No More Learning

The encounter of Hercules and Nessus attracted several authors.
Seneca in his Hercules on Mt. Oeta followed Ovid's idea that it occurred
almost immediately after the victory over Acheloiis. He agreed with
Ovid that Hercules was journeying towards his native city, which he
mistakenly called Argos, and that, before shooting, Hercules warned
Nessus to stop. Dante spoke of himself as conveyed on the back of
Nessus over an infernal river. He showed his guide, Virgil, dt'Tibing
the centaur as rash and alluding to his death and subsequent revtage.
Hyginus mentioned the centaur's giving Deianira the tunic and re-
*The title was Les Prowesses et les Vaillances du Preux Hercule.
tThis play served as a model for the French dramatist Rotrou in his Hercule*
Dying.
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK NINE
peated Ovid's word (vestem). Chaucer declared that Nessus wove the
garment himself. Shakespeare alluded to Ovid more vaguely. In All's
Well That Ends Well, Parolles remarked of a certain Captain Dumain,
that for rapes and ravishments, he paralleled Nessus.
The passion of Hercules for Iole interested many great poets of
later times. In Dante's Paradiso the troubadour Foulquet likened him-
self to Alcides, when Iole was shut in his heart. Chaucer in the Knight's
Tale and Shakespeare in Love's Labour's Lost, mentioned Hercules as
a notable example of the great man yielding to love. Boccaccio, confus-
ing Ovid's account of Iole in the Metamorphoses with his account of
Omphale in the Epistle of Deianira, spoke of Hercules as taking the
distaff for the sake of Iole, and he was followed by Tasso and by Spen-
ser. Ovid's incident of Rumor bearing the news to Deianira and his
emphasis on Rumor as mendacious provided the material for Shakes-
peare's prologue to the Second Part of Henry Fourth. And the idea
that Deianira expressed jealous resentment appeared in the work of
Seneca.
The disastrous effect of the poisoned robe was the most famous
part of the whole story. Chaucer observed of Deianira,
She hath him sent a sherte fresh and gay.
Alias! this sherte, alias and weylaway!
Envenimed was so subtilly with-alle,
That, or that he had wered it half a day,
It made his flesh al from his bones falle.
But on his bak this sherte he wered al naked,
Til that his flesh was for the venim blaked.
Shakespeare's Antony, thinking himself betrayed by Cleopatra, ex-
claimed
The shirt of Nessus is upon me: teach me,
Alcides, thou mine ancestor, thy rage;
Let me lodge Lichas on the horns of the moon;
And with these hands that grasped the heaviest club
Subdue my worthiest self.
Milton, lamenting the death of the Procancellar, remarked that, if a
right hand had availed against death, fierce Hercules would not have
lain on Mt. Oeta poisoned by the robe of Nessus. And in Paradise Lost
he declared the sports of the demons as violent,
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? NESSUS AND THE DEATH OF HERCULES
As when Alcides, from Oechalia crowned
With conquest, felt the envenomed robe,
And tore up by the roots Thessalian pines,
And Lichas from the top of Oeta threw
Into the Euboic sea.
Particularly interesting to later authors was the idea of a garment
which at first appeared beautiful but afterwards stuck fast and burned
continually. Hyginus noted that, when Hercules tried to remove the
tunic, his viscera followed the cloth. Spenser described as follows the
result of the dragon's fiery attack on St. George.
Not that great champion of the antique world,
Whom famous poets' verse so much doth vaunt,
And hath for twelve huge labors high extold,
So many furies and sharp fits did haunt,
When him the poisoned garment did enchaunt,
With centaur's blood and bloody verses charmed;
As did this Knight twelve thousand dolors daunt,
Whom fiery steel now brent that erst him armed,
That erst him goodly armed now most of all him harmed.
In Shakespeare's As You Like It, Old Adam spoke of Orlando as in-
jured even by his merit, and he added,
0 what a world is this, when what is comely
Envenoms him that wears it.
Cowper noted in his Progress of Error that
Habits are soon assumed; but, when we strive
To strip them off, 'tis being flayed alive.
Other authors were concerned chiefly with the idea of disastrous
results. The chorus of Milton's Samson Agonistes referred to a bad
wife or mistress as a cleaving mischief. Walpole in The Mysterious
Mother, observed that marriage was to wrap Edmund and Adelizia
fatally, like an envenomed robe. And Shelley in Prometheus Unbound,
spoke of his hero as declaring that Jupiter's Infinity was to become a
robe of envenomed agony.
Still other writers recalled the poisoned robe merely as an instance
of acute and inescapable suffering. Sienkiewicz used the idea in a literal
sense. In Quo Vadis, he declared that, when the tunic of Vinicius caught
fire, it burned like a shirt of Nessus. Carlyle in his Heroes and Hero
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK NINE
Worship used the idea in a figurative sense to describe the chronic ill-
ness and hypochondria of Dr. Johnson.
The fate of Lichas attracted separate attention more than once.
Hyginus noted that Lichas became a rock. Petrarch declared that he
himself became marble, like him that caused Hercules to put on his
shoulders the grievious burden. Shakespeare in The Merchant of Venice
showed Morocco complaining that the test of the caskets was as unjust
as having Hercules and Lichas play at dice and having Alcides beaten
by his page.
Seneca followed Ovid's idea that Hercules made a long complaint,
asking Juno for death.
Many authors recalled Ovid's exploits of Hercules. Seneca in both
of his plays gave similar prominence to Busiris and Antaeus and in his
Hercules on Mt. Oeta, repeated the inconsistent ideas that Hercules
killed the Hesperian dragon and upheld the sky. Claudian also gave
prominence to Busiris and Antaeus, and both Claudian and Boethius
gave their emphatic final place to the exploit of holding up the sky. Ari-
osto noted that stepmother Juno and Eurystheus had imposed the
famous labors on Hercules with the hope that he would perish and de-
clared that Lydia imposed on Alceste equally formidable tasks with the
same intent. Shakespeare recalled the twelve labors both in The Taming
of the Shrew and in Coriolanus*. Hawthorne recalled eleven exploits in
his tale, The Three Golden Apples.
Several of the exploits attracted attention individually. Shakes-
peare alluded to the Nemean lion, first in Love's Labour's Lost and then
in Hamlet; and in King John he recalled the traditional association of
Hercules with the lion skin. Dante in the Convivio and in the treatise
called Monarchy used Antaeus for illustrating a number of ideas in his
discussion and cited as authority Ovid and Lucan. Spenser alluded to
Hercules and the Hesperian fruit both in his Amoretti and in his descrip-
tion of Proserpina's garden. Shakespeare recalled the fruit in Love's
Labour's Lost, in Pericles, and in Coriolanus, adding that Hercules
climbed up among the boughs and shook down the mellow fruit. Dante
introduced Geryon as an aerial monster who enabled him to descend
from the cliff into the circle of Fraud. And in Heroes and Hero Wor-
ship, Carlyle spoke of the Protestant Reformation as a cleansing of
Augean Stables.
Ovid's comparison of the manner in which Hercules ascended Mt.
*A remote effect of Ovid's passage about the labors may appear in the remarkable
sonnets of Hereclia.
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? NESSUS AND THE DEATH OF HERCULES
Oeta to the aimless fury of a mortally wounded bull probably suggested
to Dante his similar description of the conduct of the Minotaur.
The pyre on Mt. Oeta and the deification of Hercules interested
many later poets. Chaucer in the Parliament of Fowls and Milton in
the Sixth Prolusion, referred vaguely to the manner of the hero's death.
Seneca introduced into his Hercules Furens the idea that Hercules con-
sidered burning himself on a pile of logs. In the Monk's Tale, Chaucer
declared that Hercules, not deigning to end his life by the poison, caused
his body to be raked in coals. Seneca in Hercules on Mt. Oeta described
him as calmly lying down on the pyre and stated that the flames de-
voured only the mortal part, which he derived from his mother. He
noted further that Atlas was able to bear the hero's weight. Spenser
declared in his Ruines of Time, that, after the great Oetaean wood had
consumed Hercules to dust, he was raised to heaven and lived happy as
the lover of Hebe. And Lewis Morris continually recalled Ovid's nar-
rative in his monologue of Deianira.
Modern artists were attracted by several incidents of Ovid's tale.
The adventure with Nessus became the theme for a painting by Lematte,
a German crystal carving of the Renaissance period, a marble statue
by Marqueste, and statues of several kinds by Giovanni da Bologna.
Hercules and Lichas inspired a famous work of the sculptor Canova.
The labors of Hercules became the subject for a wonderful series of
murals in grisaille adorning the palace at Palermo. Antaeus attracted
the painter Pollaiuollo and the sculptors Giovanni da Bologna, Guer-
cino, and Thorvaldsen. Ammanati treated the combat, in sculpture of
a fountain at Costello. Durer made the Stymphalian birds the subject
of a remarkable painting. The death of Hercules was treated by the
sculptor G. Coustou. And the deification inspired a painting by Rubens
and a masterpiece by Lemoyne. In a series of paintings the brothers
Dossi treated the entire story of Hercules.
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK NINE
Galanthis
Tradition had recorded the idea that, after Hercules ascended to
heaven, Eurystheus transferred his hatred to the surviving children of
Hercules and while persecuting them, was killed by Iolaiis. Pindar noted
that Iolaiis cut off his head with a sword. Pherecydes told the story.
Eurystheus despatched a herald to King Ceyx of Trachin demanding
that he give up the children of Hercules. Feeling unable to resist the
tyrant, Ceyx allowed them to escape from the country. Their grand-
mother Alcmena went with them. Eventually they took refuge in the
temple at Marathon, which was in Athenian territory. Demophoon,
who then was king of Athens, offered them protection. Eurystheus was
defeated in battle and perished while attempting to escape from the field.
Euripides declared in his Children of Hercules that he was taken pris-
oner by Iolaiis and afterwards was executed by order of Alcmena. But
most later authors reported that he was killed while in flight. Pausanias
repeated the older idea that the killer was Iolaiis. The Manual and
Diodorus asserted that he was Hyllus, and they noted that he brought
the severed head to Alcmena.
Following tradition, Ovid observed that Eurystheus transferred
his enmity to the children of Hercules and they felt obliged to leave
their home. But he said that Alcmena stayed in Trachin with Iole, who
soon was to bear Hyllus a child. Moschus had told how, during the
absence of Hercules at his labors, Alcmena and Megara were left discon-
solate and beguiled the time with talk about their loved hero. Ovid
imagined that, after the death of Hercules and the enforced departure
of his children, Alcmena and Iole were left disconsolate and beguiled the
time in a similar manner.
Alcmena, he said, expressed the hope that Iole might receive kind
treatment from the goddess of childbirth. She named Ilithyia, who
since the Iliad had been mentioned by the Greeks as presiding at such
occasions. In one passage the Iliad had spoken of more than one Ilithyia,
who might further the birth of a child, an idea repeated by the The-
ogony. But from the time of Pindar it became customary to mention
only a single goddess. The Romans identified her with their deity
Lucina, and later in the tale Ovid gave her this name also. Both the
Theogony and the Manual had described Ilithyia as daughter of Jupiter
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? GALANTHIS
and Juno. Ovid showed Alcmena adding that, for her, childbirth had
been exceedingly difficult.
Here Ovid introduced a little known Theban myth, which had been
recorded by Nicander. The Iliad had stated vaguely that Juno delayed
the birth of Hercules. Later Greek authors supposed that, when she
wanted to retard a process of this kind, she would interrupt the normal
action of Ilithyia. According to the Homeric Hymn to Delian Apollo,
Juno kept the goddess ignorant of Latona's condition and so caused
Latona nine days of torture. Nicander declared that in the case of
Alcmena, Juno went further. She persuaded Ilithyia maliciously to
impede the birth of Hercules, with the intention that prolonged suffer-
ing might cause Alcmena to die. Pindar had spoken of the Fates as
cooperating with Ilithyia to further childbirth. Nicander observed that
Juno persuaded them to cooperate in withholding it. As a result of their
combined efforts Alcmena was in torture seven days.
In many parts of the world primitive men have believed they could
aid a woman in travail by loosening various objects in the house. Ac-
cording to the Koita tribe of New Guinea, the husband ought to un-
fasten the cord round his hair and open all boxes and containers.
According to certain tribes of Nigeria, it is important to undo all knots
and open every lock in the house. Opposite conduct would impede the
birth of the child. It is reported that a certain jealous wife acted on
this principle, in order to spite her rival. Hiding a number of locks under
her dress, she visited the other woman's house and covertly fastened
them. Not content with that, she stole a waist belonging to the other
woman and tied it full of knots. Then she sat in front of the door with
her knees crossed and her fingers interlaced. Similar attempts to im-
pede childbirth are recorded in the folklore of many countries, from Italy
northwards to Scandinavia. Often men have thought it possible to get
relief by deceiving the malevolent woman and causing her to undo the
spell. In an English Ballad of Willie's Lady the hero's mother tied nine
knots in her hair, in order to prevent the birth of his child. But Willie
deceived her by fashioning a baby of wax and inviting her to the bap-
tismal service. Imagining that someone had frustrated her spell, the
mother undid her knots, and the child was born.
Nicander told a similar tale of Alcmena. Ilithyia and the Fates
visited her house and sat before the door of her bedroom holding their
fingers tightly interlaced. But a girlhood friend of Alcmena, Galin-
thias, daughter of Proetus, realized what they were doing and suddenly
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK NINE
announced that, by the will of Jove, Alcmena now had a son. In con-
sternation the goddesses released their fingers. The spell was broken,
and the child was born. The malevolent goddesses punished Galinthias by
transforming her into a weasel. Nicander noted that the animal still is
deceitful; and, following a mistaken scientific belief, he added that, be-
cause the mouth of Galinthias had made possible the birth of Hercules,
the weasel is condemned to bear young through her mouth. But Galin-
thias did not go without some reward. Hecate made her an attendant
of hers, and Hercules erected a shrine to her in his house and caused her
to be given the first offerings at Theban festivals in his honor.
Although Ovid took the outline of his tale from Nicander, he made
a number of changes. Ordinarily it was supposed that Alcmena bore
two sons, Hercules and Iphicles.
Although the Iliad and Nicander did
not mention the fact, they said nothing to the contrary. But Ovid im-
plied clearly that Alcmena bore only one child. Following an observa-
tion of Moschus, he noted that she carried her son ten months, and he
added that her unborn child grew so heavy as to leave no doubt that his
father was Jupiter.
Ovid spoke of Alcmena as invoking both Lucina and the Nixi. The
latter were three male deities represented by kneeling statues in the
Forum at Rome. The images were said to have been imported from
Syria. Probably mistaking their true function, the Romans imagined
them as gods furthering childbirth. Ovid supposed that Ilythia alone
visited the house of Alcmena. He observed that she not only interlaced
her fingers but also crossed her knees and silently muttered charms to
prevent the delivery of the child. Afterwards in the tale of Myrrha
(Bk. 10) he spoke of her reciting charms to further childbirth. Ovid
noted that Alcmena cried out in her torture, reproaching Jupiter. This
made it plausible for Ilithyia to suspect that Jupiter allowed the birth
of Hercules.
Ovid called the deceitful woman Galanthis and gave a new account
of her. She was a girl of humble origin and an attendant of Alcmena,
active in her service and loved by her. Galanthis had distinctive reddish
yellow hair. While going in and out on errands for her mistress, she
observed the unknown female figure performing spells. Galanthis an-
nounced the birth of a child, but without mentioning Jupiter. The god-
dess not only opened her hands but sprang to her feet. Ovid added
plausibly that Galanthis laughed at her dismay and so provoked her
further.
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? GALANTHIS
According to the Iliad, Jupiter was so enraged at Ate's deceiving
him and giving dominion to Eurystheus that he seized her by the hair
and threw her down from the home of the gods. According to Ovid,
Ilythia was so enraged at Galanthis that she seized her by the hair and
threw her on the ground. Then, holding her down, she transformed her
into a weasel. Ovid repeated Nicander's idea that a weasel bears her
young through her mouth and added that Galanthis in her new form
retained her reddish yellow hair, her activity, and her love of dwelling
in the home. The less interesting details about her subsequent relation
to Hecate and Hercules, Ovid wisely omitted. Although he referred to
the malevolent goddess as Ilithyia or Lucina, he gave an impression
throughout that in reality she was Juno herself.
Ovid's idea that Galanthis, after becoming a weasel, retained her
love of dwelling in the home would have impressed his contemporaries as
remarkably true to life. Before the dawn of history European house-
holders had begun to suffer from the depredations of mice. They felt
the need of encouraging some other animal to frequent the house and
prey on these vermin. Sometimes the animal was a harmless variety of
snake. In warm weather the snake was a valuable ally, for it was not
especially afraid of human beings and it was able to pursue the mice in
almost all their hiding places. But in cold weather it became torpid and
allowed the mice to continue undisturbed.
A more useful animal was the weasel. With all the advantages of
the snake, it combined ability to hunt throughout the year. The weasel
became recognized as man's chief protector within the house. Plautus
mentioned it in this character, and other Roman poets followed his ex-
ample. The weasel was welcomed first in southern Europe, but, as the
practice of living in permanent dwellings became general, it was re-
ceived as a household animal all over the continent. The weasel had
certain disadvantages. It was somewhat malodorous and rather destruc-
tive to poultry. But it did not lose favor until the end of the medieval
period. For many centuries of readers, Ovid's description would have
continued to be true.
In Egypt the cat became a household animal before historical times.
From there it was brought to the Greek world as early as the year
1500 B. C. ; but it won favor very slowly, and it was regarded as a pet
for the amusement of the wealthy rather than a creature for practical
use. Callimachus, who lived in Egypt, appears to have been the first
Greek author to mention the cat as a protector of the household. He
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK NINE
spoke of Erysichthon as devouring his father's entire stock of animals,
even the cat which was the dread of all lesser beasts. And Callimachus
was mistaken in imagining that a cat would have been usual either in
the palace of Erysichthon or in a Greek mansion of his own day.
It was much later still before the cat was known to the Romans.
Ovid referred to it only as an Egyptian creature associated with Diana
(cf. Pierids, Bk. 5). The first Roman author to mention the cat as an
enemy of mice was the Elder Pliny. After his time the animal gradually
became a rival of the weasel, first in Italy and then in other parts of the
continent. With the close of the twelfth century A. D. the rat, migrat-
ing westwards from southern Asia, began to spread rapidly over Eu-
rope. Against this new enemy the weasel proved ineffectual. The cat
did far better and soon prevailed throughout the civilized world.
Ovid's account of the birth of Hercules was recalled more than once
in later times. Seneca followed Ovid in having first the death of Her-
cules and then Alcmena's account of his birth. Pliny, after alluding to
Ovid's tale, observed that spells of the kind used by Ilithyia were thought
to impede cure of the sick, councils, prayers, and other desirable activi-
ties. Milton declared in his Areopagitica that freedom from censorship
of books had been advantageous to England, and he added, no envious
Juno sat cross-legged over the nativity of any man's offspring. The
Scandinavian artist Bystrom made a painting of Juno and the infant
Hercules.
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? DRYOPE
Dryope
Seeing Alcmena grieved at the transformation of her servant
Galanthis, Iole spoke of her own still nearer cause of grief, the trans-
formation of her half sister Dryope. Iole referred to Dryope as a
daughter of Eurytus, the only child of his first wife. She proceeded to
recount the story as an eye witness.
Nicander had given Dryope a different parentage and had told
of her to the following effect. She was the only child of Dryops, king
of Oeta. While tending her father's flocks, she became friendly with the
tree nymphs and shared in their songs and dances. One day Apollo
saw her taking part in the dance. After waiting until the nymphs paused
for rest, he drew near in the form of a tortoise. Dryope sportively picked
up the creature and put it in her lap. Apollo changed immediately into
a serpent, and the nymphs fled in terror. Then, apparently resuming
his human form, he ravished Dryope. In time she bore a son called
Amphissos. Meanwhile Dryope concealed the fact that she had been
ravished, and she was happily married to a certain Andraemon. When
Amphissos grew up, he built a shrine to Apollo in the region, called
Dryopis, just south of Mt. Oeta. While his mother was visiting the
shrine, the nymphs carried her off. Although Nicander spoke of their
intentions as kindly, he left the motive obscure. To hide the abduction,
they caused a poplar tree and a spring to appear where Dryope last was
seen. Two girls told what the nymphs had done and were punished with
transformation into fir trees. Eventually Dryope herself became a
nymph.
Ovid reconstructed the tale radically. After describing Dryope as
a half-sister of Iole, he localized the events near Oechalia in Euboea. He
only mentioned the ravishment by Apollo and the happy marriage to
Andraemon, and he merely implied a friendship with the nymphs, by
observing that Dryope went out one day to prepare garlands for them.
He then proceeded to give a new and circumstantial account of her
transformation. In her arms she carried Amphissos, whom she still was
feeding with milk. Iole accompanied her. Ovid imagined that entirely
contrary to her intent Dryope herself offended the nymphs and suffered
metamorphosis into a tree.
In the search for garlands, Dryope and Iole visited a certain
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK NINE
attractive pond. Here their attention was caught by an unfamiliar tree
with purple flowers. Ovid noted that it was a lotus. Ancient authors
gave this name not only to certain exotic water plants but also to many
other kinds of vegetation -- eleven in all. At one extreme they included
the African jujube tree, whose fruit beguiled the lotus eaters of the
Odyssey, and at the other, the European species of yellow clover, which
in the Georgics was recommended as fodder for cattle. Ovid spoke of
the flowers which attracted Dryope as belonging to a water lotus but he
specified that he was referring to a tree and that later in the season it
would have had berries. Probably it was the lotus or nettle tree, which
bears a small, sweet fruit. This variety was native to Africa and had
been imported by the Romans into Italy.
To please the little Amphissos, Dryope gathered some of the flow-
ers. As Iole was about to follow her example, she observed that blood
dripped from the stems-of the newly gathered blossoms and that the torn
branches moved with a shiver of fright. Here Ovid recalled not only
Vergil's incident of bleeding shrubs on the tomb of Polydorus but also
his own description of the oak trembling and showing pallor before the
upraised axe of Erysichthon (Bk. 8).
Ovid mentioned the cause of this alarming event, as Iole learned it
afterwards from the country folk of the neighborhood. The story
appears to have been told originally of the goddess Vesta and to have
been as follows. Priapus, departing late from a banquet, happened to
notice Vesta asleep in the grass under a maple tree. Approaching in a
stealthy manner, he was about to seize and ravish her, when an ass
brayed. The goddess awoke and escaped. Vergil noted in his Copa that
the ass still is a favorite with Vesta. Ovid recorded the tale in his Fasti.
The story was told also of a nymph called Lotis, and Ovid included
this version in another part of his Fasti. In telling it, he may have imi-
tated a few circumstances from his own account of Daphne (Bk. 1). At
first, he said, Priapus courted Lotis, and she contemned him. The god
then tried unsuccessfully to surprise her. Lotis in her alarm roused the
other nymphs, and they ridiculed the god, as he stood confused and
chagrined in the moonlight. For that reason, Ovid added, Priapus
welcomes the sacrifice of an ass. In the Fasti, Ovid ended the tale here.
But he imagined the terrified Lotis as fleeing to the edge of a pool and
winning safety by transformation into a lotus tree. To this event he
now alluded in the tale of Dryope.
Seeing blood ooze from the broken twigs of the lotus, Dryope
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? DRY OPE
offered prayers to the nymphs and wished to depart. But she had in-
curred their anger, and she herself was changing into a lotus tree. While
Ovid recorded the transformation, he took many circumstances from
his previous account of the Heliads (Bk. 2). Dryope's feet became
rooted in the ground; bark crept upwards to her waist; she would have
torn her hair but found only new, green leaves; Iole tried to check the
advancing bark; but it continued until only the face of Dryope remained
visible. Ovid added the further particulars that her child felt his
mother's breast stiffen and withhold its milk and the newly formed bark
seemed warm to the touch. He saw a chance to add much sentimental
detail. He imagined that the rest of Dryope's body was transformed
rapidly but that for a long time her face remained. He noted that An-
draemon and Eurytus arrived and clung in despair about the trunk and
roots and that Dryope complained at some length, protesting her inno-
cence and bidding them give her many chances to enjoy the presence of
her child.
Ovid's powerful and pathetic narrative attracted several authors
of England. Pope translated it. Landor treated the story in a Latin
idyll. Browning expressed his admiration of the gift of fancy enjoyed
by his hero Gerard de Lairesse, observing,
Could I gaze intent
On Dryope plucking the blossoms red,
As you, whereat her lote tree writhed and bled,
Yet lose no gain, no hard fast wide-awake
Having and holding of nature for the sake
Of nature only -- nymph and lote tree thus
Gained by the loss of fruit not fabulous.
271
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 11:22 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015005276665 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK NINE
IoLAUS
With the conversation between Alcmena and Iole, Ovid associated
a number of events in the later mythical history of Thebes. The first
of these was a marvellous transformation of Iolaiis, nephew of Hercules
and his former charioteer. Euripides had told the story in his tragedy
called the Children of Hercules. When Demophoon of Athens defeated
the army of Eurystheus, he said, Iolaiis took part in the battle but was
rather old and infirm. As the tide of conflict turned, Iolaiis observed
Eurystheus on the point of escaping by flight. He prayed that he might
regain his youth for a day, in order to capture him. The deities Her-
cules and Hebe appeared as two stars on his chariot, and he was rejuve-
nated. Ovid, not wishing to tell of the battle, imagined the transforma-
tion as continuing much longer than a day, so that Iolaiis was able to
visit Trachin and amaze Alcmena and Iole with his boyish appearance.
Ovid seems to have imagined the rejuvenation as lasting a number of
years, for already he had spoken of Iolaiis as participating long after-
wards in the Calydonian Boar Hunt (Bk. 8).
Following the implication of Euripides, Ovid stated that Iolaiis
was transformed by Hebe, goddess of youth. He decided to make this
occurrence the occasion for introducing other events in the mythical
history of Thebes. Ovid imagined that Hebe was reluctant to intervene
in behalf of Iolaiis, although he suggested no cause for such reluctance,
and that she was on the point of swearing before the assembled gods
that in the future she always would allow human beings to grow old
at the natural rate. From this, said Ovid, she was prevented by Themis,
a goddess often credited with oracular wisdom, as Ovid himself had
observed in his tales of the Deluge (Bk. 1) and Atlas (Bk. 4). Both
these tales had shown her veiling the message in oracular obscurity.
In a similar manner she now predicted events which were to happen
in the later mythical history of Thebes. For Ovid the device of an
obscure prediction made it possible to recall a few interesting cir-
cumstances and dismiss the rest of Theban tradition. For Ovid's con-
temporaries the subject probably was sufficiently well known to make
his allusions intelligible.