer tales were of early origin
and often treated in Greek literature. But several of the longer and
almost all of the shorter tales had not entered literature until Alex-
andrian times, and some appear to have been little known, even to the
Greeks. Most of the stories, both old and new, had received treat-
ment in Greek art. But even the old and well known tales had been
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK IV
little noticed by early Roman authors. It was Ovid who preserved
them for medieval times and made them easily accessible to the Renais-
sance, and he alone saved such tales as Pyramus and Hermaphroditus
from oblivion.
In the story of Mars and Venus, Ovid took his outline from the
Odyssey. For most of the others, he used Alexandrian authors. The
Manual gave him valuable material for the myth of Ino and the chief
adventures of Perseus. Nicander contributed many tales, including
the important myths of Hermaphroditus and of Cadmus and Har-
monia. But a still greater number, including that of Pyramus, Ovid
found in the work of Alexandrian poets whom we can no longer iden-
tify, and Ovid himself invented the transformation of Atlas. This
quite various material, he brought into plausible and effective relation
to the familiar myths of Thebes and Perseus. He gave well known
tales a better setting and contrasted them with other tales which were
quite new. He was careful also to present all these myths in a form
that would harmonize with the rest of his poem. To individual stories
he added new interest. He borrowed adroitly from the Odyssey and
Greek art, from Tibullus, and Horace. And Vergil proved invaluable
for the tales of Ino and Atlas. Ovid made well advised changes and
additions of his own, and often he gave new beauty and animation
by his style.
Several Roman poets after Ovid recalled noteworthy passages of
the Fourth Book. In the Middle Ages it was very popular, and the
tale of Pyramus had a remarkably pervasive influence. Individual
tales inspired imitation or retelling by an extraordinary number of
the chief authors who wrote during the Renaissance. And afterwards
the book enjoyed very unusual favor among the Victorian poets of
England.
The Fourth Book attracted authors rarely influenced by Ovid,
among whom were Gongora, Rossetti, and Matthew Arnold. It had
an especially interesting effect in the work of Tasso and Spenser.
Petrarch, Chaucer, Camoens, and Shakespeare manifested interest in
a great number of tales. But the authors who found most frequent
and valuable help were Dante and Milton.
Many stories attracted modern painters, inspiring a considerable
number of masterpieces. Several were used by modern sculptors. And
the myth of Hermaphroditus had an interesting effect on modern
science.
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? BOOK FIVE
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? BOOK FIVE
Perseus and Phineus
In the first half of Book Five, Ovid continued the story of Perseus.
Beginning at the moment when the hero had finished telling Cepheus
and his court about the successful quest for Medusa's head, he pro-
ceeded to record the most interesting adventures from that time until
Perseus and his bride established themselves in the hero's native Argos.
According to the Manual, King Cepheus had affianced Andromeda
to his younger brother, Phineus. But on the approach of the monster,
Perseus stipulated that he himself was to obtain her hand in return
for saving her life. Cepheus consented and fulfilled his promise.
Phineus, still unwilling to yield, made a hostile demonstration during
the wedding feast. This incident Ovid was glad to use; but he made it
much longer and far more important.
In the Seventh Book of the Aeneid, Vergil had shown how King
Latinus remonstrated when his people gathered for a battle with
Aeneas and how, unable to stay the tumult, he withdrew protesting.
Ovid imagined that King Cepheus made a similar remonstrance and
withdrawal, when his people gathered to attack Perseus. And he gave
his individual combatants at least a few of the names which Vergil
had mentioned in the ensuing battles near the Trojan stockade.
After the retreat of Cepheus, Ovid proceeded to record a struggle
between the parties of Perseus and Phineus. In the Manual this had
been brief and undistinguished. But it occurred under remarkable
circumstances: there was a wedding feast, a sudden attempt to carry
off the bride, and the defeat of the would-be ravishers In all these
particulars the traditional combat with Phineus resembled the much
more famous combat with the Centaurs. It needed only to be magni-
fied into an elaborate and sanguinary battle. Struck by this idea,
Ovid remembered that he had planned already for such a battle be-
tween the Centaurs and the Lapithae (Bk. 12) and that for this he
had good material in readiness--both his recollections of the great
frieze in the Parthenon and a quite elaborate narrative by Nicander.
Taking care to avoid obvious resemblance between the two stories, he
could use the same material as the basis for a new battle piece, which
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK V
should give variety and distinction to the earlier half of his poem. This
design he carried out on the whole with notable skill. - But he took
over from the battle with the Centaurs two incidents--the killing with
a billet of wood and the hurling of a great sculptured bowl--which,
though very striking, were rather inappropriate for the swordsman
Perseus.
With the idea of an elaborate battle, Ovid thought naturally of the
greatest epics. The Odyssey had pictured a similar conflict in a ban-
quet hall between Ulysses and the three hundred suitors. In the begin-
ning it told how Athena gave protection and help to Ulysses and later
it told how the suitor Leiodes pleaded abjectly for his life. Both cir-
cumstances were of advantage to Ovid. At the beginning he showed
Athena giving similar aid to Perseus and towards the end he recorded
an even more abject appeal of the defeated Phineus. The Iliad sug-
gested to Ovid his pathetic incident of the friends Athis and Lycabas,
who found some comfort in a common death. The same epic had
recorded of the traitor Dolon that, while he spoke, his head was rolled
in the dust; and the Odyssey made the same observation of the suitor
Leiodes. To Ovid this suggested the extravagant incident of
Emathion's tongue still uttering curses, while his head was cut off
and lay among the altar flames. A similar incident Ovid was to use
more skilfully in the tale of Philomela (Bk. 6).
In such epics as the Iliad or the Aeneid, certain general methods had
usually given distinction to the account of battle. Ovid tried to
emulate them in his combat of Perseus and of Phineus. His com-
batants he made notable men, often from distant and picturesque
lands. And frequently this gave him striking effects. But he failed to
explain the presence of this brilliant assemblage at a court so stricken
that it had just exposed the King's only daughter to the mercy of a
dread sea monster. And he did not make it at all probable that so
many distinguished strangers would give their lives for so mean a
cause and such an uninspiring leader.
The Iliad had established it as epic practice to record circumstan-
tially the prowess of each important hero and the names and histories
of those whom he vanquished, and it had shown infinite variety in tell-
ing of the death dealing wounds. Vergil followed the practice in the
Aeneid. And the same methods prevailed later with such famous epics
as the Song of Roland and Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered. In the excite-
ment and confusion of battle, such detailed observation would be im-
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? PERSEUS AND PHINEAS
possible, and this Euripides had long since pointed out. The epic
poets were not drawing on observation of actual life. They were trying
to profit by a literary convention. But this was no further from life
than such other conventions as the soliloquy in drama or the detailed
record of a character's thoughts in a psychological novel. It was
merely a convention which allowed the author to imagine what he
could not know, and if his imagination was in accord with human ex-
perience, it added greatly to the value of his work. This advantage
Ovid sought and obtained in his battle of Perseus and Phineus. But
unwisely, he deviated from his predecessors in one particular. Both
the Iliad and the Aeneid were careful to show on which side a given
warrior was fighting. Ovid frequently neglected this precaution and
left the reader bewildered.
When picturing a scene of battle, the chief epic poets had been care-
ful to enlist the sympathy of their readers for a great, dominating
hero and to give them the sense of a great cause at issue. This was
true for example when the hero of the Odyssey fought for his kingdom
against the insolent suitors, or when the noble Aeneas battled for the
future of Rome against the host of misguided Latins. With such an
occasion there might well be need for effort and carnage. Yet even so,
the great epic poets found it wise to relieve the terrors of battle. The
author of the Odyssey showed by many successive stages that Ulysses
did not proceed further than necessary in the killing of his foes. And
Vergil frequently introduced touches of mercy and tenderness which
might soften the prevailing ferocity and slaughter. These precautions
Ovid did not observe. He told of a seemingly uncalled for and
atrocious melee. Amid confused combat and incidents of sensational
horror, Perseus became merely the warrior who appeared most fre-
quently. And there was no adequate relief. Always Perseus showed
himself fierce and unsparing. The bard and the priest perished with
the rest, and the poet described without pity the destruction of the
bad and the good.
After many striking incidents Ovid raised the battle to an exciting
pitch. The invaders were on the point of rushing forward in a body
and overwhelming the almost solitary Perseus. At this point Ovid
returned to the account in his Manual. He showed Perseus suddenly
confronting his enemies with the Gorgon head. Like the Manual, he
failed to explain the presence of the object at a wedding feast, where
it would seem very undesirable but happened to be most fortunate.
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK V
Yet he introduced the event with dramatic effect and described the
ensuing petrification with admirable fullness and brilliance.
After so great a conflict, Ovid realized that he could not detail the
remaining adventures of Perseus without a feeling of anticlimax. But
he mentioned as briefly as possible two which included metamorphosis.
First he told the destruction of Proetus. According to the Manual,
this chieftain had been merely an enemy of the hero's grandfather,
Acrisius. Ovid invented his usurpation of power and his death by
Medusa's head. Then he told the fate of Polydectes. Pindar had
recorded his conversion into stone and it became rather often the sub-
ject of vase paintings. The Manual retold the story, making the
event occur before Perseus returned to Argos. But Ovid, thinking
it more interesting than the adventure with Proetus, reversed the
sequence of time.
The battle of Perseus and Phineus had much less effect in later
times than the adventures with Atlas, Andromeda, and Medusa. Yet it
was often remembered. Jean de Meun retold it with the rest of the
cycle. Corneille and William Morris took from Ovid the idea that
Phineus became a rival of Perseus, and William Morris repeated a few
details about his invading the banquet hall. To Tasso the tongue of
Emathion still cursing in the severed head may have suggested the
weird incident of Gerniero's hand cut off yet retaining the sword and
gliding over the ground in the hope of uniting with his body. To
Shakespeare the petrifaction of Phineus and his party probably sug-
gested the words of Macduff after Duncan's murder:
Approach the chamber and destroy your sight
With a new Gorgon.
The idea of presenting a battle as a confused melee, with examples
of strange, atrocious carnage, seems to have appeared first in Athenian
and other sculpture representing the monstrous battle with the Cen-
taurs. And it probably affected the narration of other battles by
the Alexandrian poets. But Ovid far excelled all predecessors in the
combat between Perseus and Phineus and he was to excel them again
in his battle of the Centaurs. Lucan followed his example in the sea
fight at Marseilles. He invented similar confusion in the struggle and
even stranger and more numerous horrors. But he lacked Ovid's merit
of coming to a decisive finish.
188
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to repeat the story in the Manual, which Ovid used as the basis of his
own.
Acrisius, according to this version, learned from an oracle that he
was to die by the hand of his grandson. To prevent this, he confined
his daughter, Danae, in a strong and well guarded tower. But Jupiter
courted her, entering as a shower of gold. When Perseus was born,
Acrisius had the mother and child put in a chest and thrown into the
sea. The waves carried them to the island of Seriphus. There a
fisherman, Dictys, rescued and cared for them, aided by Polydectes,
the king. When Perseus was grown, the king began to court Danae
against her will and removed Perseus by directing him to bring as a
wedding present the head of the Gorgon Medusa. This he supposed
would assure the death of the youth. But Mercury and Athena came
to the aid of Perseus. By their direction he seized the single eye
which the three Graeae were using in turn and so compelled them to
inform him how he might obtain from certain nymphs a pair of winged
sandals, a helmet which would render him invisible, and a wallet for
carrying the Gorgon head. Mercury then furnished a sickle-shaped
sword and Athena a shield in which he was to see the Gorgon's reflec-
tion. Thus provided he was successful. While returning with the
head of Medusa he delivered and married Andromeda, daughter of
Cepheus, the Aethiopian king, and overcame the opposition of another
suitor) named Phineus. Continuing with Andromeda to Seriphus,
Perseus destroyed Polydectes and rescued his mother. From there he
departed to his native Argos. At the news of his approach, Acrisius
left the city. Perseus followed, hoping to reassure his grandfather,
but killed him accidentally with a discus.
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? PERSEUS AND ATLAS
Passing over the earlier half of the story in the Manual, Ovid began
at the moment when Perseus was returning with the head of Medusa.
He implied that, instead of enclosing it in a wallet, Perseus carried the
fearful object exposed in his hand. The idea was improbable for
more than one reason, but it enabled Ovid to include more easily sev-
eral new incidents. The first was the transformation of Medusa's
blood, which fell through the air to the sand of Libya far beneath. In
the Theogony drops of blood from the wounded Uranus had become
Furies as they touched the ground. Apollonius observed that by a
similar miracle the blood of Medusa became the many deadly serpents
of Libya. Varro of Atax repeated the tale, and Ovid gladly followed
his example.
Greek authors had differed greatly as to the places where Perseus
went in search of the Gorgons. At one time or another they localized
the Gorgons near each of the four limits of the world. Profiting by
these discordant suggestions, Ovid imagined that Perseus, while return-
ing across Libya, encountered violent and contrary winds which
swept him hither and thither throughout the known world and at last
drove him back to western Africa and the region of Atlas. The idea
was picturesque; but Ovid carried it to undesirable excess.
With the coming of night, Ovid continued, Perseus craved shelter
from the famous giant Atlas. This giant, according to the Odyssey,
had charge of the pillars which upheld the sky. The Theogony
declared that Atlas himself supported the heavens on fiis shoulders, and
this became the more usual view. Both Apollonius and the Manual
added that he was owner of the famous garden, from which Hercules
plundered the golden apples of the Hesperides. And Vergil described
Atlas as a giant who had assumed the likeness of a great, snowy moun-
tain commanding the western region of Africa. Profiting by these
hints, Ovid imagined that, when Perseus arrived, Atlas was still a giant
in human form, ruling a prosperous kingdom and alarmed by a
prophecy that one day his garden should be robbed by a son of Jove.
When Perseus described himself as a son of Jove, Atlas mistook him
for the destined robber and endeavored by violence to drive him away.
Unable to resist, Perseus transformed him into the well known moun-
tain described by Vergil. Telling later how Perseus visited the Graeae,
Ovid forgot his innovation and referred to Atlas as already a moun-
tain at this earlier time.
Ovid's transformations of the Gorgon blood and the giant Atlas
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK IV
attracted many authors of later times. Lucan repeated the account
of Medusa's blood changing to Libyan serpents and added a fearsome
list of the chief varieties. Milton, following both Ovid and Lucan, com-
pared the hall swarming with devils who had become serpents to the
soil bedropt with blood of Gorgon.
Petrarch declared himself petrified by the glance of Laura, as Atlas
by that of Medusa. To Camoens the fate of Atlas probably suggested
a fine account of Adamastor hardening into a mountain near the Cape
of Storms. Hawthorne included the metamorphosis of Atlas in his
delightful narrative, The Gorgon's Head. Browning's Pauline alluded
to a Giant standing vast in the sunset. And William Morris retold
the adventure in a very original manner as part of his Doom of
Acrisius.
Pebseus and Andromeda
Following the victory over Atlas, Ovid narrated the rescue of
Andromeda and then finished the book with a number of interesting
tales about the Gorgon Medusa.
Of all adventures of Perseus, the most famous was his rescue of
Andromeda from the jaws of the great sea monster. Behind this myth,
there lay a widespread practice in prehistoric times of offering human
victims to sharks, crocodiles, and various demons of the water. With
the approach ot civilization this inhuman practice was abandoned
and afterwards it was recalled with horror. Throughout Northern
Africa, Europe, and Asia it gave rise to myths of some princess ex-
posed on a sea cliff and a hero who intervened and saved her from
the approaching doom. In ancient Greece we hear of five such myths.
The oldest of them appears to have told of Hercules rescuing the Tro-
jan Princess Hesione, an adventure which Ovid was to recall among
the myths of Troy (Bk. 11). The tale of Andromeda appeared much
later but soon grew immensely popular and in Ovid's version became by
far the best known tale of this kind.
The story included many features typical of such primitive myths
of rescue from the sea. Thus a people living on the shore had offended
some god of the waters. He ravaged their country with inundations
and then sent a man eating sea monster. By direction of an oracle,
the Princess was offered in order to save her country. In earlier ver-
sions, when the monster approached with open mouth, the hero sud-
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? PERSEUS AND ANDROMEDA
denly leaped down his throat; fiercely attacked his vitals with the
sword; and at length emerged victorious after the creature's death.
To this form of the myth Lycophron still alluded in his Cassandra.
But in subsequent versions the older account of the battle gave place to
an idea which was more plausible and more attractive: Perseus swooped
down on the monster again and again and killed him by external
wounds.
Both Phrynichus and Sophocles treated the myth on the stage.
Euripides wrote an Andromeda which enjoyed prolonged popularity
in Greece and was adapted by the early Roman poet Ennius. In his
version, Andromeda's father, Cepheus, offended Neptune and later
opposed his daughter's marriage with Perseus. But Aratus thought
that Andromeda's mother, Cassiopeia, had given the offense by declar-
ing herself more beautiful than the sea nymphs. He added that the
five chief participants in the tale bcame five noted constellations. None
of these versions affected Ovid.
The Manual agreed with Aratus that Cassiopeia offended the
nymphs with her boasting. But it was uncertain whether she had
boasted of herself or of her daughter. According to the Manual, it
was the oracle of Ammon, which commanded the sacrifice. The latter
part of the tale differed greatly from the version of Euripides: Perseus
stipulated before the battle that he should have Andromeda for his
bride. Cepheus consented and after the battle promptly solemnized
the marriage.
Greek painters often treated the story. They were fond of picturing
Andromeda as a fair haired maiden chained naked against a somber
cliff.
The myth inspired beautiful references in the work of Propertius and
many allusions in the amatory poems of Ovid. Both poets assumed
that Cassiopeia had boasted of herself. Ovid imagined in these poems
that Andromeda, being a princess of Aethiopia, must have been dark
skinned and he often emphasized the fact that in spite of this disadvan-
tage she did not fail to please.
In the Metamorphoses Ovid again assumed that Cassiopeia had
provoked the sea nymphs by boasting of herself. With the Manual
he agreed that Amnion's oracle ordered the exposure of Andromeda
and that Perseus flying back on his winged sandals noticed the maiden
chained to the cliff. Greek paintings suggested the idea that he would
have thought her a statue, if her tears and her hair ruffled by the wind
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK IV
had not shown him that the beautiful figure was alive. Following Greek
art, Ovid implied that Andromeda was chained naked to the rock and
that her color resembled white marble, but he was careful merely to
suggest, without explicitly mentioning, these particulars.
Merely indicating the dialogue between Perseus and Andromeda
and the agreement with Cepheus, Ovid proceeded to a rather elaborate
account of the battle. Like the Manual, he showed Perseus attack-
ing the monster with his curving sword. But he invented many details,
including the graphic circumstance of the monster assailing the hero's
shadow in the water. The battle indicated well the valor and dexterity
of Perseus.
An Alexandrian poet seems to have imagined that, during the return
of Perseus with Medusa's head, the hero at one time laid the trophy on
some marine plants. They promptly hardened into stone. The sea
nymphs then amused themselves by transforming other sea plants; and
this was the origin of coral--a substance which was thought to re-
semble other sea weeds while growing beneath the waves but to harden
when exposed to the air. This event, said Ovid, occurred immediately
after the battle, when Perseus set down the head temporarily in order
to wash his blood stained hands. It would have been more natural
to suppose that Perseus set down the head before the battle in order
to fight unencumbered. This would account for the trophy during the
most important event of the cycle.
At the wedding feast in honor of Perseus and Andromeda, Ovid
showed Perseus answering the inquiries of Cepheus and his courtiers
with several stories about the Gorgon Medusa.
The first tale recorded briefly how Perseus obtained the Gorgon
head. This famous adventure was not mentioned by the earliest poets,
but later it became very popular in Greek literature and art. The
Iliad referred to a Gorgon as a terrifying design on the shield of
Athena and Agamemnon; and the Odyssey described a single Gorgon
as a formidable monster in the world of the dead; neither implied any
relation to Perseus. The Theogony first mentioned three Gorgons--
Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa, who alone was mortal--and it added
that Perseus cut off Medusa's head. These three Gorgons and the
death of Medusa became thereafter the accepted version of the myth.
In the Shield of Hercules and in many earlier reliefs and vase paint-
ings, the two surviving Gorgons pursued Perseus to avenge the death
of Medusa. But later versions omitted this detail. In older poetry
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? PERSEUS AND ANDROMEDA
and art the Gorgons were dreaded because of their formidable ap-
pearance, their snaky hair, great teeth, and claws. But a sufficiently
resolute hero might defy them, and many early paintings showed
Medusa fleeing from the curved sword of Perseus. Pindar was the first
to add that the Gorgons could turn all beholders into stone. The new
idea won general acceptance and was used in many adventures of
Perseus. The Manual recorded that, in order to avoid petrifaction,
the hero approached Medusa while the three Gorgons were asleep and
guided himself by looking at the reflected image in his shield. In repeat-
ing the famous story, Ovid followed the Manual. But he added the
picturesque detail that in the neighboring roads and fields Perseus
observed the shapes of men and beasts petrified by the glance of
Medusa. The other Gorgons he thought superfluous and did not
mention.
Another story told how Medusa obtained her snaky locks. The
older tradition seems to have been that she had them from the begin-
ning. But the Theogony had recorded the following myth: Neptune
consorted with Medusa in a soft meadow among the flowers of spring.
The offspring of this union were the winged horse Pegasus, and
Chrysaor. And when Perseus cut off Medusa's head, these two came
forth from the severed neck. This tale an Alexandrian poet retold as
the cause of the snaky tresses. At first, he said, Medusa was an attrac-
tive maiden, famed for her beautiful hair. Neptune courted her in the
form of a huge bird, and ravished her in a temple of Athena. The
goddess, angry at the desecration of her shrine, changed Medusa's
beautiful hair to serpents. This myth Ovid caused Perseus to repeat,
but he reserved the disguise as a huge bird for the tale of Arachne
(Bk. 6).
In conclusion Ovid spoke of Athena's Gorgon shield. The Iliad had
mentioned the device. In a tragedy called Ion Euripides gave the fol-
lowing explanation: During the battle with the Giants (cf. Bk. 1),
Athena killed a Gorgon; removed the skin from its head; and set the
gruesome trophy on the front of her shield. The Manual gave a differ-
ent account. The head in this version was that of Medusa. Perseus,
after using the trophy for the destruction of Polydectes, gave it to
Athena in return for her previous assistance. To this account Ovid
made allusion, forgetting that during the wedding feast the head was
still in the possession of Perseus.
Ovid's tales of Andromeda and Medusa were the only good versions
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK IV
available during the Middle Ages and they were the first read and
most interesting of the versions which became known to the Renais-
sance and later times. Accordingly, Ovid usually inspired and always
influenced any later treatment of these myths. But certain details
were often affected by other accounts.
In the Shield of Hercules Perseus was described as returning from
his quest of Medusa on winged sandals. Among the ancients this be-
came the usual view and was repeated by Euripides, the Manual, and
Ovid in his Metamorphoses. But a painting of the fifth century (B. C. )
had shown Perseus returning on the back of the winged Pegasus and
Ovid himself repeated the idea in his Amores. During the Renaissance
this became the accepted version and reappeared again and again in
great poetry and art. Boccaccio even asserted that Perseus rode out to
the west on the winged horse.
Greek authors had agreed that Andromeda was a princess of
Aethiopia, bordering the north coast of Africa. And this had been
Ovid's view. But a Syrian tradition made her princess of Joppa and
transferred thither the adventure with the beast of the sea. About a
century after Ovid's time, huge bones of a whale were discovered near
this port and were identified as remains of the famed sea monster.
Amid great popular excitement the bones were transported to Rome
and described by the scientist Pliny. The new scene of the adventure
seemed more plausible. It was accepted by Lope de Vega, Kingsley,
and William Morris. Calderon, still unsatisfied, made Andromeda a
princess of Sicily.
The story of Perseus and the sea monster had been older than the
idea that a Gorgon could turn the beholder to stone. It showed
Perseus battling with a sword, and so strong was the trfedition that
both the Manual and Ovid unhesitatingly repeated this account. But
it had become more probable that in such a crisis Perseus would rely
on the swift and effective power of the head. Lucian and Natalis
Comis made the change, and later Kingsley followed their example.
Calderon preferred to show Perseus using Athena's Gorgon shield.
On the whole, however, most authors followed Ovid.
Boiardo imi-
tated the adventure with fhe sea monster but reversed the roles of
hero and heroine. He showed Angelica hastening on the wing to save
Rinaldo. Ariosto imitated Ovid more closely, borrowing even his turns
of phrase. In his story, Rogero, flying on a hippogriff, saw Angelica
chained and rescued her from the monstrous ore. But Ariosto showed
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? PERSEUS AND ANDROMEDA
less delicacy in the treatment of his heroine. Lope de Vega and
Calderon used Ovid much in their dramatic versions of the tale.
Corneille studied him carefully, although he introduced many changes
of his own. For Lewis Morris Ovid became the chief model of an excel-
lent narrative poem. Kingsley and William Morris took only a few
details. Browning enjoyed the story greatly and alluded to it often,
especially in his Francis Fwrini.
In the field of painting the rescue of Andromeda was treated by
Cosimo, Palma Giovane, Guido Reni, Van Thulden, Lemoyne, Nattier,
Coypel, and Rossetti. It inspired masterpieces of Veronese, Titian,
Rubens, and Urueghel. In sculpture the event was a subject for
Cellini, Turnois, Lescorne, Marqueste, Chinard, Puget, and Canova.
Ovid's tales of Medusa were also quite interesting to men of later
times. Lucan borrowed from Ovid in a long account of Medusa's
death, dwelling much on the petrified shapes of men and beasts near
her residence and on Athena's use of the head in her famous shield.
Claudian and Camoens remembered that coral does not harden until
exposed to air; William Morris retold, with excellent effect, the trans-
formation of Medusa's tresses; and in Comus Milton identified Athena's
Gorgon shield with the chaste austerity of the goddess, which con-
founded the violence of her foes. Other poets recalled Medusa in a
more general sense. Dante made her the personification of Despair,
which the Furies summoned to petrify him before the city of Dis.
Petrarch often compared her petrifying gaze to that of Laura when
she reproved him. Rossetti described Medusa allegorically in his fine
lyric, Aspecta Medusae.
In painting Medusa was treated by Caravaggio, Sartorio, Rubens
and Brueghel, Stuck, and the Russian artist Svedomski. Perseus and
Medusa were subjects for a statue by Marqueste and the famous
bronze of Benvenuto Cellini.
In the Fourth Book most of the longer tales were of early origin
and often treated in Greek literature. But several of the longer and
almost all of the shorter tales had not entered literature until Alex-
andrian times, and some appear to have been little known, even to the
Greeks. Most of the stories, both old and new, had received treat-
ment in Greek art. But even the old and well known tales had been
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK IV
little noticed by early Roman authors. It was Ovid who preserved
them for medieval times and made them easily accessible to the Renais-
sance, and he alone saved such tales as Pyramus and Hermaphroditus
from oblivion.
In the story of Mars and Venus, Ovid took his outline from the
Odyssey. For most of the others, he used Alexandrian authors. The
Manual gave him valuable material for the myth of Ino and the chief
adventures of Perseus. Nicander contributed many tales, including
the important myths of Hermaphroditus and of Cadmus and Har-
monia. But a still greater number, including that of Pyramus, Ovid
found in the work of Alexandrian poets whom we can no longer iden-
tify, and Ovid himself invented the transformation of Atlas. This
quite various material, he brought into plausible and effective relation
to the familiar myths of Thebes and Perseus. He gave well known
tales a better setting and contrasted them with other tales which were
quite new. He was careful also to present all these myths in a form
that would harmonize with the rest of his poem. To individual stories
he added new interest. He borrowed adroitly from the Odyssey and
Greek art, from Tibullus, and Horace. And Vergil proved invaluable
for the tales of Ino and Atlas. Ovid made well advised changes and
additions of his own, and often he gave new beauty and animation
by his style.
Several Roman poets after Ovid recalled noteworthy passages of
the Fourth Book. In the Middle Ages it was very popular, and the
tale of Pyramus had a remarkably pervasive influence. Individual
tales inspired imitation or retelling by an extraordinary number of
the chief authors who wrote during the Renaissance. And afterwards
the book enjoyed very unusual favor among the Victorian poets of
England.
The Fourth Book attracted authors rarely influenced by Ovid,
among whom were Gongora, Rossetti, and Matthew Arnold. It had
an especially interesting effect in the work of Tasso and Spenser.
Petrarch, Chaucer, Camoens, and Shakespeare manifested interest in
a great number of tales. But the authors who found most frequent
and valuable help were Dante and Milton.
Many stories attracted modern painters, inspiring a considerable
number of masterpieces. Several were used by modern sculptors. And
the myth of Hermaphroditus had an interesting effect on modern
science.
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? BOOK FIVE
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? BOOK FIVE
Perseus and Phineus
In the first half of Book Five, Ovid continued the story of Perseus.
Beginning at the moment when the hero had finished telling Cepheus
and his court about the successful quest for Medusa's head, he pro-
ceeded to record the most interesting adventures from that time until
Perseus and his bride established themselves in the hero's native Argos.
According to the Manual, King Cepheus had affianced Andromeda
to his younger brother, Phineus. But on the approach of the monster,
Perseus stipulated that he himself was to obtain her hand in return
for saving her life. Cepheus consented and fulfilled his promise.
Phineus, still unwilling to yield, made a hostile demonstration during
the wedding feast. This incident Ovid was glad to use; but he made it
much longer and far more important.
In the Seventh Book of the Aeneid, Vergil had shown how King
Latinus remonstrated when his people gathered for a battle with
Aeneas and how, unable to stay the tumult, he withdrew protesting.
Ovid imagined that King Cepheus made a similar remonstrance and
withdrawal, when his people gathered to attack Perseus. And he gave
his individual combatants at least a few of the names which Vergil
had mentioned in the ensuing battles near the Trojan stockade.
After the retreat of Cepheus, Ovid proceeded to record a struggle
between the parties of Perseus and Phineus. In the Manual this had
been brief and undistinguished. But it occurred under remarkable
circumstances: there was a wedding feast, a sudden attempt to carry
off the bride, and the defeat of the would-be ravishers In all these
particulars the traditional combat with Phineus resembled the much
more famous combat with the Centaurs. It needed only to be magni-
fied into an elaborate and sanguinary battle. Struck by this idea,
Ovid remembered that he had planned already for such a battle be-
tween the Centaurs and the Lapithae (Bk. 12) and that for this he
had good material in readiness--both his recollections of the great
frieze in the Parthenon and a quite elaborate narrative by Nicander.
Taking care to avoid obvious resemblance between the two stories, he
could use the same material as the basis for a new battle piece, which
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK V
should give variety and distinction to the earlier half of his poem. This
design he carried out on the whole with notable skill. - But he took
over from the battle with the Centaurs two incidents--the killing with
a billet of wood and the hurling of a great sculptured bowl--which,
though very striking, were rather inappropriate for the swordsman
Perseus.
With the idea of an elaborate battle, Ovid thought naturally of the
greatest epics. The Odyssey had pictured a similar conflict in a ban-
quet hall between Ulysses and the three hundred suitors. In the begin-
ning it told how Athena gave protection and help to Ulysses and later
it told how the suitor Leiodes pleaded abjectly for his life. Both cir-
cumstances were of advantage to Ovid. At the beginning he showed
Athena giving similar aid to Perseus and towards the end he recorded
an even more abject appeal of the defeated Phineus. The Iliad sug-
gested to Ovid his pathetic incident of the friends Athis and Lycabas,
who found some comfort in a common death. The same epic had
recorded of the traitor Dolon that, while he spoke, his head was rolled
in the dust; and the Odyssey made the same observation of the suitor
Leiodes. To Ovid this suggested the extravagant incident of
Emathion's tongue still uttering curses, while his head was cut off
and lay among the altar flames. A similar incident Ovid was to use
more skilfully in the tale of Philomela (Bk. 6).
In such epics as the Iliad or the Aeneid, certain general methods had
usually given distinction to the account of battle. Ovid tried to
emulate them in his combat of Perseus and of Phineus. His com-
batants he made notable men, often from distant and picturesque
lands. And frequently this gave him striking effects. But he failed to
explain the presence of this brilliant assemblage at a court so stricken
that it had just exposed the King's only daughter to the mercy of a
dread sea monster. And he did not make it at all probable that so
many distinguished strangers would give their lives for so mean a
cause and such an uninspiring leader.
The Iliad had established it as epic practice to record circumstan-
tially the prowess of each important hero and the names and histories
of those whom he vanquished, and it had shown infinite variety in tell-
ing of the death dealing wounds. Vergil followed the practice in the
Aeneid. And the same methods prevailed later with such famous epics
as the Song of Roland and Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered. In the excite-
ment and confusion of battle, such detailed observation would be im-
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? PERSEUS AND PHINEAS
possible, and this Euripides had long since pointed out. The epic
poets were not drawing on observation of actual life. They were trying
to profit by a literary convention. But this was no further from life
than such other conventions as the soliloquy in drama or the detailed
record of a character's thoughts in a psychological novel. It was
merely a convention which allowed the author to imagine what he
could not know, and if his imagination was in accord with human ex-
perience, it added greatly to the value of his work. This advantage
Ovid sought and obtained in his battle of Perseus and Phineus. But
unwisely, he deviated from his predecessors in one particular. Both
the Iliad and the Aeneid were careful to show on which side a given
warrior was fighting. Ovid frequently neglected this precaution and
left the reader bewildered.
When picturing a scene of battle, the chief epic poets had been care-
ful to enlist the sympathy of their readers for a great, dominating
hero and to give them the sense of a great cause at issue. This was
true for example when the hero of the Odyssey fought for his kingdom
against the insolent suitors, or when the noble Aeneas battled for the
future of Rome against the host of misguided Latins. With such an
occasion there might well be need for effort and carnage. Yet even so,
the great epic poets found it wise to relieve the terrors of battle. The
author of the Odyssey showed by many successive stages that Ulysses
did not proceed further than necessary in the killing of his foes. And
Vergil frequently introduced touches of mercy and tenderness which
might soften the prevailing ferocity and slaughter. These precautions
Ovid did not observe. He told of a seemingly uncalled for and
atrocious melee. Amid confused combat and incidents of sensational
horror, Perseus became merely the warrior who appeared most fre-
quently. And there was no adequate relief. Always Perseus showed
himself fierce and unsparing. The bard and the priest perished with
the rest, and the poet described without pity the destruction of the
bad and the good.
After many striking incidents Ovid raised the battle to an exciting
pitch. The invaders were on the point of rushing forward in a body
and overwhelming the almost solitary Perseus. At this point Ovid
returned to the account in his Manual. He showed Perseus suddenly
confronting his enemies with the Gorgon head. Like the Manual, he
failed to explain the presence of the object at a wedding feast, where
it would seem very undesirable but happened to be most fortunate.
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK V
Yet he introduced the event with dramatic effect and described the
ensuing petrification with admirable fullness and brilliance.
After so great a conflict, Ovid realized that he could not detail the
remaining adventures of Perseus without a feeling of anticlimax. But
he mentioned as briefly as possible two which included metamorphosis.
First he told the destruction of Proetus. According to the Manual,
this chieftain had been merely an enemy of the hero's grandfather,
Acrisius. Ovid invented his usurpation of power and his death by
Medusa's head. Then he told the fate of Polydectes. Pindar had
recorded his conversion into stone and it became rather often the sub-
ject of vase paintings. The Manual retold the story, making the
event occur before Perseus returned to Argos. But Ovid, thinking
it more interesting than the adventure with Proetus, reversed the
sequence of time.
The battle of Perseus and Phineus had much less effect in later
times than the adventures with Atlas, Andromeda, and Medusa. Yet it
was often remembered. Jean de Meun retold it with the rest of the
cycle. Corneille and William Morris took from Ovid the idea that
Phineus became a rival of Perseus, and William Morris repeated a few
details about his invading the banquet hall. To Tasso the tongue of
Emathion still cursing in the severed head may have suggested the
weird incident of Gerniero's hand cut off yet retaining the sword and
gliding over the ground in the hope of uniting with his body. To
Shakespeare the petrifaction of Phineus and his party probably sug-
gested the words of Macduff after Duncan's murder:
Approach the chamber and destroy your sight
With a new Gorgon.
The idea of presenting a battle as a confused melee, with examples
of strange, atrocious carnage, seems to have appeared first in Athenian
and other sculpture representing the monstrous battle with the Cen-
taurs. And it probably affected the narration of other battles by
the Alexandrian poets. But Ovid far excelled all predecessors in the
combat between Perseus and Phineus and he was to excel them again
in his battle of the Centaurs. Lucan followed his example in the sea
fight at Marseilles. He invented similar confusion in the struggle and
even stranger and more numerous horrors. But he lacked Ovid's merit
of coming to a decisive finish.
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