At this, he said, Pluto opened the
earth and vanished into the Lower World.
earth and vanished into the Lower World.
Ovid - 1934 - Metamorphoses in European Culture - v1
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? CERES AND PROSERPINA
impious Pierid, he showed her beginning with the praise of a deity. In
this case it was a eulogy of Ceres. Callimachus had observed that the
goddess was the first to instruct men in agriculture and laws and so to
begin human civilization. Lucretius alluded to this idea, and Tibullus
made it the theme of an invocation to the goddess. Following both
Callimachus and Tibullus, Ovid introduced such an invocation in his
Amores and again in his Fasti. With a third passage of this kind he
now began Calliope's answer. Later he was to have Orpheus com-
mence with a similar invocation of Jupiter (Bk. 10).
The Pierid had sung of Typhoeus and his driving the gods in panic
to the Nile. In reply the Muse showed him lying vanquished beneath
Mt. Aetna. But Ovid magnified the traditional conception. He im-
agined that Typhoeus lay not only beneath the volcano but under the
entire island of Sicily and he mentioned the right hand weighted down
by the northernmost promontory Pelorus, the left hand by the far
southern Pachynus, and his feet under Lilybaeum in the west. He
added that the monster struggled under the ground, vomiting fire from
Aetna and convulsing the whole island with earthquakes.
In the tale of Callisto (Bk. 2), Ovid had shown how the ruin caused
by Phaethon led Jupiter to examine Arcadia and so to meet with
Callisto. Recalling the passage, he now showed how the earthquakes
caused by Typhoeus led Pluto to examine Sicily and meet with Proser-
pina. But this timehe added further happenings. While reconnoitering
the island, he said, Pluto passed near Mt. Eryx, a celebrated home of
Venus. In the Aeneid Vergil had imagined that the goddess feared
opposition from Dido and persuaded Cupid to inflame her with love for
Aeneas. Following Vergil's example, Ovid showed Venus dreading the
opposition of Pluto and persuading her son to inflame him with love
for Proserpina. In the tale of Daphne (Bk. 1) Cupid vanquished
Apollo by shooting him. This suggested his shooting Pluto and ex-
plained the god's sudden love. With this interesting prelude Ovid
began the tale of Ceres and Proserpina.
Both goddesses had appeared occasionally in the Iliad and the
Odyssey. Ceres was a humble deity of the country folk and a former
favorite of Jove. Proserpina was Jupiter's daughter and a dread
goddess of the Lower World. But nothing suggests that Ceres was
regarded as the mother of Proserpina. This relation did not appear
until somewhat later.
In a number of countries the simple harvesters have imagined that
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK V
there were two spirits of the ripe grain. With the piles of dry stalks
they associated an old woman; with the seed grain, her young and
beautiful daughter. Often they represented the two spirits by weav-
ing the fallen grain into rude images or by dressing an old woman and
a young girl with freshly cut stalks and ears. And they honored them
with simple rites on the harvest field. India and the Malay Countries
gave such worship to the Rice Mother and the Rice Baby; Scotland
to the Harvest Mother and the Maiden; Greece to Ceres and the
Maiden, Proserpina.
During the autumn the seed grain disappeared beneath the ground.
There followed the winter, a sad period when fruits were no longer
produced. But with the spring the new grain appeared and brought
in a time of rejoicing. This change of seasons the early Greeks per-
sonified. They imagined that Proserpina was carried off by the dread
god of the Lower World; that Ceres mourned her loss and withheld
the fruits of the fields; and that Proserpinareturned bringing glad-
ness in the spring. Beginning with the seventh century B. C. , this
myth was commemorated annually at the shrine of Eleusis near Athens.
A temple was built, which became one of the most beautiful examples
of sacred architecture. And the abduction of Proserpina was repre-
sented dramatically in the elaborate rites of the Eleusinian Mysteries.
These we^e influenced in part by similar Egyptian rites commemorat-
ing the search of Isis for her lost Osiris. And the return of Proserpina
from the Lower World, like the recovery of Osiris, was associated
with the possibility of human immortality (cf. Semele Bk. 3).
The god of the Lower World, who carried off Proserpina, was at
first called Hades. He was brother of Jupiter and had acquired by
lot a third of the world. But his portion was the gloomy region of
the dead. Ceres and Proserpina were thought of as conferring wealth;
and Hades by contrast was sterile and destructive. But in time he was
associated with the riches of various kinds which men hoped to draw
from beneath the surface of the earth. Hence he was called Pluto,
the god of wealth. And this name the Romans translated as Dives,
which they shortened to Dis.
The Odyssey had said only that Proserpina's father was Jove. The
Eleusinian Mysteries had said only that her mother was Ceres. Both
parents appeared in the Theogony, and the poet referred also to the
abduction by Pluto. Jupiter, he said, allowed Pluto to carry off
Proserpina and make her his queen.
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? CERES AND PROSERPINA
The Homeric Hymn to Ceres told the story in detail and with
obvious reference to the ceremony at Eleusis. It localized the event in
a mythical island of Nysa. Jupiter and Pluto arranged for the abduc-
tion and caused Earth to grow a supernatural plant, called a narcissus.
Proserpina, accompanied by Athena, Diana, and the Ocean nymphs,
went out to gather flowers and unwarily touched the magic plant.
The ground opened, and Pluto carried her away. As he did so, Proser-
pina called loudly the name of her father. Alarmed by the cry, Ceres
kindled torches and sought her daughter, fasting, for nine days. Then
Hecate, a goddess of night, informed her that Proserpina had been ab-
ducted. By her counsel Ceres inquired further of the Sun. He? told her
that the ravisher was Pluto and advised her to be content, for she had
gained a worthy son-in-law--her own brother and the ruler of a third
of the world. But Ceres remained disconsolate and wandered in the
disguise of an old woman to Eleusis. Here she was received into the
palace of King Celeus and established the famous Mysteries. Still
disconsolate, she withheld fruits from the ground and so threatened
to deprive the gods of the sustenance which they obtained from offer-
ings (cf. Lycaon Bk. 1). In vain Jupiter sent Iris and others^ to
appease her. Finally he sent Mercury to call Proserpina back from
the Lower World. \
Pluto consented to her return but secretly caused her to eat a
pomegranate seed. This was an act of great significance. To savage
tribes throughout the world it has seemed possible for living men to
visit the realm of the dead, and to return. But according to almost
all these peoples they must remain below, if they eat the food of the
dead; For this reason Pluto gave the pomegranate seed to his queen.
Yet he seems to have given her so little that the law applied only^ in
part. She might go with Mercury to her mother; but must return to
Pluto for the four months of winter. Ceres guessed what Pluto
had done, and Proserpina admitted that it was so. Then Rhea, the
mother of Ceres, persuaded her to reenter Olympus and give an ample
harvest.
Part of this myth Euripides retold somewhat differently in his
Helen. He said that Athena and Diana aided Ceres in the quest but
that Jupiter thwarted them. Among the snowy thickets of Trojan Ida,
the Goddess at length despaired and brought on a famine. But Jupiter
consoled her by sending Venus with the Muses and the Graces.
The Manual retold the myth with the following important changes:
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK V
The event occurred near Hermione in southeastern Greece. Pluto saw
Proserpina by chance and, falling suddenly in love, carried her away.
This misfortune Ceres learned eventually from the people of Hermione.
When Mercury descended in quest of Proserpina, a certain Ascalaphus,
child of the river Acheron, witnessed the eating of the pomegranate
seed and testified against her. Displeased, Proserpina laid a rock on
him and later metamorphosed him ij? to a screech owl.
Meanwhile Timreus had localized the myth in Sicily. Proserpina, he
said, was abducted near Henna, a town in the center of the island and
famous for the worship of Ceres and Proserpina. Pluto drove off
with her in his chariot and, finding that his steeds were dazzled by the
unfamiliar sunlight, he descended into the earth through a chasm still
visible near the town. For the quest, Ceres did not use ordinary
torches but pines kindled in the flames of Mt. Aetna.
In a Hymn to Ceres Callimachus mentioned a number of localities
which the goddess visited during her search. For the Origins he used
several earlier versions and retold the whole story to the following
effect: At the time of the abduction, the nymph Arethusa had invited
Ceres and other goddesses to a banquet on the isle Ortygia, near
Syracuse. Proserpina, accompanied by some other girls, went out
from Henna to gather flowers. She strayed from the rest. Pluto saw
her and carried her down the chasm near the village. Although Proser-
pina called for help from her father, no one heard. Unable to find
her, the other girls told Ceres that she was missing. At first the
mother tried to discover her daughter by following the prints of her
bare feet. But they were obscured by numerous tracks of a pig. This
event Callimachus probably gave as the reason why swine were the
victims offered regularly at festivals of Ceres and Proserpina.
Then Ceres kindled pines on Mt. Aetna and wandered over the
whole of Sicily. From there she proceeded in her dragon car to Eleusis
and established the Mysteries. Thence she continued her search
throughout the known world. She visited Callisto, the Great Bear,
who watches through the night; and finally the Sun, who sees all things
by (fay. Learning the truth from him, she appealed to Jupiter.
Mercury, departing immediately to Hades, returned with the news
that Proserpina had eaten food of the dead. But she had not eaten
one seed, requiring her to remain four months. She had eaten three,
requiring her to remain twelve months. At this Ceres threatened to
leave the world and enter Hades. Jupiter, alarmed at the prospect,
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? CERES AND PROSERPINA
arranged a compromise by which Proserpina was to spend six months
with Pluto and the other six with her mother.
The Sicilian versions of the myth became well known to the Romans.
Cicero dealt with them at some length in an oration against Verres.
Ovid himself had referred to the story in his Amores. Later he
went with his friend Macer to Sicily and passed more than a year
visiting places of interest. "Uno'V your guidance," he writes in a
Pontic Epistle, "I became acquainted with Sicily: You and I looked
at a sky glowing with Aetna's flame, vomited forth by the giant lying
under the mountain. We saw the lakes of Henna, the pools of
sulphury Palicus, and where Anapus joins Cyane to his waters. And
not far from there is the nymph (Arethusa) who fleeing the Elean
river runs even now hidden beneath the level of the sea. " Doubtless
he heard much about the myth of Proserpina from the Greek inhabi-
tants of Sicily. From them he probably learned how the Sun tried to
comfort Ceres and how during the latter part of her quest she caused
a famine.
Ovid treated the story at some length in the Fasti. In this version
he followed Callimachus closely and he gave special attention to the
places visited by Ceres and the events which later were commemorated
by ritual.
For the Metamorphoses he used Callimachus again. But he tried
to vary wherever possible from the account in the Fasti. After invent-
ing the myth of Cupid's wounding Pluto, he dealt almost entirely with
the events which would make interesting narrative. And he often
departed from Callimachus to profit by other authors or by personal
observation.
Beginning with the country near Henna, he described it attractively
from his own recollection, adding that here, as in the Golden Age,
there was perpetual spring. He indicated the pleasant rivalry between
Proserpina and her companions as to who should gather the most
flowers. Callimachus does not seem to have told who these other girls
were, and Ovid, too, was indefinite, but later he implied that among
them were the Sirens. He said in this version that Proserpina re-
mained with her companions and that they witnessed the sudden abduc-
tion. To this incident Ovid added his famous detail of Proserpina's
dropping the flowers from her tunic and grieving at their loss. Calli-
machus had imagined her calling for help from her father; but Ovid
showed her calling, more appropriately, for help from her mother.
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK V
Then Ovid departed from the traditional account. Instead of hav-
ing Pluto descend almost immediately to Hades, he showed him driving
a long distance through the country. The course lay in a southeast-
erly direction and passed near many places, which Ovid had found in-
teresting in his own experience. It went over two small lakes of the
Palici, which reeked with naphtha and sulphur, and boiled up with car-
bon dioxide gas. It passed within view of the famed city of Syracuse,
with its Great and Little Harbor. And at length it brought the
ravisher to the deep, clear spring which welled up continually and
formed the Cyane River. Ovid implied that the spring was on the
shore of the Great Harbor, although actually it lay inland about two
miles. Here he invenred a new incident. He showed the nymph Cyane
protesting and barring the way.
At this, he said, Pluto opened the
earth and vanished into the Lower World. But Cyane pined and
melted into the waves of her spring. Transformation of a water nymph
into water seems to have been without precedent; but it gave a chance
for vivid description and proved convenient in the later handling of
the story.
How Ceres learned of the abduction, Ovid did not tell. The other
girls had seen Pluto lift Proserpina into his chariot and drive away
among the mountains. But Ovid implied that they did not know who
he was and could give no idea of his probable destination. Therefore,
Ceres undertook the world-wide search. A full account of this Ovid was
to give in the Fasti. He contented himself, therefore, with a very poetic
description of the manner in which the goddess carried it on and with
repeating one little known incident.
Nicander had recorded that, when Ceres visited Attica, she did not
go immediately to Eleusis. She stopped first at the cottage of an
old woman named Misme. The old woman kindly gave her water mixed
with barley. But her son, named Ascalabus, acted so rudely that at
last the goddess dashed the liquor in his face and turned him into a
spotted newt. Wishing to keep his reader's attention on Sicily, Ovid
made the locality indefinite and left nameless the old woman and her
son. This gave him the further advantage of avoiding possible confu-
sion between Ascalabus, the rude boy, and Ascalaphus, the telltale,
who was later to report the eating of the seed. While repeating
Nicander's incident, Ovid was able, by quoting an unusual phrase, to
remind his contemporaries pleasantly of a similar incident in the Self
Avenger, a much admired comedy by Terence.
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? CERES AND PROSERPINA
Callimachus had shown Ceres visiting Callisto and then the Sun,
from whom she learned her daughter's fate. These incidents Ovid
reserved for his Fasti. In the Metamorphoses he invented a quite
different story. After a world-wide quest, he said, Ceres came again
to Sicily and arrived at Cyane's pool. The friendly nymph displayed
to her Proserpina's girdle floating in the water. Ovid then used the
older tradition that Ceres despaired and caused a famine. He de-
scribed it realistically and in some detail. In the Homeric Hymn the
famine had alarmed Jupiter and caused him to intervene. But Ovid
imagined a different outcome. Inferring that her daughter was still
hidden within the limits of Sicily, the goddess punished the island with
special severity. And this brought intervention from the nymph
Arethusa, who now regarded Sicily as her home. From her Ceres
learned that Proserpina was queen of Hades.
From the time when Pluto drove off with Proserpina until the mo-
ment when Ceres learned her daughter's residence, Ovid had left the
version of Callimachus to profit by other accounts or by his own in-
vention. He now returned to it briefly. Departing in her dragon car
to heaven, Ceres appealed to Jupiter. But Ovid added some further
details. In the Homeric Hymn the Sun had tried to make Ceres con-
tent with having Pluto as a son-in-law. This attempted consolation
Ovid introduced at the time of her appeal to Jove and as coming from
Jupiter. While making this change, Ovid may have realized that in
the Theogony and elsewhere Jupiter had consented in advance to the
abduction. But in any case Jupiter was both father of Proserpina
and brother of Pluto, so that he might be expected to sympathize
with the anxiety of Ceres and yet appreciate the merits of the
abductor.
Tradition had shown Pluto giving his wife the pomegranate seed.
But Ovid invented a new incident. He imagined that even in Hades
there was a garden near the palace and that while wandering there
Proserpina ate the seeds of her own accord. He changed their num-
ber also to seven. The Manual had made Ascalaphus report Proser-
pina's action. Ovid repeated this incident, but he imagined that
Proserpina transformed him immediately by splashing him with water
of Phlegethon, and he indicated that Ascalaphus was changed into a
bird because of his malice.
But the Sirens, he declared, were transformed into birds on account
of their sympathy. This had not been the usual tradition. In several
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK V
countries men have imagined water spirits who by their seductive music
lured voyagers to destruction. South Germany told of a maiden called
the Lorelei, and Java of two celestial Gandharvis, half women and
half birds, who subjected the traveler to the fatal fascination of their
song. Similar to both of these were the Sirens. In the Odyssey they
were two maidens inhabiting an isle to the north of Sicily. They sat
in a flowery meadow and sang music which no listening mariner could
resist. The Catalogues declared that they were three maidens and
that the isle was called Anthemoessa. This became the usual tra-
dition. Greek artists of the fifth century B. C. pictured the Sirens as
birds with only the heads of women. And Lycophron made them daugh-
ters of the river Achelous. Vergil gave the Sirens their traditional
character, while telling the wanderings of Aeneas. And in a similar
context Ovid was to follow his example (Bk. 14). But Apollonius had
spoken of them as human attendants of Proserpina, who entertained
her with their singing and later were partly metamorphosed. Finding
this in the translation by Varro of Atax, Ovid declared that they
accompanied Proserpina when she was gathering flowers and after-
wards desired wings in order to join in the search. This new, attrac-
tive metamorphoses added much interest to the story. But it could
have been introduced more appropriately during the quest for Proser-
pina. At that point it would have been accurate in time and valuable
for concealing the necessary omission of other detail. By withholding
it until the reader was concerned with Proserpina's release, Ovid
tended to interrupt and confuse his main effect.
Returning again to Callimachus, Ovid mentioned the compromise by
which Proserpina was able to rejoin her mother for half the year. In
the Fasti he was to describe the delight of Ceres. And so here he
described the joy of Proserpina.
In later times the myth of Ceres and Proserpina continued to be a
favorite. Almost all subsequent authors used Ovid at least in part
and many used him entirely. Both the Fasti and the Metamorphoses
were admired. But the Metamorphoses proved at once more accessible
and more interesting.
Claudian borrowed abundantly from Ovid while composing an am-
bitious epic, The Abduction of Proserpina. He localized the tale in
Sicily and related it to Cyane, the Sirens, and Arethusa, adding that
the loss of Proserpina embittered the Sirens and gave them their well
known malevolence. Although the myth hardly bears the weight of
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? CERES AND PROSERPINA
epic treatment, Claudian's version had great charm and was preferred
even to Ovid's by both Chaucer and the youthful Milton.
Jean de Meun retold the first half of Ovid's myth in the Romance of
the Rose. Guillaume de Machaut told the whole of it briefly in his
Comfort d'Ami. In a sonnet to Laura, Petrarch alluded to Jove's de-
light at seeing his daughter return with the spring. And in the
Triumph of Love both Pluto and Proserpina followed among those
vanquished by the triumphant god. To Schiller Ovid's narrative sup-
plied a few details for his noble Lament of Ceres and his Festival at
Eleusis. To Shelley it suggested a Song of Proserpina. Tennyson
used Ovid in part for his beautiful monologue, Demeter, and the story
inspired a number of lesser poets during the nineteenth century.
Many authors recalled separately one or more of Ovid's striking
events. Dante rejected the idea that Aetna erupted because of
Typhoeus, preferring the suggestion in Ovid's speech of Pythagoras
(Bk. 15) that such activity was due to burning sulphur. But Camoens
gladly repeated Ovid's whole description.
In the Tempest Shakespeare remembered the conspiracy of Venus
and Cupid. He showed Ceres mistrusting them ever since they planned
The means, that dusky Dis my daughter got.
The events in the beautiful valley of Henna delighted many subse-
quent authors. Dante, seeing Matilda gathering flowers in the
Earthly Paradise, compared her to Proserpina at the moment when
her Mother lost her and she herself lost the springtime. And Milton
likened Eden to that fair field
Of Enna, where Proserpin gathering flowers,
Herself a fairer flower, by gloomy Dis
Was gathered--which cost Ceres all that pain
To seek her through the world.
In A Winter's Tale Shakespeare's Perdita remembered the blossoms
which Proserpina let fall from Dis' wagon and proceeded to name the
beautiful kinds which might have been among the number. Hawthorne
recalled the Joss of the flowers in his own charming account of Proser-
pina, and Swinburne remembered it in his monologue At Eleusis.
Another favorite incident of Ovid's myth was Proserpina's eating
the pomegranate seeds, which required her to spend half of every year
among the dead. Lucan suggested that this could not be the true
reason. He implied that Proserpina remained in the dark realm from
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? pjl ^ METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK V
a sense of guilt and he showed the witch Erichtho threatening to reveal
the secret food and dalliance which made her shun the light of day.
But most authors accepted Ovid's reason. Goethe treated the incident
of thejomegranate at great length in his comedy^J/VieTjrvumph of
Sensibility. Kossetti used it as~a theme for both poetry and painting.
And Hawthorne retold it, altering the number of seeds to six--one
for every month that Proserpina must remain with Dis.
Ovid's idea of an infernal garden probably inspired Spenser's long
and beautiful description of the Garden of Proserpina. And Chaucer
in the Troilus showed his hero noting that the screech owl is named
"Ascaphilo. "
In the field of painting Ovid's myth of Proserpina was treated by
Schiaffino, Rubens, Van Uden, Boulogne, and Walter Crane. And
Van Uden painted Cyane.
Bernini treated Proserpina in a beautiful piece of sculpture.
Arethusa
In the previous tale about Ceres, Ovid had introduced the nymph
Arethusa. Alluding to her migration from Elis to Ortygia, he de-
clared that her way took her through Hades, the realm of Pluto and
Proserpina. This much had been essential for his account of Ceres and
her daughter. But further detail would have interrupted an inter-
esting narrative. Therefore he showed Arethusa courteously deferring
the rest until a more favorable time. After the return of Proserpina,
he imagined that Ceres revisited the nymph and learned her marvellous
history.
The myth had originated in southern Greece and dealt with Alpheus,
a large river of Arcadia and Elis which flowed into the Adriatic Sea.
At first this river was supposed to have loved and pursued the goddess
Diana. In the earliest version she eluded him by daubing her face with
mud. When the Eleans founded a colony in Ortygia, they imagined
that Diana had taken refuge there. While coursing through Arcadia,
the Alpheus had a peculiar habit of disappearing underground and
then emerging unimpaired some distance farther on. And so the
Greeks imagined that he could follow Diana even to Ortygia. Instead
of mingling with the Adriatic, they said, he disappeared under Jhe
salt water and rose still fresh by the shores of the Sicilian isle. To
this myth Pindar alluded in a Nemean Ode.
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? ARETHUSA
With the advance of Greek civilization Diana became increasingly
important as a great maiden goddess. The idea of her being hard
pressed by Alpheus was no longer acceptable. But the Eleans were
familiar with such myths about her attendants. Daphne and Syrinx
had both been virgin huntresses who barely escaped the pursuit of a
divine lover. Hence they imagined that another attendant of Diana
had fled Alpheus and taken refuge in Ortygia. At Pisa in Elis there
was a spring called Arethusa, and the Elean colonists had given the
name also to a large spring which rose mysteriously near the shore
of Ortygia. It occurred to them that the huntress, unable to escape
by flight, could have become the Elean spring and then passed under-
ground to their island. And they imagined that Alpheus overtook
Arethusa at the place where the spring overflowed into the sea.
This version of the story became very well known. Callimachus may
have told it briefly in his account of Proserpina. Moschus alluded to
it; and Vergil mentioned it in both the Tenth Eclogue and the Aeneid.
In the Georgics Vergil introduced Arethusa under circumstances both
new and interesting. He said that she was once a fleet huntress but
had laid aside her arrows and become an attendant of Cyrene. When
Aristseus called on his mother, Arethusa was the first to raise her
golden head above the waves and heed the cry of distress.
Callimachus had made it natural to associate Arethusa with the
loss of Proserpina. Vergil had implied that she was quick to heed and
relieve the distressed. Therefore Ovid showed her intervening between
Ceres and the famine stricken people of Sicily. Vergil suggested also
Ovid's two descriptions of the manner in which she raised her head
above the waters. Ovid was able, however, to add further details and
give an even more pleasing effect. Callimachus and Vergil offered a
few hints as to the nature of the story. But Ovid himself had to
supply the animation and brilliant detail.
Profiting by the similar myths of Daphne and Syrinx, he described
Arethusa as beautiful yet averse to love and devoted to the chase. He
showed her hunting in the Stymphalian Wood, a place familiar through
the adventures of Hercules (cf. Bk. 9), and descending at noon to the
clear shady stream of Alpheus. In reality the Stymphalian Wood lay
very far from the river Alpheus; but Ovid could assume that his read-
ers would not inquire so curiously. The young Hermaphroditus, he
remembered, had been tempted to bathe in a similar pleasing body of
water and had won the love of the water spirit (Bk. 4). He imagined
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK V
a similar adventure of Arethusa, giving it appropriately different
details. But Arethusa was able to gain the shore and flee. Alpheus
left the stream and pursued.
Ovid indicated briefly a long, eager chase through Arcadia into Elis
with the pursuer at last on the point of overtaking the terrified nymph.
Daphne had felt the god's breath on her hair and appealed desperately
for aid. Ovid repeated this in the case of Arethusa. Then he imag-
ined the sudden mist shrouding her from the god and her rapid melting
into a stream.
? CERES AND PROSERPINA
impious Pierid, he showed her beginning with the praise of a deity. In
this case it was a eulogy of Ceres. Callimachus had observed that the
goddess was the first to instruct men in agriculture and laws and so to
begin human civilization. Lucretius alluded to this idea, and Tibullus
made it the theme of an invocation to the goddess. Following both
Callimachus and Tibullus, Ovid introduced such an invocation in his
Amores and again in his Fasti. With a third passage of this kind he
now began Calliope's answer. Later he was to have Orpheus com-
mence with a similar invocation of Jupiter (Bk. 10).
The Pierid had sung of Typhoeus and his driving the gods in panic
to the Nile. In reply the Muse showed him lying vanquished beneath
Mt. Aetna. But Ovid magnified the traditional conception. He im-
agined that Typhoeus lay not only beneath the volcano but under the
entire island of Sicily and he mentioned the right hand weighted down
by the northernmost promontory Pelorus, the left hand by the far
southern Pachynus, and his feet under Lilybaeum in the west. He
added that the monster struggled under the ground, vomiting fire from
Aetna and convulsing the whole island with earthquakes.
In the tale of Callisto (Bk. 2), Ovid had shown how the ruin caused
by Phaethon led Jupiter to examine Arcadia and so to meet with
Callisto. Recalling the passage, he now showed how the earthquakes
caused by Typhoeus led Pluto to examine Sicily and meet with Proser-
pina. But this timehe added further happenings. While reconnoitering
the island, he said, Pluto passed near Mt. Eryx, a celebrated home of
Venus. In the Aeneid Vergil had imagined that the goddess feared
opposition from Dido and persuaded Cupid to inflame her with love for
Aeneas. Following Vergil's example, Ovid showed Venus dreading the
opposition of Pluto and persuading her son to inflame him with love
for Proserpina. In the tale of Daphne (Bk. 1) Cupid vanquished
Apollo by shooting him. This suggested his shooting Pluto and ex-
plained the god's sudden love. With this interesting prelude Ovid
began the tale of Ceres and Proserpina.
Both goddesses had appeared occasionally in the Iliad and the
Odyssey. Ceres was a humble deity of the country folk and a former
favorite of Jove. Proserpina was Jupiter's daughter and a dread
goddess of the Lower World. But nothing suggests that Ceres was
regarded as the mother of Proserpina. This relation did not appear
until somewhat later.
In a number of countries the simple harvesters have imagined that
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK V
there were two spirits of the ripe grain. With the piles of dry stalks
they associated an old woman; with the seed grain, her young and
beautiful daughter. Often they represented the two spirits by weav-
ing the fallen grain into rude images or by dressing an old woman and
a young girl with freshly cut stalks and ears. And they honored them
with simple rites on the harvest field. India and the Malay Countries
gave such worship to the Rice Mother and the Rice Baby; Scotland
to the Harvest Mother and the Maiden; Greece to Ceres and the
Maiden, Proserpina.
During the autumn the seed grain disappeared beneath the ground.
There followed the winter, a sad period when fruits were no longer
produced. But with the spring the new grain appeared and brought
in a time of rejoicing. This change of seasons the early Greeks per-
sonified. They imagined that Proserpina was carried off by the dread
god of the Lower World; that Ceres mourned her loss and withheld
the fruits of the fields; and that Proserpinareturned bringing glad-
ness in the spring. Beginning with the seventh century B. C. , this
myth was commemorated annually at the shrine of Eleusis near Athens.
A temple was built, which became one of the most beautiful examples
of sacred architecture. And the abduction of Proserpina was repre-
sented dramatically in the elaborate rites of the Eleusinian Mysteries.
These we^e influenced in part by similar Egyptian rites commemorat-
ing the search of Isis for her lost Osiris. And the return of Proserpina
from the Lower World, like the recovery of Osiris, was associated
with the possibility of human immortality (cf. Semele Bk. 3).
The god of the Lower World, who carried off Proserpina, was at
first called Hades. He was brother of Jupiter and had acquired by
lot a third of the world. But his portion was the gloomy region of
the dead. Ceres and Proserpina were thought of as conferring wealth;
and Hades by contrast was sterile and destructive. But in time he was
associated with the riches of various kinds which men hoped to draw
from beneath the surface of the earth. Hence he was called Pluto,
the god of wealth. And this name the Romans translated as Dives,
which they shortened to Dis.
The Odyssey had said only that Proserpina's father was Jove. The
Eleusinian Mysteries had said only that her mother was Ceres. Both
parents appeared in the Theogony, and the poet referred also to the
abduction by Pluto. Jupiter, he said, allowed Pluto to carry off
Proserpina and make her his queen.
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? CERES AND PROSERPINA
The Homeric Hymn to Ceres told the story in detail and with
obvious reference to the ceremony at Eleusis. It localized the event in
a mythical island of Nysa. Jupiter and Pluto arranged for the abduc-
tion and caused Earth to grow a supernatural plant, called a narcissus.
Proserpina, accompanied by Athena, Diana, and the Ocean nymphs,
went out to gather flowers and unwarily touched the magic plant.
The ground opened, and Pluto carried her away. As he did so, Proser-
pina called loudly the name of her father. Alarmed by the cry, Ceres
kindled torches and sought her daughter, fasting, for nine days. Then
Hecate, a goddess of night, informed her that Proserpina had been ab-
ducted. By her counsel Ceres inquired further of the Sun. He? told her
that the ravisher was Pluto and advised her to be content, for she had
gained a worthy son-in-law--her own brother and the ruler of a third
of the world. But Ceres remained disconsolate and wandered in the
disguise of an old woman to Eleusis. Here she was received into the
palace of King Celeus and established the famous Mysteries. Still
disconsolate, she withheld fruits from the ground and so threatened
to deprive the gods of the sustenance which they obtained from offer-
ings (cf. Lycaon Bk. 1). In vain Jupiter sent Iris and others^ to
appease her. Finally he sent Mercury to call Proserpina back from
the Lower World. \
Pluto consented to her return but secretly caused her to eat a
pomegranate seed. This was an act of great significance. To savage
tribes throughout the world it has seemed possible for living men to
visit the realm of the dead, and to return. But according to almost
all these peoples they must remain below, if they eat the food of the
dead; For this reason Pluto gave the pomegranate seed to his queen.
Yet he seems to have given her so little that the law applied only^ in
part. She might go with Mercury to her mother; but must return to
Pluto for the four months of winter. Ceres guessed what Pluto
had done, and Proserpina admitted that it was so. Then Rhea, the
mother of Ceres, persuaded her to reenter Olympus and give an ample
harvest.
Part of this myth Euripides retold somewhat differently in his
Helen. He said that Athena and Diana aided Ceres in the quest but
that Jupiter thwarted them. Among the snowy thickets of Trojan Ida,
the Goddess at length despaired and brought on a famine. But Jupiter
consoled her by sending Venus with the Muses and the Graces.
The Manual retold the myth with the following important changes:
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK V
The event occurred near Hermione in southeastern Greece. Pluto saw
Proserpina by chance and, falling suddenly in love, carried her away.
This misfortune Ceres learned eventually from the people of Hermione.
When Mercury descended in quest of Proserpina, a certain Ascalaphus,
child of the river Acheron, witnessed the eating of the pomegranate
seed and testified against her. Displeased, Proserpina laid a rock on
him and later metamorphosed him ij? to a screech owl.
Meanwhile Timreus had localized the myth in Sicily. Proserpina, he
said, was abducted near Henna, a town in the center of the island and
famous for the worship of Ceres and Proserpina. Pluto drove off
with her in his chariot and, finding that his steeds were dazzled by the
unfamiliar sunlight, he descended into the earth through a chasm still
visible near the town. For the quest, Ceres did not use ordinary
torches but pines kindled in the flames of Mt. Aetna.
In a Hymn to Ceres Callimachus mentioned a number of localities
which the goddess visited during her search. For the Origins he used
several earlier versions and retold the whole story to the following
effect: At the time of the abduction, the nymph Arethusa had invited
Ceres and other goddesses to a banquet on the isle Ortygia, near
Syracuse. Proserpina, accompanied by some other girls, went out
from Henna to gather flowers. She strayed from the rest. Pluto saw
her and carried her down the chasm near the village. Although Proser-
pina called for help from her father, no one heard. Unable to find
her, the other girls told Ceres that she was missing. At first the
mother tried to discover her daughter by following the prints of her
bare feet. But they were obscured by numerous tracks of a pig. This
event Callimachus probably gave as the reason why swine were the
victims offered regularly at festivals of Ceres and Proserpina.
Then Ceres kindled pines on Mt. Aetna and wandered over the
whole of Sicily. From there she proceeded in her dragon car to Eleusis
and established the Mysteries. Thence she continued her search
throughout the known world. She visited Callisto, the Great Bear,
who watches through the night; and finally the Sun, who sees all things
by (fay. Learning the truth from him, she appealed to Jupiter.
Mercury, departing immediately to Hades, returned with the news
that Proserpina had eaten food of the dead. But she had not eaten
one seed, requiring her to remain four months. She had eaten three,
requiring her to remain twelve months. At this Ceres threatened to
leave the world and enter Hades. Jupiter, alarmed at the prospect,
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? CERES AND PROSERPINA
arranged a compromise by which Proserpina was to spend six months
with Pluto and the other six with her mother.
The Sicilian versions of the myth became well known to the Romans.
Cicero dealt with them at some length in an oration against Verres.
Ovid himself had referred to the story in his Amores. Later he
went with his friend Macer to Sicily and passed more than a year
visiting places of interest. "Uno'V your guidance," he writes in a
Pontic Epistle, "I became acquainted with Sicily: You and I looked
at a sky glowing with Aetna's flame, vomited forth by the giant lying
under the mountain. We saw the lakes of Henna, the pools of
sulphury Palicus, and where Anapus joins Cyane to his waters. And
not far from there is the nymph (Arethusa) who fleeing the Elean
river runs even now hidden beneath the level of the sea. " Doubtless
he heard much about the myth of Proserpina from the Greek inhabi-
tants of Sicily. From them he probably learned how the Sun tried to
comfort Ceres and how during the latter part of her quest she caused
a famine.
Ovid treated the story at some length in the Fasti. In this version
he followed Callimachus closely and he gave special attention to the
places visited by Ceres and the events which later were commemorated
by ritual.
For the Metamorphoses he used Callimachus again. But he tried
to vary wherever possible from the account in the Fasti. After invent-
ing the myth of Cupid's wounding Pluto, he dealt almost entirely with
the events which would make interesting narrative. And he often
departed from Callimachus to profit by other authors or by personal
observation.
Beginning with the country near Henna, he described it attractively
from his own recollection, adding that here, as in the Golden Age,
there was perpetual spring. He indicated the pleasant rivalry between
Proserpina and her companions as to who should gather the most
flowers. Callimachus does not seem to have told who these other girls
were, and Ovid, too, was indefinite, but later he implied that among
them were the Sirens. He said in this version that Proserpina re-
mained with her companions and that they witnessed the sudden abduc-
tion. To this incident Ovid added his famous detail of Proserpina's
dropping the flowers from her tunic and grieving at their loss. Calli-
machus had imagined her calling for help from her father; but Ovid
showed her calling, more appropriately, for help from her mother.
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK V
Then Ovid departed from the traditional account. Instead of hav-
ing Pluto descend almost immediately to Hades, he showed him driving
a long distance through the country. The course lay in a southeast-
erly direction and passed near many places, which Ovid had found in-
teresting in his own experience. It went over two small lakes of the
Palici, which reeked with naphtha and sulphur, and boiled up with car-
bon dioxide gas. It passed within view of the famed city of Syracuse,
with its Great and Little Harbor. And at length it brought the
ravisher to the deep, clear spring which welled up continually and
formed the Cyane River. Ovid implied that the spring was on the
shore of the Great Harbor, although actually it lay inland about two
miles. Here he invenred a new incident. He showed the nymph Cyane
protesting and barring the way.
At this, he said, Pluto opened the
earth and vanished into the Lower World. But Cyane pined and
melted into the waves of her spring. Transformation of a water nymph
into water seems to have been without precedent; but it gave a chance
for vivid description and proved convenient in the later handling of
the story.
How Ceres learned of the abduction, Ovid did not tell. The other
girls had seen Pluto lift Proserpina into his chariot and drive away
among the mountains. But Ovid implied that they did not know who
he was and could give no idea of his probable destination. Therefore,
Ceres undertook the world-wide search. A full account of this Ovid was
to give in the Fasti. He contented himself, therefore, with a very poetic
description of the manner in which the goddess carried it on and with
repeating one little known incident.
Nicander had recorded that, when Ceres visited Attica, she did not
go immediately to Eleusis. She stopped first at the cottage of an
old woman named Misme. The old woman kindly gave her water mixed
with barley. But her son, named Ascalabus, acted so rudely that at
last the goddess dashed the liquor in his face and turned him into a
spotted newt. Wishing to keep his reader's attention on Sicily, Ovid
made the locality indefinite and left nameless the old woman and her
son. This gave him the further advantage of avoiding possible confu-
sion between Ascalabus, the rude boy, and Ascalaphus, the telltale,
who was later to report the eating of the seed. While repeating
Nicander's incident, Ovid was able, by quoting an unusual phrase, to
remind his contemporaries pleasantly of a similar incident in the Self
Avenger, a much admired comedy by Terence.
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? CERES AND PROSERPINA
Callimachus had shown Ceres visiting Callisto and then the Sun,
from whom she learned her daughter's fate. These incidents Ovid
reserved for his Fasti. In the Metamorphoses he invented a quite
different story. After a world-wide quest, he said, Ceres came again
to Sicily and arrived at Cyane's pool. The friendly nymph displayed
to her Proserpina's girdle floating in the water. Ovid then used the
older tradition that Ceres despaired and caused a famine. He de-
scribed it realistically and in some detail. In the Homeric Hymn the
famine had alarmed Jupiter and caused him to intervene. But Ovid
imagined a different outcome. Inferring that her daughter was still
hidden within the limits of Sicily, the goddess punished the island with
special severity. And this brought intervention from the nymph
Arethusa, who now regarded Sicily as her home. From her Ceres
learned that Proserpina was queen of Hades.
From the time when Pluto drove off with Proserpina until the mo-
ment when Ceres learned her daughter's residence, Ovid had left the
version of Callimachus to profit by other accounts or by his own in-
vention. He now returned to it briefly. Departing in her dragon car
to heaven, Ceres appealed to Jupiter. But Ovid added some further
details. In the Homeric Hymn the Sun had tried to make Ceres con-
tent with having Pluto as a son-in-law. This attempted consolation
Ovid introduced at the time of her appeal to Jove and as coming from
Jupiter. While making this change, Ovid may have realized that in
the Theogony and elsewhere Jupiter had consented in advance to the
abduction. But in any case Jupiter was both father of Proserpina
and brother of Pluto, so that he might be expected to sympathize
with the anxiety of Ceres and yet appreciate the merits of the
abductor.
Tradition had shown Pluto giving his wife the pomegranate seed.
But Ovid invented a new incident. He imagined that even in Hades
there was a garden near the palace and that while wandering there
Proserpina ate the seeds of her own accord. He changed their num-
ber also to seven. The Manual had made Ascalaphus report Proser-
pina's action. Ovid repeated this incident, but he imagined that
Proserpina transformed him immediately by splashing him with water
of Phlegethon, and he indicated that Ascalaphus was changed into a
bird because of his malice.
But the Sirens, he declared, were transformed into birds on account
of their sympathy. This had not been the usual tradition. In several
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK V
countries men have imagined water spirits who by their seductive music
lured voyagers to destruction. South Germany told of a maiden called
the Lorelei, and Java of two celestial Gandharvis, half women and
half birds, who subjected the traveler to the fatal fascination of their
song. Similar to both of these were the Sirens. In the Odyssey they
were two maidens inhabiting an isle to the north of Sicily. They sat
in a flowery meadow and sang music which no listening mariner could
resist. The Catalogues declared that they were three maidens and
that the isle was called Anthemoessa. This became the usual tra-
dition. Greek artists of the fifth century B. C. pictured the Sirens as
birds with only the heads of women. And Lycophron made them daugh-
ters of the river Achelous. Vergil gave the Sirens their traditional
character, while telling the wanderings of Aeneas. And in a similar
context Ovid was to follow his example (Bk. 14). But Apollonius had
spoken of them as human attendants of Proserpina, who entertained
her with their singing and later were partly metamorphosed. Finding
this in the translation by Varro of Atax, Ovid declared that they
accompanied Proserpina when she was gathering flowers and after-
wards desired wings in order to join in the search. This new, attrac-
tive metamorphoses added much interest to the story. But it could
have been introduced more appropriately during the quest for Proser-
pina. At that point it would have been accurate in time and valuable
for concealing the necessary omission of other detail. By withholding
it until the reader was concerned with Proserpina's release, Ovid
tended to interrupt and confuse his main effect.
Returning again to Callimachus, Ovid mentioned the compromise by
which Proserpina was able to rejoin her mother for half the year. In
the Fasti he was to describe the delight of Ceres. And so here he
described the joy of Proserpina.
In later times the myth of Ceres and Proserpina continued to be a
favorite. Almost all subsequent authors used Ovid at least in part
and many used him entirely. Both the Fasti and the Metamorphoses
were admired. But the Metamorphoses proved at once more accessible
and more interesting.
Claudian borrowed abundantly from Ovid while composing an am-
bitious epic, The Abduction of Proserpina. He localized the tale in
Sicily and related it to Cyane, the Sirens, and Arethusa, adding that
the loss of Proserpina embittered the Sirens and gave them their well
known malevolence. Although the myth hardly bears the weight of
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? CERES AND PROSERPINA
epic treatment, Claudian's version had great charm and was preferred
even to Ovid's by both Chaucer and the youthful Milton.
Jean de Meun retold the first half of Ovid's myth in the Romance of
the Rose. Guillaume de Machaut told the whole of it briefly in his
Comfort d'Ami. In a sonnet to Laura, Petrarch alluded to Jove's de-
light at seeing his daughter return with the spring. And in the
Triumph of Love both Pluto and Proserpina followed among those
vanquished by the triumphant god. To Schiller Ovid's narrative sup-
plied a few details for his noble Lament of Ceres and his Festival at
Eleusis. To Shelley it suggested a Song of Proserpina. Tennyson
used Ovid in part for his beautiful monologue, Demeter, and the story
inspired a number of lesser poets during the nineteenth century.
Many authors recalled separately one or more of Ovid's striking
events. Dante rejected the idea that Aetna erupted because of
Typhoeus, preferring the suggestion in Ovid's speech of Pythagoras
(Bk. 15) that such activity was due to burning sulphur. But Camoens
gladly repeated Ovid's whole description.
In the Tempest Shakespeare remembered the conspiracy of Venus
and Cupid. He showed Ceres mistrusting them ever since they planned
The means, that dusky Dis my daughter got.
The events in the beautiful valley of Henna delighted many subse-
quent authors. Dante, seeing Matilda gathering flowers in the
Earthly Paradise, compared her to Proserpina at the moment when
her Mother lost her and she herself lost the springtime. And Milton
likened Eden to that fair field
Of Enna, where Proserpin gathering flowers,
Herself a fairer flower, by gloomy Dis
Was gathered--which cost Ceres all that pain
To seek her through the world.
In A Winter's Tale Shakespeare's Perdita remembered the blossoms
which Proserpina let fall from Dis' wagon and proceeded to name the
beautiful kinds which might have been among the number. Hawthorne
recalled the Joss of the flowers in his own charming account of Proser-
pina, and Swinburne remembered it in his monologue At Eleusis.
Another favorite incident of Ovid's myth was Proserpina's eating
the pomegranate seeds, which required her to spend half of every year
among the dead. Lucan suggested that this could not be the true
reason. He implied that Proserpina remained in the dark realm from
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? pjl ^ METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK V
a sense of guilt and he showed the witch Erichtho threatening to reveal
the secret food and dalliance which made her shun the light of day.
But most authors accepted Ovid's reason. Goethe treated the incident
of thejomegranate at great length in his comedy^J/VieTjrvumph of
Sensibility. Kossetti used it as~a theme for both poetry and painting.
And Hawthorne retold it, altering the number of seeds to six--one
for every month that Proserpina must remain with Dis.
Ovid's idea of an infernal garden probably inspired Spenser's long
and beautiful description of the Garden of Proserpina. And Chaucer
in the Troilus showed his hero noting that the screech owl is named
"Ascaphilo. "
In the field of painting Ovid's myth of Proserpina was treated by
Schiaffino, Rubens, Van Uden, Boulogne, and Walter Crane. And
Van Uden painted Cyane.
Bernini treated Proserpina in a beautiful piece of sculpture.
Arethusa
In the previous tale about Ceres, Ovid had introduced the nymph
Arethusa. Alluding to her migration from Elis to Ortygia, he de-
clared that her way took her through Hades, the realm of Pluto and
Proserpina. This much had been essential for his account of Ceres and
her daughter. But further detail would have interrupted an inter-
esting narrative. Therefore he showed Arethusa courteously deferring
the rest until a more favorable time. After the return of Proserpina,
he imagined that Ceres revisited the nymph and learned her marvellous
history.
The myth had originated in southern Greece and dealt with Alpheus,
a large river of Arcadia and Elis which flowed into the Adriatic Sea.
At first this river was supposed to have loved and pursued the goddess
Diana. In the earliest version she eluded him by daubing her face with
mud. When the Eleans founded a colony in Ortygia, they imagined
that Diana had taken refuge there. While coursing through Arcadia,
the Alpheus had a peculiar habit of disappearing underground and
then emerging unimpaired some distance farther on. And so the
Greeks imagined that he could follow Diana even to Ortygia. Instead
of mingling with the Adriatic, they said, he disappeared under Jhe
salt water and rose still fresh by the shores of the Sicilian isle. To
this myth Pindar alluded in a Nemean Ode.
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? ARETHUSA
With the advance of Greek civilization Diana became increasingly
important as a great maiden goddess. The idea of her being hard
pressed by Alpheus was no longer acceptable. But the Eleans were
familiar with such myths about her attendants. Daphne and Syrinx
had both been virgin huntresses who barely escaped the pursuit of a
divine lover. Hence they imagined that another attendant of Diana
had fled Alpheus and taken refuge in Ortygia. At Pisa in Elis there
was a spring called Arethusa, and the Elean colonists had given the
name also to a large spring which rose mysteriously near the shore
of Ortygia. It occurred to them that the huntress, unable to escape
by flight, could have become the Elean spring and then passed under-
ground to their island. And they imagined that Alpheus overtook
Arethusa at the place where the spring overflowed into the sea.
This version of the story became very well known. Callimachus may
have told it briefly in his account of Proserpina. Moschus alluded to
it; and Vergil mentioned it in both the Tenth Eclogue and the Aeneid.
In the Georgics Vergil introduced Arethusa under circumstances both
new and interesting. He said that she was once a fleet huntress but
had laid aside her arrows and become an attendant of Cyrene. When
Aristseus called on his mother, Arethusa was the first to raise her
golden head above the waves and heed the cry of distress.
Callimachus had made it natural to associate Arethusa with the
loss of Proserpina. Vergil had implied that she was quick to heed and
relieve the distressed. Therefore Ovid showed her intervening between
Ceres and the famine stricken people of Sicily. Vergil suggested also
Ovid's two descriptions of the manner in which she raised her head
above the waters. Ovid was able, however, to add further details and
give an even more pleasing effect. Callimachus and Vergil offered a
few hints as to the nature of the story. But Ovid himself had to
supply the animation and brilliant detail.
Profiting by the similar myths of Daphne and Syrinx, he described
Arethusa as beautiful yet averse to love and devoted to the chase. He
showed her hunting in the Stymphalian Wood, a place familiar through
the adventures of Hercules (cf. Bk. 9), and descending at noon to the
clear shady stream of Alpheus. In reality the Stymphalian Wood lay
very far from the river Alpheus; but Ovid could assume that his read-
ers would not inquire so curiously. The young Hermaphroditus, he
remembered, had been tempted to bathe in a similar pleasing body of
water and had won the love of the water spirit (Bk. 4). He imagined
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK V
a similar adventure of Arethusa, giving it appropriately different
details. But Arethusa was able to gain the shore and flee. Alpheus
left the stream and pursued.
Ovid indicated briefly a long, eager chase through Arcadia into Elis
with the pursuer at last on the point of overtaking the terrified nymph.
Daphne had felt the god's breath on her hair and appealed desperately
for aid. Ovid repeated this in the case of Arethusa. Then he imag-
ined the sudden mist shrouding her from the god and her rapid melting
into a stream.
