The Manual had shown them
breaking
their solemn
promi|e to land him in Naxos.
promi|e to land him in Naxos.
Ovid - 1934 - Metamorphoses in European Culture - v1
.
Pentheus
The strange fate of Narcissus, Ovid observed, was one of many
events which verified the predictions of Tiresias and made him revered
as a seer. But this reputation was challenged by Pentheus, king of
Thebes. Thus Ovid returned to the Theban myths recorded in the
Manual and to the later career of Bacchus.
The famous tale of Pentheus was only one of several myths which
assumed that the new worship encountered opposition before it pre-
vailed in Greece. In all probability some such opposition was an his-
torical fact. When the Bacchic religion entered Greece, it was asso-
ciated with the barbaric people of Thrace and its rites were marked by
frenzy and excess. Such a religion could not easily win the civilized
Greeks, a people ordinarily sane and temperate in every way.
In myths dealing with opposition to Bacchus a remarkable circum-
stance is the active aid which the new god received from women. That
the women of a Greek community should accept him the more readily
was natural. Greek tragedy implies often that in the Heroic Age
many of them had come as the spoils of successful war. And such war-
fare might often bring female captives from the neighboring countries
of Thrace and of Phrygia, where the religion of Bacchus prevailed.
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? PENTHEUS
But a number of other myths dealing with Bacchic rites, imply that
even after the new religion triumphed, it regularly gave the women an
important part. Examples are Ovid's tales of Philomela (Bk. 6),
Myrrha (Bk. 10), and Orpheus (Bk. 11). Underlying this, there
appears to have been a profound belief that, in order to obtain a good
harvest for the year, the community must observe chastity for a short
period during the time of planting. At the appointed season, there-
fore, the women left their husbands and departed in a body to pro-
pitiate the god with mystic rites. A similar theory and practice
affected the Egyptian worship of Isis and the religious customs of
many savages in modern times. And in ancient Greece, as in parts of
modern Australia, the women entraced in a secret worship, from which
men were excluded on pain of death.
During early times the spring festivals of Bacchus tended regularly
to a climax of violence and ferocity. With the added fear of perse-
cution, it is probable that they led occasionally to murder of an
atrocious kind. Yet stories of such crimes do not appear until many
centuries after the supposed events and therefore may be suspected of
exaggeration. With the beginning of history, civilized Greece had
toned down the barbaric features of Bacchic worship and laid
emphasis on its doctrine of ascetic purity and spiritual immortality.
Listening to tales of earlier violence and murder, thoughtful Greeks
may well have demurred at a god who promoted such crime. For them
an answer was ready. The religion of Bacchus, its votaries declared,
was naturally mild and beneficial. But when a community refused to
heed or tolerate it, the offense was so gross as to brinsr an extraordi-
nary punishment. The guilty people went mad and did they knew not
what. The crimes which appeared so horrible were committed, not bv
the followers, but the enemies of Bacchus. Euripides still demurred;
but with this explanation the maioritv of the Greeks were content.
Of mvths dealing with opposition to Bacchus, the earliest record
was that of a Thracian kinff. Lvcurerus. Tn the Iliad bis offense was
attacking the nurses of the infant deitv with an oxsroad and compel-
ling Bacchus to take refuse in the sea. For this be incurred blindness
and an earlv death. Tn later accounts his offense lav ratber in oppos-
ing and ,affronting Bacchus when the erod visited Thrace. Sophocles
made thp Tmnishment madness, and the Manual added de>>+h bv wild
horses. |This mvtb Ovid referred to in the opening lines of bis Fourth
Book, i
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK III
But the most famous myth of opposition was that of Pentheus. The
mother of this ruler was Agave, a daughter of Cadmus. His father
was Echion, a warrior who grew up when Cadmus planted the dragon's
teeth. In an age of continual war and violence, the king must be a man
of abundant physical strength: a ruler who became old and infirm
would have to surrender his authority to some younger member of his
family. This was true of Laertes in the Odyssey and of several other
heroes of ancient myth. Cadmus therefore had transferred the Theban
crown to his grandson, Pentheus. The latter opposed the entry of
Bacchus, and according to the earlier version of the tale he was en-
couraged by his mother, his two aunts, and perhaps the entire Theban
people. Bacchus drove Agave and the other Theban women mad.
They withdrew to Mt. Cithaeron, and here Pentheus came into their
power and was torn to pieces. This myth Aeschylus referred to in his
Eumenides and told at length in a tragedy called Pentheus.
Euripides retold the story in his Bacchce, presenting the case rather
unfavorably for all concerned. Bacchus, he said, had already won all
Asia to the eastern frontiers of Persia and had sailed with a company
which included chiefly Lydian women for Greece and his native Thebes.
In the story itself, Euripides made a number of changes. Pentheus
opposed Bacchus chiefly because he feared that his methods would
result in general profligacy. The suspicion, though it proved to be
needless, was not unreasonable according to the generally accepted
opinion of Lydian character. Most of the Thebans appear to have
supported Pentheus. But Cadmus and Tiresias took the other side.
Pentheus had the god brought before him; treated him injuriously; and
consigned him to prison. But the god and his followers were magically
released. Not only the women but also Pentheus became mad. The
deluded ruler went forth unattended in order to observe the secret rites,
taking as his point of vantage the crest of a lofty pine. Summoned
by the god, the women mistook Pentheus for a dangerous wild beast.
They threw down the tree, and rent him asunder. Cadmus showed
Agave her mistake. She repented and reproached Bacchus for his
cruelty. The end of the play is missing; but Vergil seems to imply in
his Culex that Agave forsook Bacchus and took refuge in the forest,
and Lucan mentioned her bearing the head of Pentheus to Thessaly.
This version of the tale enjoyed extraordinary popularity I and in-
spired a famous painting which adorned the temple of Bacchus at
Athens.
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? PENTHEUS
Theocritus retold the latter part of the story. In his version, the
god bore no active part. Pentheus observed the rites from the summit
of a cliff, hiding himself in a bush, and was discovered accidentally.
Theocritus did not speak of the women as mistaking Pentheus for a
beast, but he mentioned their subsequent repentance. More cautious
than Euripides, he bade his readers refrain from blaming the actions of
the gods.
The Manual, too, recounted the story. It added Egypt and Thrace
to the regions already accepting Bacchus and did not say that Pen-
theus attempted any concealment. Otherwise it repeated very briefly
the incidents recorded by Euripides.
Meanwhile there had grown up independently another myth relating
to the earthly career of Bacchus. The story originated probably to
explain why sailors were in the habit of decorating their ships with
vine leaves and grapes for some vintage festival.
In the Homeric Hymn to Bacchus the tale ran as follows: The god
appeared on a headland, taking the shape of a young prince.
Tyrsenian, that is Thracian, pirates, hoping to obtain a ransom,
carried him off and endeavored to chain him. The chains fell away
miraculously. At this the helmsman declared that the prisoner must
be some great divinity and urged the others to release him. The cap-
tain tauntingly refused. Suddenly fragrant wine streamed through
the ship; a fruitful grape vine overhung the sails: ivy with berries
twined round the mast; garlands covered the thole-pins. Too late the
pirates repented. The god, standing on the prow, took the form of a
lion and seized the captain. He put a savage bear in the stern. The
crew leaped overboard and became dolphins. But the god spared
the helmsman and revealed his own identity. This version of the tale
was treated later in vase paintings.
Euripides in the Cyclops mentioned two further circumstances. The
pirates, he declared, were sent by the hostile Juno, and Silenus with a
crew of satyrs attempted the rescue of the god. Perhaps a century later
a sculptor treated this version in the frieze of a monument with which
Lysicrates commemorated his victory in drama. The sculptor showed
the satyrs in possession of the pirate vessel, binding and killing some
of the pirates and driving the rest into the sea. This form of the myth
did not affect later accounts.
The Manual gave a third version quite different in many respects
from the other two. Thus far both the time and the place of the ad-
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK III
venture had been left uncertain. The Manual stated that the event
occurred after Bacchus had overcome Pentheus and his other oppo-
nents in Greece. It localized the headland in Icaria, near Athens,
and added that the god was desirous of crossing to the famous island
of Naxos. The pirates, according to the Manual, were Tyrrhenians,
that is Lydians from a colony in Etruria. Their offense, too, was
different. The god asked them to transport him to his destination and
they promised to do so. But when the ship was within view of Naxos,
they turned off towards the coast of Asia. Several details altered in
the ensuing miracle; thus the god retained his human form but he
changed the mast and oars into serpents. The sailors did not repent.
The Manual had told first of Pentheus and then much later of the
sailors becoming dolphins. Nicander appears to have combined the
two myths into one. The tale of Pentheus he used only as an occasion
for the other. While the Theban king was planning to oppose Bacchus,
said Nicander, the seer Tiresias attempted to dissuade him by recount-
ing the transformation of the pirates. In the main Nicander followed
the Homeric Hymn. He showed the pirates guilty of abducting the
god by force and in the miracle he merely replaced the bear by a tiger.
But he represented the god as a beautiful boy whom his captors des-
tined for slavery and he mentioned ten pirates by name.
About a century and a half later, the theme of Pentheus attracted
the early Roman dramatist Pacuvius. Probably his version owed
much to Euripides; but he seems to have been original at least while
treating the madness of the king, for Vergil in the Aeneid referred to
Pentheus as seeing double and being terrified by the Furies. Horace
alluded to the . story more than once. And Propertius referred both
to Pentheus and the mariners.
Ovid mentioned Pentheus briefly in the Tristia and in the Ibis. For
the Metamorphoses he evidently took suggestions from all his impor-
tant predecessors. But he so altered and rearranged the details as
to give a most unfavorable impression of Pentheus. This gave the
account unity and a more powerful effect. Later Ovid was to use the
same method even more successfully in the tale of Erisychthon (Bk. 8).
During the early part of the story, Ovid profited chiefly by the
work of Euripides. But while following the general movement of the
plav, he arranged every detail with regard to the predetermined effect.
He introduced the king as the godless Pentheus and showed him heap-
ing uncalled for abuse on the blind Tiresias. Unlike Euripides, Ovid
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? PENTHEVS
represented Pentheus as alone in his impious opposition. All the rest
hastened to do Bacchus honor. Instead of giving the king a reason-
able ground for his conduct, Ovid represented him as making vague
charges that Bacchus was effeminate and an imposter. And he re-
corded that the king's uncle and all the counsellors remonstrated,
with no result except to augment his angry obstinacy.
In the speech of Pentheus Ovid showed the king praising the oppo-
sition given Bacchus by Acrisius ruler of Argos. This event the
Manual narrated as occurring after the death of Pentheus. But Ovid
ignored the difficulty in order to score a rhetorical point. Ovid al-
lowed Pentheus to declare also that the older Thebans had come from
Tyre. In this he followed the Manual, forgetting that in his own
account only Cadmus had survived the encounter with the snake.
Following Euripides, Ovid had the king's attendants bring in a
prisoner and he even hinted that this was really the god. But Ovid
made the prisoner ostensibly a Lydian priest of Bacchus, named
Acoetes. Recalling both Menander and Theocritus, Ovid showed
Acoetes' father as the typical fisherman of Alexandrian poetry--
always hopeful and always poor.
As a warning for Pentheus, Nicander had caused Tiresias to repeat
the tale of Bacchus and the Mariners. Ovid gave it instead to the
former sea captain Acoetes and thus gained the advantage of narra-
tive by an eye witness. In order to attain a still more lively effect,
Ovid tried, like the Manual, to have his geography precise. But he
felt unable to make the point of departure Icaria. Tradition brought
the god there only much later. Accordingly he showed the sailors
meeting with Bacchus in the island of Chios. If they intended to pro-
ceed from there to some port on the Asiatic coast, it was not probable
that they would pass within view of Naxos, an island near the middle
of the Aegean Sea. But regarding this matter Ovid could assume
that the Romans would not inquire too curiously.
In the tale of the mariners Ovid pursued his former policy. He was
careful to discredit as much as possible the opponents of Bacchus.
Acoetes he described as a lawful tradesman, so that for the time at
least the rest were not pirates. But evidently they were in other
respects an impious and flagitious lot. Ovid identified Acoetes with
the pious helmsman of Nicander's version, but he made him at the
same time the captain. By flouting his wishes, the crew incurred the
additional guilt of mutiny. Nicander had shown them abducting the
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK III
god. by force.
The Manual had shown them breaking their solemn
promi|e to land him in Naxos. Ovid made them guilty of both offenses.
On each occasion he showed Acoetes protesting and endeavoring to
prevent their evil conduct and the crew not only deriding their com-
mander but overcoming him by violence. Ovid then added a most
reasonable but unavailing remonstrance by the god himself. He made
it as plain as possible that the god's opponents were guilty of deliber-
ate, repeated and heinous wrong doing. And with the Manual, he
showed them unrepentant to the last.
For the miraculous escape of Bacchus, Ovid retained what was best
in the accounts of both Nicander and the Manual. Both the god and
the ship kept their original form. Ivy with clusters of berries twined
about the oars and masts, and the sailors in terror leaped overboard to
become dolphins. But Ovid invented the god's appearing with a crown
of ivy berries on his head and surrounded by the shapes of tigers,
lynxes, and panthers. Following Nicander he described the trans-
formation elaborately. The passage was a fine close for a spirited
narrative. But Ovid erred in making the dolphin scaly.
After listening to this adventure, Pentheus might have objected
with some justice either that the tale was unsubstantiated or that his
own opposition to Bacchus was quite different from that of the muti-
nous sailors. But Ovid was careful not to let him appear so reason-
able. He showed him angrily ordering that Acoetes should be dragged
away to a death by torture. Then, profiting by the example of
Euripides, Ovid told of the prisoner's magical release.
When Pentheus went forth unattended to spy on the Bacchanals,
Euripides had imagined him deluded by madness. And both Euripides
and Theocritus had spoken of his attempting to conceal himself. Ovid,
preferring the implication of the Manual, showed him moved by sheer
wickedness and folly and proceeding rashly without any precaution.
Such conduct was less probable but would avoid any possible sym-
pathy for the king.
While recording the death of Pentheus, Ovid wisely profited by
details from both Euripides and Theocritus. But he added further
details and marked the stages of the action more carefully. Both
Euripides and Theocritus had shown Pentheus offering some alarmed
remonstrance; but Ovid heightened the previous unfavorable impres-
sion by adding that Pentheus admitted his guilt and became abject
with fear.
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? PENTHEUS
For so gross an offender Ovid thought apparently that the punish-
ment was justified. With Euripides he showed that the women mis-
took Pentheus for a dangerous beast. But he did not imply that they
ever regretted their crime. Since Pentheus was not only their king
but also their near kinsman, such regret would have seemed more
probable as well as more humane. To this mistake Ovid added another
which was more conspicuous. In the beginning he had shown all the
Thebans except Pentheus hastening to do Bacchus honor. He now
returned abruptly to the traditional account ancj declared that the
people were converted by the fate of their king.
On the whole Ovid's version was more easily understood and more
effective than those of his predecessors. It was also far more accessible
to the majority of readers. Lucan referred only to Euripides and
Seneca ignored Ovid while telling in his Oedipus of both Pentheus and
the mariners. But all other writers mentioned the subject with ref-
erence to the Metamorphoses.
Spenser compared the Souldan's wife, Adicia, to the mad Agave.
Milton used the adventure with the mariners as the occasion for
Bacchus' meeting with Circe and becoming the father of Comus. He
mentioned Ovid's detail of the ivy crown as characteristic of the god
at this time.
While recording the attempt of the Theban elders to dissuade Pen-
theus, Ovid had likened the King to a gently murmuring stream which
grows violent when impeded by a dam. Though hardly appropriate
for the conduct of Pentheus, the comparison inspired a charming pas-
sage in Shakespeare's Two Gentlemen of Verona:
The current that with gentle murmur glides,
Thou know'st, being stopped, impatiently doth rage;
But, when his fair course is not hindered,
He makes sweet music with enamelled stones,
Giving a gentle kiss to every sedge
He overtaketh in his pilgrimage,
And so by many winding nooks he strays,
With willing sport to the wild ocean.
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK III
For the Third Book, Ovid dealt almost entirely with themes long
familiar and often treated by Greek literature. Some of the tales had
become known also through Greek art. This material was even better
known to the ancients than the material which Ovid had chosen for
his First Book. Yet with Roman authors it had been far less popu-
lar. Only Pentheus had received any careful treatment. To Ovid
therefore the credit is due for transmitting this part of Greek culture
to the medieval and modern world.
In contrast with the tales of the Second Book, those of the Third
had been related closely to one another and had often attracted
poets of marked ability. The problem was not one of inventing order
and creating interest, but of improving what was already good and of
giving to what was familiar an effect of novelty. This Ovid attempted
with remarkable success. '
As before, Ovid relied chiefly on versions written during Alexan-
drian times. The Manual became far more valuable than it had been
hitherto and furnished at least the outline for almost every story.
Nicander was less prominent. Yet almost always he could supply
poetic details and a striking event, and he was probably Ovid's chief
model for the very important myth of Narcissus. In certain tales
Euripides proved especially helpful; in others Ovid profited by the
example of Theocritus and Bion. Catullus made a valuable contribu-
tion to the treatment of Narcissus and Vergil to that of Semele. As
usual Ovid borrowed often, but with judgment. He omitted much that
was unsuitable; heightened what was effective; and improved almost
every tale with striking ideas of his own. And always his style was
distinguished by beauty and vigor.
In medieval times, the Third Book awakened unusual enthusiasm.
The myth of Cadmus became a favorite in Provence; the myths of
Actaeon and Narcissus were even longer and more widely admired.
The Renaissance showed great interest in almost the entire book. And
many of the stories continued to be important, even during the eras
which followed.
Among individual authors, this book attracted a large, and a re-
markably varied company. Prominent among those not usually show-
ing fondness for Ovid were Rousseau, Schiller, and Tennyson. An
especially interesting effect appeared in the work of Tasso and Shelley.
Dante, Camoens, and Shakespeare recalled many tales. Spenser used
almost every story, often for important passages of his own. Addison
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? PENTHEUS
translated the entire book, adding valuable criticism. From boyhood
to age Milton admired all the chief tales and he profited by them in
great passages of Comus and Paradise Lost.
Most of the tales have interested modern painters, and Actaeon,
Semele, and Narcissus have attracted an unusual number, although
masterpieces were few. The myth of Narcissus interested sculptors
also and even bore a minor part in the history of opera.
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? BOOK FOUR
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? BOOK FOUR
The Daughters of Minyas
At the close of the Third Book Ovid had mentioned the general
acceptance of Bacchus in his native Thebes. The Fourth Book
opened with a brief account of the festival in his honor. This per-
mitted Ovid to describe the god's appearance. In older Greek art
Bacchus had been represented as a bearded man crowned with ivy or
grape leaves and swathed in a long tunic. But in the time of Praxiteles
he acquired a more voluptuous form. Painting and sculpture repre-
sented him as a soft young man in scanty attire, and Euripides appears
to have followed the newer conception in his famous play. Profiting by
this idea, Ovid described the god as a very young man endowed with
almost maidenly beauty and with perennial youth.
In accord with religious practice, Ovid showed the worshipers trying
to enumerate all the many titles of their god. By using such a cata-
logue, they hoped to include any title of which he might be particularly
fond. And this gave Ovid a chance to mention the extraordinary tra-
dition of his having two mothers. It was natural likewise for the wor-
shipers to recall famous exploits of the god. Among these was the
conquest of Asia. Euripides had extended it as far as the eastern
limits of Persia. But the subsequent expedition of Alexander the
Great into India suggested a mythical conquest extending to the
remote and picturesque shores of the Ganges. The new myth allowed
Greek poets to compliment Alexander by likening his achievements to
those of his divine predecessor, and Vergil had paid a similar tribute
to the Emperor Augustus. Ovid found the Indian expedition recorded
briefly in the Manual and gladly mentioned it in his own account.
Four centuries later this expedition became the theme of an enormous
work by the Greek poet Nonnus.
Ovid added also a sketch of the strange procession which was sup-
posed to accompany Bacchus. A longer and more brilliant descrip-
tion he reserved for his myth of Ariadne in the Fasti.
While describing the Bacchic festival, Ovid needed only to improve
on hints in the Manual. But he made this festival the occasion for
introducing a story of three sisters who defied the god and incurred
a memorable punishment.
Both the names and the story varied with different accounts.
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK IV
Originally the three girls were said to have been natives of Argos.
When Bacchus visited the city, they deliberately remained at home
weaving, instead of going forth to welcome the god. As punishment,
Bacchus drove them mad and caused them to draw lots and devour
one of their children. The story was told by Corinna, a poetess
reputed to have been the teacher of Pindar, and by Aeschylus in a
play called the Xantriae. It was commemorated by a festival called
the Agriona, held annually in Argos and other Greek cities.
Nicander gave the myth a quite different form. He localized it in
Orchomenus, an ancient city perhaps a day's journey to the north-
west of Thebes. The three girls, he said, were daughters of Minyas,
the supposed founder of Orchomenus, and their names were Leucippe,
Leuconoe, and Alcithoe. Nicander assigned also a different punish-
ment. Bacchus, he said, first appeared in a variety of alarming
shapes and transformed their woven fabric into a fruitful vine, then
metamorphosed the girls themselves--one of them into a bat, another
into a duck, and the third into an owl.
Following Nicander, Ovid called the sisters daughters of Minyas.
But he transferred their adventure to the well known city of Thebes.
He imagined it as occurring immediately after the triumph of Bacchus
over Pentheus. In the previous tale, Ovid had described Pentheus as
wicked and godless. By a prudent contrast, he represented the daugh-
ters of Minyas as ordinarily industrious and pious. They did honor to
Minerva, patroness of household arts, and admitted that a real god
would have power to do anything. But they refused to acknowledge
the divinity of Bacchus. In the account of their punishment, Ovid
followed Nicander; but he simplified and improved the conclusion by
turning all three girls into bats.
Ovid's tale of the three sisters interested a number of later authors.
La Fontaine repeated it in his poem The Daughters of Minyas. Both
Camoens in the Lusiad and Milton in the Animadversions remembered
Ovid's statement that Bacchus had two mothers; and Camoens de-
scribed the god's Indian expedition as sculptured on the Palace of
Calicut. In Alexander's Feast Dryden followed. Ovid while picturing
a triumph of Bacchus and especially in the repeated line
Bacchus ever fair and ever young.
Titian seems to have used Ovid's triumph of Bacchus for his paint-
ing.
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? PYRAMUS AND THISBE
Ovid's innovation was not confined to introducing a story about the
daughters of Minyas. He imagined that, while weaving, the three
girls entertained themselves by telling other stories. . These tales,
although of great interest and very appropriate for Ovid's general
purpose, would not enter easily into the sequence of his poem. They
did not belong naturally to any definite time, or to any organized
cycle such as the mythical history of Thebes, and they were quite
unrelated to one another. But they could be told by a group of
people whiling away a comparatively idle hour. In a similar manner
Ovid was able afterwards to introduce tales recounted by a group of
heroes detained in the residence of Achelous (Bk. 8) and other tales
by the Greek heroes besieging Troy (Bk. 12). The number and length
of the stories told by the daughters of Minyas served the further
purpose of emphasizing their neglect of Bacchus and preparing for
their punishment. A similar effect Ovid was to obtain later by assign-
ing a number of tales to Orpheus (Bks. 10 and 11).
Pentheus
The strange fate of Narcissus, Ovid observed, was one of many
events which verified the predictions of Tiresias and made him revered
as a seer. But this reputation was challenged by Pentheus, king of
Thebes. Thus Ovid returned to the Theban myths recorded in the
Manual and to the later career of Bacchus.
The famous tale of Pentheus was only one of several myths which
assumed that the new worship encountered opposition before it pre-
vailed in Greece. In all probability some such opposition was an his-
torical fact. When the Bacchic religion entered Greece, it was asso-
ciated with the barbaric people of Thrace and its rites were marked by
frenzy and excess. Such a religion could not easily win the civilized
Greeks, a people ordinarily sane and temperate in every way.
In myths dealing with opposition to Bacchus a remarkable circum-
stance is the active aid which the new god received from women. That
the women of a Greek community should accept him the more readily
was natural. Greek tragedy implies often that in the Heroic Age
many of them had come as the spoils of successful war. And such war-
fare might often bring female captives from the neighboring countries
of Thrace and of Phrygia, where the religion of Bacchus prevailed.
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? PENTHEUS
But a number of other myths dealing with Bacchic rites, imply that
even after the new religion triumphed, it regularly gave the women an
important part. Examples are Ovid's tales of Philomela (Bk. 6),
Myrrha (Bk. 10), and Orpheus (Bk. 11). Underlying this, there
appears to have been a profound belief that, in order to obtain a good
harvest for the year, the community must observe chastity for a short
period during the time of planting. At the appointed season, there-
fore, the women left their husbands and departed in a body to pro-
pitiate the god with mystic rites. A similar theory and practice
affected the Egyptian worship of Isis and the religious customs of
many savages in modern times. And in ancient Greece, as in parts of
modern Australia, the women entraced in a secret worship, from which
men were excluded on pain of death.
During early times the spring festivals of Bacchus tended regularly
to a climax of violence and ferocity. With the added fear of perse-
cution, it is probable that they led occasionally to murder of an
atrocious kind. Yet stories of such crimes do not appear until many
centuries after the supposed events and therefore may be suspected of
exaggeration. With the beginning of history, civilized Greece had
toned down the barbaric features of Bacchic worship and laid
emphasis on its doctrine of ascetic purity and spiritual immortality.
Listening to tales of earlier violence and murder, thoughtful Greeks
may well have demurred at a god who promoted such crime. For them
an answer was ready. The religion of Bacchus, its votaries declared,
was naturally mild and beneficial. But when a community refused to
heed or tolerate it, the offense was so gross as to brinsr an extraordi-
nary punishment. The guilty people went mad and did they knew not
what. The crimes which appeared so horrible were committed, not bv
the followers, but the enemies of Bacchus. Euripides still demurred;
but with this explanation the maioritv of the Greeks were content.
Of mvths dealing with opposition to Bacchus, the earliest record
was that of a Thracian kinff. Lvcurerus. Tn the Iliad bis offense was
attacking the nurses of the infant deitv with an oxsroad and compel-
ling Bacchus to take refuse in the sea. For this be incurred blindness
and an earlv death. Tn later accounts his offense lav ratber in oppos-
ing and ,affronting Bacchus when the erod visited Thrace. Sophocles
made thp Tmnishment madness, and the Manual added de>>+h bv wild
horses. |This mvtb Ovid referred to in the opening lines of bis Fourth
Book, i
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK III
But the most famous myth of opposition was that of Pentheus. The
mother of this ruler was Agave, a daughter of Cadmus. His father
was Echion, a warrior who grew up when Cadmus planted the dragon's
teeth. In an age of continual war and violence, the king must be a man
of abundant physical strength: a ruler who became old and infirm
would have to surrender his authority to some younger member of his
family. This was true of Laertes in the Odyssey and of several other
heroes of ancient myth. Cadmus therefore had transferred the Theban
crown to his grandson, Pentheus. The latter opposed the entry of
Bacchus, and according to the earlier version of the tale he was en-
couraged by his mother, his two aunts, and perhaps the entire Theban
people. Bacchus drove Agave and the other Theban women mad.
They withdrew to Mt. Cithaeron, and here Pentheus came into their
power and was torn to pieces. This myth Aeschylus referred to in his
Eumenides and told at length in a tragedy called Pentheus.
Euripides retold the story in his Bacchce, presenting the case rather
unfavorably for all concerned. Bacchus, he said, had already won all
Asia to the eastern frontiers of Persia and had sailed with a company
which included chiefly Lydian women for Greece and his native Thebes.
In the story itself, Euripides made a number of changes. Pentheus
opposed Bacchus chiefly because he feared that his methods would
result in general profligacy. The suspicion, though it proved to be
needless, was not unreasonable according to the generally accepted
opinion of Lydian character. Most of the Thebans appear to have
supported Pentheus. But Cadmus and Tiresias took the other side.
Pentheus had the god brought before him; treated him injuriously; and
consigned him to prison. But the god and his followers were magically
released. Not only the women but also Pentheus became mad. The
deluded ruler went forth unattended in order to observe the secret rites,
taking as his point of vantage the crest of a lofty pine. Summoned
by the god, the women mistook Pentheus for a dangerous wild beast.
They threw down the tree, and rent him asunder. Cadmus showed
Agave her mistake. She repented and reproached Bacchus for his
cruelty. The end of the play is missing; but Vergil seems to imply in
his Culex that Agave forsook Bacchus and took refuge in the forest,
and Lucan mentioned her bearing the head of Pentheus to Thessaly.
This version of the tale enjoyed extraordinary popularity I and in-
spired a famous painting which adorned the temple of Bacchus at
Athens.
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? PENTHEUS
Theocritus retold the latter part of the story. In his version, the
god bore no active part. Pentheus observed the rites from the summit
of a cliff, hiding himself in a bush, and was discovered accidentally.
Theocritus did not speak of the women as mistaking Pentheus for a
beast, but he mentioned their subsequent repentance. More cautious
than Euripides, he bade his readers refrain from blaming the actions of
the gods.
The Manual, too, recounted the story. It added Egypt and Thrace
to the regions already accepting Bacchus and did not say that Pen-
theus attempted any concealment. Otherwise it repeated very briefly
the incidents recorded by Euripides.
Meanwhile there had grown up independently another myth relating
to the earthly career of Bacchus. The story originated probably to
explain why sailors were in the habit of decorating their ships with
vine leaves and grapes for some vintage festival.
In the Homeric Hymn to Bacchus the tale ran as follows: The god
appeared on a headland, taking the shape of a young prince.
Tyrsenian, that is Thracian, pirates, hoping to obtain a ransom,
carried him off and endeavored to chain him. The chains fell away
miraculously. At this the helmsman declared that the prisoner must
be some great divinity and urged the others to release him. The cap-
tain tauntingly refused. Suddenly fragrant wine streamed through
the ship; a fruitful grape vine overhung the sails: ivy with berries
twined round the mast; garlands covered the thole-pins. Too late the
pirates repented. The god, standing on the prow, took the form of a
lion and seized the captain. He put a savage bear in the stern. The
crew leaped overboard and became dolphins. But the god spared
the helmsman and revealed his own identity. This version of the tale
was treated later in vase paintings.
Euripides in the Cyclops mentioned two further circumstances. The
pirates, he declared, were sent by the hostile Juno, and Silenus with a
crew of satyrs attempted the rescue of the god. Perhaps a century later
a sculptor treated this version in the frieze of a monument with which
Lysicrates commemorated his victory in drama. The sculptor showed
the satyrs in possession of the pirate vessel, binding and killing some
of the pirates and driving the rest into the sea. This form of the myth
did not affect later accounts.
The Manual gave a third version quite different in many respects
from the other two. Thus far both the time and the place of the ad-
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK III
venture had been left uncertain. The Manual stated that the event
occurred after Bacchus had overcome Pentheus and his other oppo-
nents in Greece. It localized the headland in Icaria, near Athens,
and added that the god was desirous of crossing to the famous island
of Naxos. The pirates, according to the Manual, were Tyrrhenians,
that is Lydians from a colony in Etruria. Their offense, too, was
different. The god asked them to transport him to his destination and
they promised to do so. But when the ship was within view of Naxos,
they turned off towards the coast of Asia. Several details altered in
the ensuing miracle; thus the god retained his human form but he
changed the mast and oars into serpents. The sailors did not repent.
The Manual had told first of Pentheus and then much later of the
sailors becoming dolphins. Nicander appears to have combined the
two myths into one. The tale of Pentheus he used only as an occasion
for the other. While the Theban king was planning to oppose Bacchus,
said Nicander, the seer Tiresias attempted to dissuade him by recount-
ing the transformation of the pirates. In the main Nicander followed
the Homeric Hymn. He showed the pirates guilty of abducting the
god by force and in the miracle he merely replaced the bear by a tiger.
But he represented the god as a beautiful boy whom his captors des-
tined for slavery and he mentioned ten pirates by name.
About a century and a half later, the theme of Pentheus attracted
the early Roman dramatist Pacuvius. Probably his version owed
much to Euripides; but he seems to have been original at least while
treating the madness of the king, for Vergil in the Aeneid referred to
Pentheus as seeing double and being terrified by the Furies. Horace
alluded to the . story more than once. And Propertius referred both
to Pentheus and the mariners.
Ovid mentioned Pentheus briefly in the Tristia and in the Ibis. For
the Metamorphoses he evidently took suggestions from all his impor-
tant predecessors. But he so altered and rearranged the details as
to give a most unfavorable impression of Pentheus. This gave the
account unity and a more powerful effect. Later Ovid was to use the
same method even more successfully in the tale of Erisychthon (Bk. 8).
During the early part of the story, Ovid profited chiefly by the
work of Euripides. But while following the general movement of the
plav, he arranged every detail with regard to the predetermined effect.
He introduced the king as the godless Pentheus and showed him heap-
ing uncalled for abuse on the blind Tiresias. Unlike Euripides, Ovid
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? PENTHEVS
represented Pentheus as alone in his impious opposition. All the rest
hastened to do Bacchus honor. Instead of giving the king a reason-
able ground for his conduct, Ovid represented him as making vague
charges that Bacchus was effeminate and an imposter. And he re-
corded that the king's uncle and all the counsellors remonstrated,
with no result except to augment his angry obstinacy.
In the speech of Pentheus Ovid showed the king praising the oppo-
sition given Bacchus by Acrisius ruler of Argos. This event the
Manual narrated as occurring after the death of Pentheus. But Ovid
ignored the difficulty in order to score a rhetorical point. Ovid al-
lowed Pentheus to declare also that the older Thebans had come from
Tyre. In this he followed the Manual, forgetting that in his own
account only Cadmus had survived the encounter with the snake.
Following Euripides, Ovid had the king's attendants bring in a
prisoner and he even hinted that this was really the god. But Ovid
made the prisoner ostensibly a Lydian priest of Bacchus, named
Acoetes. Recalling both Menander and Theocritus, Ovid showed
Acoetes' father as the typical fisherman of Alexandrian poetry--
always hopeful and always poor.
As a warning for Pentheus, Nicander had caused Tiresias to repeat
the tale of Bacchus and the Mariners. Ovid gave it instead to the
former sea captain Acoetes and thus gained the advantage of narra-
tive by an eye witness. In order to attain a still more lively effect,
Ovid tried, like the Manual, to have his geography precise. But he
felt unable to make the point of departure Icaria. Tradition brought
the god there only much later. Accordingly he showed the sailors
meeting with Bacchus in the island of Chios. If they intended to pro-
ceed from there to some port on the Asiatic coast, it was not probable
that they would pass within view of Naxos, an island near the middle
of the Aegean Sea. But regarding this matter Ovid could assume
that the Romans would not inquire too curiously.
In the tale of the mariners Ovid pursued his former policy. He was
careful to discredit as much as possible the opponents of Bacchus.
Acoetes he described as a lawful tradesman, so that for the time at
least the rest were not pirates. But evidently they were in other
respects an impious and flagitious lot. Ovid identified Acoetes with
the pious helmsman of Nicander's version, but he made him at the
same time the captain. By flouting his wishes, the crew incurred the
additional guilt of mutiny. Nicander had shown them abducting the
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK III
god. by force.
The Manual had shown them breaking their solemn
promi|e to land him in Naxos. Ovid made them guilty of both offenses.
On each occasion he showed Acoetes protesting and endeavoring to
prevent their evil conduct and the crew not only deriding their com-
mander but overcoming him by violence. Ovid then added a most
reasonable but unavailing remonstrance by the god himself. He made
it as plain as possible that the god's opponents were guilty of deliber-
ate, repeated and heinous wrong doing. And with the Manual, he
showed them unrepentant to the last.
For the miraculous escape of Bacchus, Ovid retained what was best
in the accounts of both Nicander and the Manual. Both the god and
the ship kept their original form. Ivy with clusters of berries twined
about the oars and masts, and the sailors in terror leaped overboard to
become dolphins. But Ovid invented the god's appearing with a crown
of ivy berries on his head and surrounded by the shapes of tigers,
lynxes, and panthers. Following Nicander he described the trans-
formation elaborately. The passage was a fine close for a spirited
narrative. But Ovid erred in making the dolphin scaly.
After listening to this adventure, Pentheus might have objected
with some justice either that the tale was unsubstantiated or that his
own opposition to Bacchus was quite different from that of the muti-
nous sailors. But Ovid was careful not to let him appear so reason-
able. He showed him angrily ordering that Acoetes should be dragged
away to a death by torture. Then, profiting by the example of
Euripides, Ovid told of the prisoner's magical release.
When Pentheus went forth unattended to spy on the Bacchanals,
Euripides had imagined him deluded by madness. And both Euripides
and Theocritus had spoken of his attempting to conceal himself. Ovid,
preferring the implication of the Manual, showed him moved by sheer
wickedness and folly and proceeding rashly without any precaution.
Such conduct was less probable but would avoid any possible sym-
pathy for the king.
While recording the death of Pentheus, Ovid wisely profited by
details from both Euripides and Theocritus. But he added further
details and marked the stages of the action more carefully. Both
Euripides and Theocritus had shown Pentheus offering some alarmed
remonstrance; but Ovid heightened the previous unfavorable impres-
sion by adding that Pentheus admitted his guilt and became abject
with fear.
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? PENTHEUS
For so gross an offender Ovid thought apparently that the punish-
ment was justified. With Euripides he showed that the women mis-
took Pentheus for a dangerous beast. But he did not imply that they
ever regretted their crime. Since Pentheus was not only their king
but also their near kinsman, such regret would have seemed more
probable as well as more humane. To this mistake Ovid added another
which was more conspicuous. In the beginning he had shown all the
Thebans except Pentheus hastening to do Bacchus honor. He now
returned abruptly to the traditional account ancj declared that the
people were converted by the fate of their king.
On the whole Ovid's version was more easily understood and more
effective than those of his predecessors. It was also far more accessible
to the majority of readers. Lucan referred only to Euripides and
Seneca ignored Ovid while telling in his Oedipus of both Pentheus and
the mariners. But all other writers mentioned the subject with ref-
erence to the Metamorphoses.
Spenser compared the Souldan's wife, Adicia, to the mad Agave.
Milton used the adventure with the mariners as the occasion for
Bacchus' meeting with Circe and becoming the father of Comus. He
mentioned Ovid's detail of the ivy crown as characteristic of the god
at this time.
While recording the attempt of the Theban elders to dissuade Pen-
theus, Ovid had likened the King to a gently murmuring stream which
grows violent when impeded by a dam. Though hardly appropriate
for the conduct of Pentheus, the comparison inspired a charming pas-
sage in Shakespeare's Two Gentlemen of Verona:
The current that with gentle murmur glides,
Thou know'st, being stopped, impatiently doth rage;
But, when his fair course is not hindered,
He makes sweet music with enamelled stones,
Giving a gentle kiss to every sedge
He overtaketh in his pilgrimage,
And so by many winding nooks he strays,
With willing sport to the wild ocean.
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK III
For the Third Book, Ovid dealt almost entirely with themes long
familiar and often treated by Greek literature. Some of the tales had
become known also through Greek art. This material was even better
known to the ancients than the material which Ovid had chosen for
his First Book. Yet with Roman authors it had been far less popu-
lar. Only Pentheus had received any careful treatment. To Ovid
therefore the credit is due for transmitting this part of Greek culture
to the medieval and modern world.
In contrast with the tales of the Second Book, those of the Third
had been related closely to one another and had often attracted
poets of marked ability. The problem was not one of inventing order
and creating interest, but of improving what was already good and of
giving to what was familiar an effect of novelty. This Ovid attempted
with remarkable success. '
As before, Ovid relied chiefly on versions written during Alexan-
drian times. The Manual became far more valuable than it had been
hitherto and furnished at least the outline for almost every story.
Nicander was less prominent. Yet almost always he could supply
poetic details and a striking event, and he was probably Ovid's chief
model for the very important myth of Narcissus. In certain tales
Euripides proved especially helpful; in others Ovid profited by the
example of Theocritus and Bion. Catullus made a valuable contribu-
tion to the treatment of Narcissus and Vergil to that of Semele. As
usual Ovid borrowed often, but with judgment. He omitted much that
was unsuitable; heightened what was effective; and improved almost
every tale with striking ideas of his own. And always his style was
distinguished by beauty and vigor.
In medieval times, the Third Book awakened unusual enthusiasm.
The myth of Cadmus became a favorite in Provence; the myths of
Actaeon and Narcissus were even longer and more widely admired.
The Renaissance showed great interest in almost the entire book. And
many of the stories continued to be important, even during the eras
which followed.
Among individual authors, this book attracted a large, and a re-
markably varied company. Prominent among those not usually show-
ing fondness for Ovid were Rousseau, Schiller, and Tennyson. An
especially interesting effect appeared in the work of Tasso and Shelley.
Dante, Camoens, and Shakespeare recalled many tales. Spenser used
almost every story, often for important passages of his own. Addison
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? PENTHEUS
translated the entire book, adding valuable criticism. From boyhood
to age Milton admired all the chief tales and he profited by them in
great passages of Comus and Paradise Lost.
Most of the tales have interested modern painters, and Actaeon,
Semele, and Narcissus have attracted an unusual number, although
masterpieces were few. The myth of Narcissus interested sculptors
also and even bore a minor part in the history of opera.
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? BOOK FOUR
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? BOOK FOUR
The Daughters of Minyas
At the close of the Third Book Ovid had mentioned the general
acceptance of Bacchus in his native Thebes. The Fourth Book
opened with a brief account of the festival in his honor. This per-
mitted Ovid to describe the god's appearance. In older Greek art
Bacchus had been represented as a bearded man crowned with ivy or
grape leaves and swathed in a long tunic. But in the time of Praxiteles
he acquired a more voluptuous form. Painting and sculpture repre-
sented him as a soft young man in scanty attire, and Euripides appears
to have followed the newer conception in his famous play. Profiting by
this idea, Ovid described the god as a very young man endowed with
almost maidenly beauty and with perennial youth.
In accord with religious practice, Ovid showed the worshipers trying
to enumerate all the many titles of their god. By using such a cata-
logue, they hoped to include any title of which he might be particularly
fond. And this gave Ovid a chance to mention the extraordinary tra-
dition of his having two mothers. It was natural likewise for the wor-
shipers to recall famous exploits of the god. Among these was the
conquest of Asia. Euripides had extended it as far as the eastern
limits of Persia. But the subsequent expedition of Alexander the
Great into India suggested a mythical conquest extending to the
remote and picturesque shores of the Ganges. The new myth allowed
Greek poets to compliment Alexander by likening his achievements to
those of his divine predecessor, and Vergil had paid a similar tribute
to the Emperor Augustus. Ovid found the Indian expedition recorded
briefly in the Manual and gladly mentioned it in his own account.
Four centuries later this expedition became the theme of an enormous
work by the Greek poet Nonnus.
Ovid added also a sketch of the strange procession which was sup-
posed to accompany Bacchus. A longer and more brilliant descrip-
tion he reserved for his myth of Ariadne in the Fasti.
While describing the Bacchic festival, Ovid needed only to improve
on hints in the Manual. But he made this festival the occasion for
introducing a story of three sisters who defied the god and incurred
a memorable punishment.
Both the names and the story varied with different accounts.
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK IV
Originally the three girls were said to have been natives of Argos.
When Bacchus visited the city, they deliberately remained at home
weaving, instead of going forth to welcome the god. As punishment,
Bacchus drove them mad and caused them to draw lots and devour
one of their children. The story was told by Corinna, a poetess
reputed to have been the teacher of Pindar, and by Aeschylus in a
play called the Xantriae. It was commemorated by a festival called
the Agriona, held annually in Argos and other Greek cities.
Nicander gave the myth a quite different form. He localized it in
Orchomenus, an ancient city perhaps a day's journey to the north-
west of Thebes. The three girls, he said, were daughters of Minyas,
the supposed founder of Orchomenus, and their names were Leucippe,
Leuconoe, and Alcithoe. Nicander assigned also a different punish-
ment. Bacchus, he said, first appeared in a variety of alarming
shapes and transformed their woven fabric into a fruitful vine, then
metamorphosed the girls themselves--one of them into a bat, another
into a duck, and the third into an owl.
Following Nicander, Ovid called the sisters daughters of Minyas.
But he transferred their adventure to the well known city of Thebes.
He imagined it as occurring immediately after the triumph of Bacchus
over Pentheus. In the previous tale, Ovid had described Pentheus as
wicked and godless. By a prudent contrast, he represented the daugh-
ters of Minyas as ordinarily industrious and pious. They did honor to
Minerva, patroness of household arts, and admitted that a real god
would have power to do anything. But they refused to acknowledge
the divinity of Bacchus. In the account of their punishment, Ovid
followed Nicander; but he simplified and improved the conclusion by
turning all three girls into bats.
Ovid's tale of the three sisters interested a number of later authors.
La Fontaine repeated it in his poem The Daughters of Minyas. Both
Camoens in the Lusiad and Milton in the Animadversions remembered
Ovid's statement that Bacchus had two mothers; and Camoens de-
scribed the god's Indian expedition as sculptured on the Palace of
Calicut. In Alexander's Feast Dryden followed. Ovid while picturing
a triumph of Bacchus and especially in the repeated line
Bacchus ever fair and ever young.
Titian seems to have used Ovid's triumph of Bacchus for his paint-
ing.
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? PYRAMUS AND THISBE
Ovid's innovation was not confined to introducing a story about the
daughters of Minyas. He imagined that, while weaving, the three
girls entertained themselves by telling other stories. . These tales,
although of great interest and very appropriate for Ovid's general
purpose, would not enter easily into the sequence of his poem. They
did not belong naturally to any definite time, or to any organized
cycle such as the mythical history of Thebes, and they were quite
unrelated to one another. But they could be told by a group of
people whiling away a comparatively idle hour. In a similar manner
Ovid was able afterwards to introduce tales recounted by a group of
heroes detained in the residence of Achelous (Bk. 8) and other tales
by the Greek heroes besieging Troy (Bk. 12). The number and length
of the stories told by the daughters of Minyas served the further
purpose of emphasizing their neglect of Bacchus and preparing for
their punishment. A similar effect Ovid was to obtain later by assign-
ing a number of tales to Orpheus (Bks. 10 and 11).
